St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust
Building the brand to achieve sustained organisational growth
St Joseph CMAT is based in the Liverpool City Region with a central mission to transform children’s lives by providing them with a world-class Catholic education. Assembly has been the proud strategic brand, media and communications partner since inception.
Initially, a ‘Turnaround Trust’, we have positioned SJCMAT as a sector leader, driven education improvement and established the vision, values and mission of the organisation - ensuring the Archdiocese and DfE perceive the Trust as an appropriate partner for significant and sustained growth.
SJCMAT had built strong foundations in school improvement as a ‘Turnaround Trust’. However, re-shaping this message to position the organisation as a final home for Catholic academies across Liverpool was a critical strategic priority. We moved the Trust beyond being known primarily for transformation and articulated a stronger proposition: a Trust that protects the individuality of every academy while providing the expertise, infrastructure and collective strength that allows each school to flourish.
Together, we established the following core partnership priorities:
Raise the profile of the Trust with a clear articulation of its Catholic vision, values and mission, establishing positive brand advocacy and organisational growth
Position the Trust as an employer of choice, through demonstration of the employee proposition and a clear representation of positive staff voice on a consistent basis.
Support individual academies with educational improvement initiatives, admissions and onboarding.
Positioning SJCMAT as a sector leader through a coherent brand and communications strategy.
Insight
We developed the ‘Protective Shield’ – a clear narrative explaining how strong central services protect and support academies while giving each school the pathway to success.
That proposition permeates through the Trust’s communications, from brand and messaging to media campaigns, community engagement, executive voice and Trust-wide impact storytelling.
Bespoke academy admissions, recruitment, stakeholder and education improvement campaigns strengthen individual identities, improve financial performance, create thriving communities and ensure greater brand consistency across the growing Trust.
As the SJCMAT community rapidly grows, Assembly is immersed throughout the organisation, leading the onboarding process, connecting communications and crafting pioneering approaches to continuously evolve the engagement of internal and external stakeholders.
Action
Assembly has achieved the following impact:
Highest number of SCITT applications for the 2026 cohort.
Staff satisfaction 19% above national benchmarks.
Of 8 schools inspected, all either improved or maintained their ‘Good’ Ofsted grading.
Highlighted in various leading sector press outlets for notable improvements in pupil attendance and curriculum delivery.
Average 31% increase in followers on every academy social media platform/channel.
Growth in the Trust from 6 to 30+ academies by the end of 2027.
41,000 active users on the SJCMAT website.
Impact
“I have used Assembly for both school and Trust level communications and marketing purposes and have always been impressed by the creativity and professionalism of the whole team, who work in partnership with us to understand our purpose, what we stand for and who our community are.”
Michelle Forrest,
Director of Catholic Education