multi academy trust | Schools Week

DfE signs off Holland Park move to United Learning despite legal battle

The scandal-hit standalone academy will join the country’s largest trust, but a union vowed to continue its legal battle

Best-paid trust CEOs’ wages rise fastest, but some rein in pay

The highest-paid have seen bigger pay rises than the rest, with some academy trusts reining in pay even as a government crackdown stalls

Free school charity: All-MAT sector would mean ‘death’ of innovation

Ministers’ favoured institutions won’t be replicated if white paper scraps standalone academies, charity warns

DfE ‘pauses’ diocese academy drive after legal challenge

Unions have challenged the DfE’s decision to approve Catholic Diocese of Hallam conversions before governing bodies had voted

Government vetoes more academy deals with linked firms

108 academy trust ‘related party transactions’ were blocked in 2020-21, more than twice the previous year’s figures

ESFA probes trust forced to up top-slice after overspend

Documents suggest the Oval trust ‘set a deficit budget, miscalculated income…and overspent’, while a new board came in after a row with the diocese

New alliance to stop schools being swept under MAT

Experts said the new West Kent Single Academy Trust Alliance showed there were ‘other models’ to the government’s preferred MATs

RSC adviser roles thrown open to CEOs, with elections set for September

Academy trust chief executives without headship experience can now serve as advisors to regional schools commissioners, the government has confirmed as it prepares for fresh elections for the posts. Official documents seen by Schools Week show the board elections will begin in September, after planned polls last year were shelved because of Covid. The government wants […]

Academy transfers fall to four-year low during pandemic

The government has spent £38.8 million moving academies between trusts since 2014, official figures show, but transfers fell to a four-year low during the Covid-19 pandemic. Analysis of new Department for Education data shows a significant drop in academies switching trusts over the past financial year, with both voluntary transfers and forced rebrokering drying up […]