It provides support and training in four main areas: teaching and learning, curriculum, networking, and leadership development.

The Chief Executive of SSAT is Sue Williamson, a former headteacher of Monks' Dyke Technology College in Lincolnshire,[7] and former Strategic Director of Leadership, and Innovation at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Among the attendees were Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Secretary of State for Employment David Young and 60 other business leaders and politicians.

The resulting City Technology Colleges (CTC) programme was announced at that year's Conservative Party Conference by Secretary of State for Education and Science Kenneth Baker.

[9] CTCs were state specialist schools independent from local authority control, specialising in science and technology.

CDDs influenced the creation of the specialist schools programme and the CTC Trust's affiliation scheme, both of which were first conceptualised in 1992.

[9][16] As a result, in 1992, the Major government released their education white paper Technology colleges: schools for the future.

[17] The trust was assigned to deliver the programme on behalf of the Department for Education[18] and did so by helping schools raise the required sponsorship bid of £100,000 and then £50,000 for specialist designation.

The scheme trained teachers from five CTCs and Technology Colleges and was initially found by education inspectorate Ofsted as "failing".

[20] The trust's first annual conference was held, in which Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Education David Blunkett was a guest.

In December the trust's founder and chairman, Cyril Taylor, convinced Labour leader Tony Blair to support the specialist schools programme.

For the first time, there was evidence that specialist status was linked to higher results at GCSE, whether it was on the 5+ A*-C measure, value-added or contextual value added.

The 2001 Green Paper Schools: Building on success introduced four new specialisms: science, mathematics & computing, business & enterprise and engineering.

In 2002 Charles Clarke succeeded Estelle Morris as Secretary of State for Education, and quickly announced a lifting of the financial cap that had previously limited the number of schools that could be designated in any bidding round.

The effect of lifting the cap on new designations, plus the four new specialisms (as announced in the 2001 Green Paper) was a rapid rise in the number of specialist schools.

The Leading Edge programme was announced in 2003 as a response to the idea of specialism in school improvement, first proposed by Estelle Morris in 1998.

from the then Schools Minister David Miliband, the Trust began working with headteachers to define personalising learning.

Professor David Hargreaves held a series of workshops with 200 headteachers and identified the nine gateways to personalising learning.

Originally announced by David Blunkett in 2000, its aim was to challenge under-achievement in the country's poorest performing schools.

The conference saw the launch of Redesigning Schooling, SSAT's campaign to ensure that the future of education is shaped by high quality practice and research within the profession.

Speakers including Andy Hargreaves, Dylan Wiliam and Tim Oates led workshops that have provided the foundation for a series of publications that have been distributed to SSAT member schools.

It runs numerous events for teachers and school leaders, including the annual SSAT National Conference.