The Mercian Trust is a group of nine schools working together under a common banner and an overarching structure of governance, but retaining their autonomy as custodians of their unique heritage, distinct identity and successful operation. The Trust serves more than 9000 students from Walsall and Sandwell in the Black Country.
At the Mercian Trust, they believe that all staff have a career-long entitlement to the highest quality professional development in order to enable teachers and leaders to provide the best possible educational experiences for young people in The Black Country. The Mercian Trust believes that, by investing time, energy and resources, they empower teachers to grow their expertise, encouraging them to be reflective, forward-thinking, research-informed experts in their fields. They recognise the moral imperative to offer the best possible learning experiences for their teachers so that they can work to improve outcomes and to enable social mobility for their pupils.
The Mercian Trust offers a complete programme for the Certificate in Evidence-Informed Practice, that allows teachers to consolidate the self-study online learning and supports their colleagues in contextualising their learning to their own school / departmental settings.
The Mercian Trust’s programme will support teachers working towards the Certificate in Evidence-Informed Practice, through bridging the gap between their online learning within the assessment unit and school-based application. In particular, regular coaching sessions offer opportunity for teachers to discuss their learning from each ‘part’ of the Certificate in Evidence Informed Practice, and then encourages them to consider application to a current situation in their home schools or to reflect on past implementations that may not have been as successful.
The Mercian Trust runs a complete programme that supports teachers towards completing the Written Educational Debate Task assessment. Upon successful completion of the assessment, individuals are awarded the Certificate in Evidence-Informed Practice, and 10 credits towards Chartered Status.
