Growing from 38 schools to 67 by 2030: how one Catholic trust built a voice to grow into
Emmaus Catholic Academy Trust came back to Clearsilver for a full communications programme. Four months later it had a tone of voice, 12 key messages, a refreshed website and a chief executive with a national profile.
Who Emmaus is
Emmaus Catholic Academy Trust is part of the Diocese of Salford. It currently runs 38 Catholic primary and secondary schools across Greater Manchester, educating around 12,000 pupils, and it is on course to reach 67 schools by 2030.
Its mission is Christ and child centred. In practice that means Catholic values expressed in some of Greater Manchester’s most diverse and least advantaged communities: schools whose cohorts are multifaith, whose families speak dozens of languages between them, and where inclusion is not a policy position but daily work. Walking with every child, whatever they bring with them, is the idea at the heart of the trust.
We already knew Emmaus. Clearsilver had worked with the trust before on its website and elements of its brand. So when the leadership team decided the time had come for a full communications and content programme, they came back to us with a considerably bigger brief.
What problem was Emmaus trying to solve?
Every school that joins a trust brings its own history, its own community and its own way of talking about itself. That is a strength but it is also a communications problem, because without a shared voice a growing trust starts to sound like a patchwork, and the bigger it gets, the more visible the seams.
With the trust set to almost double in size by 2030, this was not a problem that would wait. Emmaus wanted the voice in place before the growth, not after it. It also wanted a public profile ready for the policy moments that shape the sector, rather than scrambling for one once they had arrived.
What did we do?
Working with chief executive Daniel Copley and his team over four months, we delivered:
- A tone of voice guide and 12 key messages. The foundation. Every piece of communication the trust has produced since, from a school newsletter to a national press release, traces back to these. The voice had to carry Catholic identity with confidence while speaking warmly to families of every faith and none, which is a narrower line to walk than it sounds.
- A story strength litmus test. A practical filter the trust uses to decide which stories deserve media attention and which belong on its own channels. It saves time, and it stops good stories being spent on the wrong audience.
- A website copy refresh across the priority pages, including new pages for two of the trust’s real strengths: SEND provision and professional development.
- Social media templates, so every school can post in the trust’s voice without waiting for anyone’s sign-off.
- Mission Ambassador guides and presentations, equipping staff across the trust to talk about Emmaus consistently and confidently, and turning 38 schools’ worth of colleagues into people who can tell the story properly.
- Human stories with reach. Staff career journeys, pupil events, and case studies showing what joining Emmaus actually feels like for a school.
- A thought leadership and media campaign built around the government’s SEND reform consultation.
What happened with the SEND campaign?
Emmaus had invested in inclusion well before policy caught up, which meant it had something distinctive to say when the consultation opened. We built the campaign around that position.
The thought leadership was the standout. The trust’s LinkedIn posts had typically been drawing single-figure engagement. The articles we wrote with Daniel Copley pulled close to 70 engagements, and, more to the point, from the people who count: other trust leaders, headteachers and senior figures across the education sector.
The campaign also generated coverage in regional and education media, and raised the trust’s profile with national journalists covering the SEND debate. Then the King’s Speech confirmed generational reform of the SEND system, and Emmaus already had a credible voice in a conversation much of the sector was still preparing for. Daniel has since built on that platform with commentary on the developing framework for trust inspections.
Why does a chief executive’s public voice matter to a growing trust?
Because trust growth is a decision made by other people. Schools, dioceses and communities choose whether to join you, and they tend to choose the organisations they have heard of and respect. For a trust adding almost 30 schools by 2030, a chief executive with a recognised voice keeps working long after any single piece of coverage is forgotten.
What happens when a new school joins Emmaus?
Foundations are worth building on. Drawing on what we learned in the first phase, we developed a repeatable onboarding communications package for the trust: a full suite of materials for every incoming school, tailored to its own community but built on the established voice, so parents and staff hear a confident, consistent story from the first letter home. It is ready to run as the trust grows.
What made this work?
Two things. Pace: brand foundations, a website copy refresh, a national profile and a content pipeline inside four months. And access. Emmaus gave us its leaders, its headteachers and its stories, and the results reflect that.
“Thank you and the team for all of your hard work and commitment on the project so far. We really appreciate the energy, creativity, and collaboration you have brought throughout this phase of the project… This initial piece of work has established strong foundations and produced excellent materials on which to build.”
Alison Smith, executive administrative manager
Thinking about your trust’s voice?
The trusts that grow well over the next five years will be the ones whose communications keep pace with their ambition. If yours is growing, merging, or simply sounds like several organisations wearing one badge, we should talk.
Clearsilver is an education communications agency based in Leeds, working with multi-academy trusts and schools on brand, websites, PR and content. Hello@clearsilver.co.uk