ASSET Education, a growing multi-academy trust, brought staff together from every one of its 15 schools across Suffolk to look more deeply at the role schools play in communities and the lives of children and families.
Over 450 people attended the event at the Hope Centre in Ipswich, including teachers, finance staff, caretakers, teaching assistants and school leaders.
Speakers included Dr Pallawi SInha from University of Suffolk and Gracie Chick, founder of Third Dimension and #iwill ambassador.
CEO Clare Flintoff opened the event, reminding staff of research indicating that school and education is only 20% of the factors influencing children's outcomes, with 80% of their future lives influenced by community, family and personal factors.
Clare said: "We work so hard to make that 20% as good as it can be, with high quality teaching in every classroom, but as a family of schools we know that's simply not enough. We have to work hard to listen carefully to our families and communities, provide support in a range of areas when it's needed and form strong partnerships with people and organisations who can make such a difference to childhoods. If we ignore that 80% we can never take a "whole child" approach to education."
ASSET speakers talked about the role of the Trust's award-winning "Complete Human Strategy" approach to wellbeing, a toolkit to improve the wellbeing and workload of education staff, as well as families and children.
ASSET has been named as "Wellbeing Trust of the Year" this year by the national MAT Excellence Awards.
Attendees also heard about a new provision called "Flourish", an alternative trauma-informed provision for children struggling with the classroom environment because of social, emotional and mental health needs.
The new provision is part of a larger project the trust is putting in place to address the lack of places for SEND in Suffolk.
Visiting speaker Gracie Chick, whose organisation Third Dimension aligns strongly with the Trust's "Nurturing Humanity" philosophy spoke of the need to address young people's disillusionment with current systems in education that only focus on body and brain.
Gracie is an #iwill ambassador, part of a national movement to give children and young people a greater voice in shaping the places that they live.
In the spirit of #iwill, young people started and finished the event.
10-year old Logan Judd said: "We may only represent 20% of the population, but we are 100% of the future."
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