MATs | Schools Week

New Aldridge Education trust ditches struggling academy

A cash-strapped school has been ditched by the new academy trust founded by its sponsor, leaving the government to search for a trust with better local resources. The Isle of Portland Aldridge community academy (IPACA), in Dorset, was set to join the multi-academy trust (MAT) founded by its lead sponsor, the Aldridge Foundation, in January. […]

Academy trusts should ‘exchange’ back office services

Shared services are logical, Marcus Robinson, a partner at professional services firm PwC told delegates at the 2nd annual MAT summit. “But they typically fall down because most people, and most organisations, are happy for others to share their services but aren’t prepared to go and share from others.” As schools face squeezed budgets, shared […]

Academy trusts wanting cash to grow ‘rejected’ by DfE

Cash handouts to help academy trusts expand are not reaching all the chains that want them, says a senior government official. Applications for the latest round of sponsor capacity funding – government cash available for trusts that want to take over new schools – closed in July. But a senior government official told the MAT […]

Education can make you (and me) sick, says David Blunkett

The stress of working in education can make people ill, former education secretary David Blunkett told academy leaders this week, as he recounted how a fear of union conferences contributed to his own physical battles. Speaking at the MAT Summit 2016 in Windsor, run by Optimus, Blunkett (pictured) said that he was surprised when he […]

David Carter: The weakest academies will be supported not ‘shamed’

The country’s 100 weakest academies will be singled out for increased government scrutiny from January as the schools commissioner ramps up implementation of his masterplan to improve failing schools. Schools Week can reveal that the 100 secondary academies with the lowest Progress 8 scores, which we understand will be known as the “P100”, are to […]

Academy pension review will look at funding gap

A review launched into academy pension deficits will recommend ways to address the enormous funding gap in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Schools Week revealed last week that poor investment returns on pensions for support staff have left many multi-academy trusts with deficits amounting to tens of millions of pounds. Now accountancy company PricewaterhouseCoopers […]

Let’s subvert the ‘centres of excellence’ policy

Following Schools Week’s revelation that the government will allow MATs internally to select pupils by ability, Ros McMullen suggests trusts be creative in how they do this. Last week Schools Week ran a front-page story about the possibility of selective grammar schools developing within multi-academy trusts (MATs) without the need for any legislation. The new […]

Private schools pledge their support for national MFL training centre

Private schools have pledged to support a new national teacher training centre for linguists to stave off a “crisis in modern foreign language skills”, writes Jess Staufenberg. The “innovative” school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) will be led by the Silverdale multi-academy trust and is set to open in Sheffield next year. The centre was announced […]

Soaring support staff pensions ‘could lead to outsourcing’

Multi-academy trust pension deficits for support staff are soaring into the tens of millions, with schools facing another hike in employer contributions, experts have warned. The largest trusts, one of which has a deficit in their Local Government Pension Scheme [LGPS] in excess of £68 million, might seek to balance costs by outsourcing non-teaching staff […]