Mission and values

Our mission is to challenge educational and social disadvantage in the North. 

Measure 

By the age of 18, we want every student to have the choice of university or a high quality apprenticeship. 

We ask ourselves four critical questions to ensure clarity and focus: 

Why do we exist?  

To challenge educational and social disadvantage in the North.  

How do we behave?  

Although our academies have the autonomy to choose their own vocabulary and nuance, all of them are built around the same three values that we all share:

1. We work hard on the things that matter, with humility.

2. We are good and kind.

3. We are motivated by mastery, autonomy and purpose

What do we do?  

Within our communities, we work together to establish joyful, rigorous, high performing schools which maximise attainment, value diversity, develop character and build cultural capital.

How will we succeed? 

Talent first

Our talent is our most valuable resource, where nearly 80% of our budget is invested. We deploy our most vital people in roles where they can create significant value; we free our people from bureaucratic structures; and we afford our people the training and opportunities to expand their skills.

We see talent not as innate, but as unleashed, grown and developed. People have ‘inherent growth tendencies’, the drive to be better tomorrow than today. We believe that kind, helpful and honest feedback is a gift. As leaders we want our staff to be intrinsically motivated, cultivating self-determination through our three drivers: Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose.

Academic rigour

All children are entitled to a curriculum and to the powerful knowledge which maximises life chances. Children need powerful knowledge to understand and interpret the world: without it they remain dependent upon those who have it. Our curriculum is designed to be remembered in detail, and is led by, collaborated on, and delivered by high-quality subject specialists. The curriculum is the entitlement of all and we resist parental opt-outs

Aligned autonomy

Our trust seeks the optimal balance between consistency and self-determination. We are aligned because we share the same mission and values, and because all Dixons students and staff should benefit from our best collective practice. But autonomy is also important because leadership and personal accountability are founded on ownership and self-direction, and because standardisation fails to respond to changing needs and fails to adapt to a changing environment.

Please see below some videos from Dixons OpenSource explaining each of these key areas.

Talent first

Academic rigour

Aligned autonomy