A Message from Our Professional Institute Director 

Begin your teaching journey with Co-op Academies Trust: from "Internship to Headship". Join a supportive, values-driven community and launch your career with the Professional Development Institute—where we provide practical training, in and out of the classroom, so that every teacher can make a difference, grow, and progress. 

Our Trust is vibrant, full of staff all working towards the same goal: helping young people and transforming communities. It's an organisation with a real sense of purpose.

If this sounds like what you're looking for, come and join us!

Andy Gibson Director, Co-op Academies Trust Professional Development Institute

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What We Aim to Achieve with You

We've got clear goals for our programme. We want to:

• Create high-quality teachers for our Trust.

• Deliver high quality, fresh, and research-backed training.

• Help you become a thoughtful and adaptable teacher.

• Make sure our training leads to great results for students.

• Build a supportive and nurturing place for all our trainees.

• Help you truly shape young lives through our primary and secondary courses.

• Inspire high professional standards that truly show our values: Self-help, Self-responsibility, Democracy, Equality, Equity, and Solidarity.

• Bring our 'Ways of Being Co-op' to life: "Do what matters most, Be yourself always, Succeed together, and Show you care".

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Our Co-op Values: How We Do Things

Our academies are located across the North of England, serving a huge variety of communities. We know the power that co-operation has to make a real difference in these places. That's why the global values of co-operation are at the heart of everything we do.

We have our own special way of explaining these values, we call them our 'Ways of Being Co-op'. They guide everything we do, every single day:

Our 'Ways of Being':

• Be yourself, always

• Do what matters most

• Show you care

• Succeed together

These come from our core Co-operative Values:

• Self-help

• Self-responsibility

• Democracy

• Equality

• Equity

• Solidarity

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Our Story, Our Purpose

What is a co-operative? It's an organisation that puts people first, driven by values, not just profit. Co-ops are run democratically and exist to meet their members' needs, not to make huge returns for investors. You'll find co-ops in nearly every part of the economy, from shops to housing, farming to manufacturing, and even education. In the UK, over 17 million people are part of co-ops. All co-ops worldwide share core values like self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. They're designed to be fair and sustainable, offering long-term jobs and stability for families and communities.

Why did we start a multi-academy trust? Back in 2010, the Co-op Group was asked by the Department for Education to sponsor two schools that were facing big challenges. The Co-op agreed that transforming communities through education perfectly matched its own aims. So, it started by supporting two secondary schools in Manchester and Stoke. As these schools began to thrive, more schools chose to become Co-op Academies.

In 2013, we decided to set up a multi-academy trust – a separate legal entity from the Co-op Group. Our board of trustees brings together expertise from the Co-op, business, education, and the wider public sector. Forming the Trust allowed us to grow in a stable way, bringing more schools into our movement. Co-op Academies Trust is just one part of the Co-op’s wider mission to build stronger communities across the UK.

Who are the Co-op Group? The Co-operative Group – known simply as Co-op – is the biggest of over 7,000 co-ops in the UK. Its history goes all the way back to the first successful co-operative, founded in Rochdale in 1844. Today, its vision is to champion a better way of doing business for you and your community. It employs over 65,000 people and has nearly 5 million members who own the business.

It's the UK’s sixth largest food retailer, with supermarkets and convenience stores everywhere in the UK. It's a strong supporter of ethical issues like Fairtrade and animal welfare. Co-op is also the largest provider of funeral services, has a well-established insurance business, and is growing its interests in healthcare and legal services. The Co-op is famous for its community support – last year, over 4,000 local causes shared more than £17 million.

Leadership Team

 

Initial Teacher Training Leadership

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  Andy Gibson

  Head of Early Career Framework & Initial Teacher Training

   

• 

  Claire Norcott

  Deputy Head of ECF with ITT: Primary

   

• 

  Michelle Peavoy

  Deputy Head of Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework

   

ITT & ECF Administration

• 

  Alesha Oyewumi

  Teacher Training and Development Administrator