• How to improve academy trust governance

    Too many multi-academy trusts are struggling under poor governance at trust level, says Michael Pain, but Forum Education has some suggestions for improvement Ask most academy trust leaders about the most fundamental challenge for the multi-academy trust system and they will tell you about the massively varying quality of governance. So while some MATs are…

    5.00 Sep. 11th, 2017 | Opinion

  • Can a school decide to leave an academy trust?

    As one regional schools commissioner ponders whether a school can voluntarily quit its multi-academy trust, education consultant Simon Foulkes examines the legal issues Schools occasionally leave one multi-academy trust to join another. They can be rebrokered for a number of reasons: failures of educational performance, management and governance, or those responsible for them might ask…

    5.00 Aug. 11th, 2017 | Opinion

  • Academy trust fights on to pick its own feeder schools

    A multi-academy trust will keep fighting to give pupils who attended its own primaries priority admission to its flagship west London secondary, despite legal setbacks. Aspirations Academies Trust has lost its court bid to maintain a controversial admissions policy that labelled two of its own primary academies as “feeders” for Rivers Academy in Feltham. Earlier…

    13.05 Aug. 10th, 2017 | News

  • Multi-academy trusts are great for career progression

    Ignore the headlines: multi-academy trusts are showing great potential for maximising the talents of teachers, leaders and others, says Michael Pain There’s no doubt the academy system has received a pretty harsh press of late. If we’re not seeing headlines comparing trust leaders to the bankers who crashed the financial system, we’re being told of…

    5.00 Jul. 10th, 2017 | Opinion

  • Academy boss: 20 schools is 'too small' for a multi-academy trust

    Twenty schools is “too small” for a multi-academy trust because they will not be able to fund the training and services that are increasingly expected of them, says the chief executive of a multi-academy trust. Jon Coles, of United Learning, said the “long-term risk” to the academy system being successful was “not trusts being too…

    5.00 Jul. 3rd, 2017 | News

  • Church of England sidesteps government rules over multi-academy trust control

    The Church of England is to gain overall control of a new multi-academy trust, even though nine of the 10 schools intended for the new trust are secular. The Diocese of Newcastle’s board of education will be allowed to appoint three of the five board members of the proposed ‘Tynedale Community Learning Trust’ if consultation…

    5.00 Jun. 10th, 2017 | News

  • MAT for excluded pupils allowed to expand despite worst Ofsted

    A multi-academy trust for excluded pupils will take over a failing school even though Ofsted rated its first school ‘inadequate’ – in a move that appears to contradict ministerial wishes that trusts must raise standards before being allowed to expand. One of two alternative provision schools run by the Brighton-based Olive Academies MAT received Ofsted’s…

    5.00 May. 30th, 2017 | News

  • First medical needs-only MAT to open

    Two hospital schools will join forces to become the first medical-needs-only multi-academy trust, after turning down offers from mainstream MATs which had threatened to “swallow” their funds. Northamptonshire Hospital and Outreach Education, a local authority-run hospital school, will sponsor Oxfordshire Hospital School and open as a MAT in September or October. The schools decided not…

    5.00 May. 28th, 2017 | News

  • Academies specialising in excluded pupils under pressure to grow

    Multi-academy trusts that specialise in alternative provision are being asked to expand and sponsor new schools as local authority-run services are squeezed by greater demand. The number of alternative provision (AP) academies, which cater for excluded pupils as well as those with emotional, behavioural and medical needs, have increased dramatically in the past four years…

    5.00 May. 22nd, 2017 | News

  • REAch2's spin-off academy trust renamed Astrea

    A spin-off academy trust of one of the country’s largest chains has changed its name and appointed new members under a rebrand that cuts off any remaining ties to its founders. Reach4, which according to its website runs 15 primaries in Yorkshire, will now be known as the Astrea Academy Trust. The trust was set…

    17.42 Apr. 11th, 2017 | News

  • Ministers urged to clamp down on all-powerful academy CEOs

    Ministers have been urged to clamp down on over-powerful academy bosses after an investigation found one chief executive sacked the trust chair who suspended him. Ian Cleland, chief executive and founding member of the Academies Transformation Trust (ATT), was put on temporary leave by chair Stephen Tilsley last year over finance concerns. Forecasts showed the…

    5.00 Apr. 3rd, 2017 | News