MATA matters: Introducing our Trusted Partner, the Multi-Academy Trust Association

Free to join and open to all MAT leaders, the Multi-Academy Trust Association is something of a refuge as well as a practical resource, a peer-to-peer platform and place to find guidance and news. Members are individuals from the sector looking to connect with others and to benefit from professional development opportunities around a range of MAT matters such as finance; mental health; and project, people and pupil management.

Mark Davis of Blue Apple Education sits on MATA’s advisory board wearing his marketing, communications and branding hats, presumably one on top of the other. The two companies share values and an open, honest approach to supporting schools and trusts. MATA deals with individuals who present with a variety of challenges; some are helped through the anonymous ‘agony aunt’ style facility and some need practical ideas and guidance.

So often, difficulties are about communication. Mark and the team at Blue Apple Education complement the work of MATA by sharing their expertise with multi-academy trusts and schools that face communication challenges. When the remarkable in a school is unearthed, recognised and harnessed in a robust and effective branding strategy, a school’s image can be transformed. Blue Apple Education is always keen to emphasise that creating an image isn’t like an advertiser tricking people into buying chocolate or perfume or whiteboard pens – it’s about matching values, outcomes and remarkable features with the external view. People know who you are and what you represent because you communicate that effectively.

“When the remarkable in a school is unearthed, recognised and harnessed in a robust and effective branding strategy, a school’s image can be transformed.”

Blue Apple Education and MATA are both concerned with resolving problems – but also maintaining an ongoing relationship with schools and trusts. Here again, communication is the key to navigating how a school connects, promotes and interacts with the world. Blue Apple Education offers large and small interventions that are not only about providing, for example, a school website or prospectus, a school branding strategy or admissions drive – they are about being available when concerns arise, and about upskilling schools and individual staff so they can operate with knowhow.

Partnerships are built on communication. It sits at the heart of teacher-pupil relationships, company collaborations and customer care. If a partnership is delivering confusion or conflict, our partnership is here to resolve and reform.