Chester Diocesan Academies Trust (CDAT) is a growing Multi-Academy Trust of 32 primary schools operating across seven local authority areas from the River Mersey to the Pennines. The Trust is united by a strong Church foundation and inspired by its vision of enabling every child to experience “life in all its fullness” delivering outstanding and well-rounded learning opportunities across its communities.
Chris Williams, Director of Operations at CDAT, leads the Trust’s operations arm, overseeing estates, ICT, HR and legal services. He works closely with external partners to ensure schools receive high-quality, value-driven services.
In this case study, Chris shares CDAT’s journey to a single, cloud-based MIS and how Compass is helping the Trust improve data accuracy and reporting, drive greater consistency across schools, and reduce inefficiencies as it continues to grow.
The Challenge We Faced
When I joined CDAT just over two and a half years ago, it was clear that our Trust MIS landscape needed reviewing.
With schools converting at different times and from different contexts, we were operating with a range of MIS platforms across our then 14 schools, which didn’t support the effective use of data.
From a central perspective, the lack of a single system meant gathering Trust-wide data was time-consuming and inefficient. Information arrived in different formats, limiting our ability to drill down into trends across attendance, behaviour or specific pupil groups. We wanted to improve data collection and data sharing across the Trust.
A number of our schools had also expressed a desire to move away from their legacy MIS. They were looking for something more modern, more functional and better suited to the way schools now operate. Current daily operations were inefficient – both in terms of cost and the time spent on routine tasks.
As a growing MAT, we also wanted to use our collective strength to secure better value from our contracts for schools.
Finding the Right Solution
Interestingly, Compass was already in use in one of our schools as a legacy system, and leaders there were very positive about it.
At the same time, the ICT support partners for several of our schools, hi-impact, also worked closely with Compass. That opened the door to a broader conversation about what a strategic partnership might look like, and it quickly became clear that our objectives were well aligned.
Several factors attracted us to Compass:
- A strategic partnership approach.
- A genuine willingness to work with us and our schools to develop functionality, rather than offering a rigid ‘off-the-shelf’ model.
- The ability to provide central visibility of data.
- Competitive cost and contract flexibility.
- The Compass Choice Commitment, removing the burden of paying two MIS providers during transition.
- Cloud-based provision aligned with our ICT strategy.
- Established local support.
The rollout of Compass has, broadly, been very successful. We’ve benefited from highly effective and flexible support from both Compass and hi-impact. We’ve learned lessons along the way, particularly around the pace of change in some schools.
Being able to start with just core modules and introduce additional functionality when schools are ready has been incredibly valuable.
The Difference It’s Making
While our objective was to migrate all schools onto Compass before fully leveraging Trust-wide capability – a stage that we recently reached in April 2026 – we are already seeing tangible improvements.
Since implementing Compass, we’ve seen:
- Greater efficiency
- Improved data accuracy and consistency
- Reduced duplication of administrative processes
- Faster and more consistent reporting
Processes that were previously manual, or duplicated across systems, are now consolidated into one platform. This has reduced workload in school offices and improved the timeliness of information shared with leaders and governors.
Attendance monitoring, in particular, has become more responsive. Leaders can access live data, identify patterns quickly and intervene earlier – strengthening safeguarding oversight and pastoral support.
Reporting to governors is also more consistent. Schools can generate aligned reports on attendance, behaviour and pupil data, improving transparency and governance across the Trust. We have introduced a common format for the headteacher’s report to their local governance committee.
“Communication with parents has improved significantly. Engagement through the app is higher than traditional letters, and schools have reduced printing costs and admin time.“
From a leadership perspective, the ability to generate reports quickly has transformed meetings. Instead of spending time collating information, we can focus on analysis and impact.
Feedback from colleagues has generally been positive. Office staff and senior leaders value the integration of functions and clarity of insights from the dashboards. Teachers appreciate accessible pupil information and behaviour logs.
Naturally, there has been a learning curve, particularly in more recently migrated schools. But once embedded, staff report that Compass becomes intuitive and significantly reduces administrative burden.
We’ve also established a cross-Trust working group, with volunteers from around a dozen schools. This group identifies opportunities for improvement, shares best practice and helps shape how we further develop our use of Compass across CDAT.
Looking Ahead
As migration completes across all schools, we intend to use Compass more strategically at Trust level.
Our focus will be on developing consistent reporting dashboards to strengthen central oversight while maintaining each school’s autonomy.
We are particularly interested in making greater use of analytics, identifying trends across attendance, behaviour and vulnerable groups, and supporting earlier intervention. There is also clear potential to further integrate safeguarding monitoring and wellbeing tracking across our primary settings.
For other Trusts considering a change of MIS, my advice would be simple: plan carefully and allow sufficient time. Moving MIS is not just a technical shift, it’s a cultural one. Staff need to understand how the system benefits them in their specific roles.
Phasing implementation, identifying internal champions, and communicating clearly with parents are all essential.
For primary trusts seeking greater consistency, improved oversight and stronger parental engagement, Compass is very much a system to be considered.
Ready to strengthen oversight across your trust?
Compass helps growing Trusts like CDAT replace fragmented systems with one powerful, cloud-based MIS – reducing inefficiencies, and enabling confident, data-driven decision-making across every school.
If you’re exploring how to create greater consistency and value across your Trust, we’d love to start a conversation.
