The Rochdale Education and Learning (REAL) Trust is a charitable company set up in 2001 by all the schools in Rochdale - nursery, primary, special and secondary - to meet their professional development needs. We are an educational Trust whose aim is to advance education through encouragement, identification, discussion and celebration of best practice. We aim to enable educational professionals to network on shared activities including courses, school action based research, curriculum development projects and disseminating good practice.

The Trust provides a Professional Development Programme based on themes identified by a creative group of trust members. We produce a Treasury of Best Practice to help its members share and locate good practice easily. We have also had successes in accessing money to fund our work and we facilitate a networked learning community funded by the National College of School Leadership. We have been recognised by NFER as one of 8 of the best practitioners in the country in terms of disseminating and sharing good practice. The DfES Innovations Unit has also recognised and celebrated our work. The LA makes a substantial commitment to working with the Trust, but it is primarily run by schools for schools. We were proud to receive the Leading Aspect Awards for leading practice in the area of continuing Professional Development and the Dissemination of Good Practice and Collaborative Working.

Schools and services pay an annual subscription to the Trust, which then entitles all staff access to all the services the Trust provides. This includes international opportunities, networking opportunities and all conferences and courses. Our work is gaining national recognition and we are proud to share our successes and lessons learnt with you. The beauty of the REAL Trust is that we reflect the real deep-seated beliefs and desires of educators.