St Denys Primary School became a foundation school part of a co-operative Education Trust called 'REACH' on the 1^st September 2019. There are 7 schools within REACH (Bitterne Manor Primary, Moorlands Primary, Townhill Junior, Bitterne Park Secondary, Redbridge Community School and Woodlands Community College) that work collaboratively at every level to improve the outcomes for our children and young people. Trust schools are not academies but part of the local authority system, supported by a charitable trust which will appoint some of the governors. It is important to be aware that the governing body continues to run the school, manage the school budget and is responsible for the performance of the school.

Our rationale for becoming part of REACH Trust is as follows:-

1. To to continue to raise expectations and standards in the school and improve the future prospects for all of our learners.
2. To do this - with the many changes taking place in education - we need to build strong partnerships and make our school improvement planning more sustainable. 
3. We believe that to meet the needs of our community, we can achieve more through formal education partnerships, than we will be able to by working alone.

The aims of REACH Trust are to:-

• Develop outstanding learning and develop an outstanding quality of education for all our pupils and staff.
• Increase the level of aspiration and opportunities for our community.
• Realise the potential of all our young people in our community in academic, vocational and social learning.
• Ensure excellent longer term employment prospects for our learners through a robust focus on future opportunities.
• Provide an innovative curriculum across all phases with enrichment opportunities to develop the pupil’s knowledge and understanding of the world, raise self-esteem and promote  well-being so each young person is both prepared academically and socially and have the vocational skills to succeed in the next phase of education or in the workplace.
• Improve transition for our learners across each Key Stage.
• Develop our education partnership to include our parents and the wider community,
• Develop partnerships with preschools, nurseries, colleges, universities, employers and  apprenticeship providers.
• As a Co-operative Education trust, we will adopt and support the values and principles of the co-operative movement in our work.

Each school has their own Governing Body and there is also a joint Trust Board that oversees the work of the Trust. This is made up of the Headteacher and Chair of Governors from each school and supported by the Trust Company Secretary. Headteachers, deputy headteachers and subject leaders meet regularly to learn from each other, share best practice and to work together on the REACH Trust aims. We are already seeing the difference this is making to the children at St Denys.