Trust Conference 2026 FAQs and welcome packs

The conference will be held across several of our academies: 

• Dixons Allerton Academy, Bradford (BD5 7RR)
• Dixons Broadgreen Academy, Liverpool (L13 5UG), 
• Dixons Brooklands Academy, Manchester (M23 NBP)
• Dixons City Academy, Bradford (BD5 7RR), 
• Dixons Cottingley Academy, Bradford (BD16 1TZ),
• Dixons Trinity Academy, Bradford  (BD5 OBE) 
• Dixons Unity Academy, Leeds (LS12 3DS)
• Great Academy Ashton, (Manchester) OL6 8RF

Smart - casual. If you would wear it to a training day, it is fine.

The conference will begin at 9.30am and finish at 2.30pm. Please arrive for 9.00am where possible to allow time for networking etc.

Please bring a notepad and pen with you. You should also have your lanyard with you and wear it at all times.

If you completed the survey form you should have your first or second choice of venue. We'd advise you to check with friends and colleagues if you would like to be at the same venue as we won't be able to accommodate changes to venues.

For primary education-facing colleagues at Silver Springs Primary, you will attend Dixons Unity Academy, Leeds and we are arranging transport for you all. 

For all other GAET colleagues, we are hoping to give you your first choice of venue but do strongly encourage you to make three choices that feel manageable for you. 

For colleagues with specific barriers to travel, we will absolutely support your first choice of venue, please use the conference@dixonsat.com email to communicate this with us.

We intend to email everyone directly with their confirmed venue by Friday 30 January providing you have completed the form by Monday January 26. For colleagues who would like to know venue details sooner, there is an option to request this on the form.

We will then prioritise communication to you once your choices have been processed. Please note, it is highly unlikely that we would change venues on request, we hope that you appreciate that we are working with large numbers of delegates. Please contact conference@dixonsat.com for any specific support.

We strongly encourage colleagues to travel in cars with two to three other people to relieve pressure on parking at each of our conference sites. We will be sharing full venue registers with you shortly to enable you to see who else is attending the same conference site as you. We will work directly with staff who have requested specific support or who have access queries.

In the morning of the conference, our school and college trust leaders will welcome and frame the theme of the day. This will be followed by input from Luke Sparkes and others on the Dixons Difference. The longer morning session will break out into sessions for all associate staff and all education-facing staff.  

At lunch there will be time to chat, play games or attend a performing arts showcase. The afternoon of the conference will begin with our keynote speaker, Sean Harris, Director of Place at Tees Valley Education Trust, and internationally recognised education leader committed to tackling social disadvantage. His session will give us opportunity to reflect on the living experience of poverty and why our mission matters more than ever.  

In the afternoon, all colleagues attend a workshop of their choice to help them to make the Dixons Difference. There will then be a closing video and all colleagues will depart following this.

Yes, there will be signs around the academy and site hosts who will help direct you. Please note, quiet rooms will be designed for colleagues who need to, to take time out in a peaceful and quiet environment. The quiet rooms should not be treated as a standard staff room or communal area.

Yes, there will be signs around the academy and site hosts who will help direct you.

If you have anything to share not already on your conference choices form, please email conference@dixonsat.com and a member of our team will be happy to support.

Please email conference@dixonsat.com and a member of our team will be happy to support.