A GROUP of schools in Bournemouth have won a national award recognising their leadership and subject expertise.

Led by executive headteacher Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, the Avonbourne Trust which includes Avonbourne College, Harewood College, Avonbourne Sixth Form and Avonwood Primary School, has been given The Prince's Teaching Institute (PTI) Schools Leadership Mark.

The accolade is awarded in recognition of a school's leadership and curriculum, which develops the quality, rigour and challenge experienced by pupils of all ages and abilities.

Avonbourne Trust specifically won the Mark for 'encouraging the recruitment and development of passionate teachers, enhancing knowledge of subject leaders, providing action-based research and for collaboration between its schools.

Debbie Godfrey-Phaure said that she is delighted to the trust's work has been recognised by the PTI.

She added: "Our teachers lead from the front and their inspiration to do so is seeing the marvellous progress that’s being made by all our students as a result.

"The improvements in the progress of our Year 7 students in particular have been exceptional."

A particular area of good work praised by the Prince’s Teaching Institute was the extra work put into enhancing the subject expertise of all Avonbourne’s leaders, which included sending them on courses at Cambridge University.

Chris Pope, co-director of the PTI, said: "The Leadership Programme's aim is not just to encourage high-level discussion and debate about how success is achieved and maintained in schools. It is also to start accumulating a solid mass of research-based evidence which will help other schools to develop leadership strategies that promote effective teaching."

The Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI) is an organisation run by teachers for teachers, which aims to inspire teachers in their subject disciplines to develop subject expertise and to give them the confidence to introduce their pupils to challenging material.