Regional board highlights: October 2023

Your essential guide to the key regional advisory board decisions in England in October 2023

1st March 2024, 12:02am

Here are the key regional board decisions affecting multi-academy trusts in each region in England in October 2023. For more updates, visit our regional advisory boards hub.

In total, there were 17 academy orders, 59 academy conversions, 13 mergers and six academies moving trusts.

Scroll down or click the links below to jump straight to your region.

Yorkshire and the Humber

Two standalone academy trusts were given approval to join MATs. Scout Road Academy, a secondary in Hebden Bridge, will become part of Together Learning Trust, a six-school trust with three primary and three secondary schools. And Oulton Academy, a secondary in Leeds, will join Carlton Academy Trust, a six-school trust with two secondaries, three primaries and one special school.

West Midlands

Regional director Andrew Warren and the board discussed the Advanced British Standard. Minutes show there were comments around the proposal being “interesting” and state there was some “excitement”. However, members also felt the move was “overdue” and noted “some scepticism and unsure expectations”.
Two primary schools in Shrewsbury - Shropshire Harlescott Junior School and Sundorne Infant School and Nursery - will convert and join Severn Bridges Multi Academy Trust, a three-primary school trust in Shrewsbury. Minutes say the move “aligns with current departmental priorities and fits into the strategic plan for Shropshire, supporting local primary schools to academise”.
Four primary schools in Shrewsbury (Bomere Heath CofE Primary School, Christ Church CofE Primary School, Meole Brace CofE Primary School, and St John the Baptist CofE Primary School) will convert and join a new MAT (Two Cathedrals Multi Academy Trust) set up by the Diocese of Lichfield and Diocese of Hereford. There is not yet a date for the opening of the trust, but work on this has begun, the DfE told Tes in February.
Two Cathedrals MAT was also approved as a sponsor for Bicton CofE Primary School and Nursery, Shropshire, which is rated as “requires improvement”. According to the meeting minutes, “a member of the board commented that this is a way for smaller CofE schools to benefit from structural collaboration and efficiencies.”
Two special schools in Walsall, Castle School and the Jane Lane School, requested to convert and form the new Castle Lane Academy of Special Schools MAT. The schools have worked together effectively in a de facto federation since 2019 and the board approved the academisation of Castle School and sponsor of Jane Lane school.
The board also approved the merger of Esprit MAT, Stoke-on-Trent (a three-school primary MAT) with Co-op Academies Trust, which has 11 secondary schools, 17 primaries, one 16+ and three special schools.
The board approved the transfer of two secondary academies in Telford away from the Community Academies Trust, leaving it with 16 schools. The Telford Priory School will transfer to the Learning Community Trust, and The Telford Park School will transfer to Amethyst Academies Trust, Wolverhampton. The schools both received lower than “good” at their last Ofsted inspection.

South East

The board approved the conversion of two primary schools in Milton Keynes to join the Denbigh Alliance - a three-school MAT with two secondaries and one primary free school. The move was approved on the condition that the trust appoints a practising primary leader on the board and appoints individual(s) with primary experience in their central team.
Two standalone academy trusts - the all-through Piggott CofE School in Reading and Altwood CofE Secondary School in Maidenhead - were approved to form Agape MAT, a new Diocesan trust. The board approved this on the condition that the proposed trust appoints independent, local primary experience on the trust board.
Two primary schools in Medway - St Thomas of Canterbury RC Primary School and English Martyrs’ Catholic Primary School - were approved to convert and join Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership, which is currently a MAT with 21 primaries and five secondaries. However, ahead of any further growth, the board would like greater assurance on the sufficiency of primary expertise on the trust board and the sufficiency of school improvement capacity, in relation to the performance of some academies within the trust.
The board approved the merger of the Hampshire-based Mother Teresa Catholic Academy Trust, which has two primaries, with Frassati Catholic Academy Trust, which is based in Berkshire and has five primaries.
The board also approved the merging of Gosport and Fareham Multi-Academy Trust (GFM) - a five-school trust based in Hampshire - with King’s Group Academies, a trust with nine schools also based in Hampshire.

North East

The board approved the merger of the Federation of Abbey Schools Academy Trust (a two-primary trust in Darlington) with Melrose Learning Trust, a seven-primary-school MAT based in Durham.

East of England

In October, the board approved the dissolution of the Ortu Federation, a three-school MAT in Essex with two secondaries and one primary. All three schools are to join the The Mossbourne Federation, a MAT with two primaries and two secondaries in East London.

East Midlands

The board approved the move of Mercia Academy (a secondary school in Newhall) from Falcon Academies Trust to Lionheart Educational Trust.

South West

The board approved the trust change of all of Bristol-based Venturers Trust’s eight academies to E-ACT - a 28-school MAT with 12 secondaries, 15 primaries and one all-through. This means that E-ACT will gain one more secondary, one all-through, one special school and five primaries.
Chickerell Primary Academy, a standalone academy trust in Dorset, will move to The First Federation Trust, which is a MAT based on the coast in the South West with 21 primary schools. Chickerell Primary Academy will be the second academy the trust oversees in the Dorchester area.
The board escalated a decision to the minister over the proposed expansion of Malmesbury Primary School in Wiltshire. The James Dyson Foundation had offered a £6 million grant for the school to fund the building of seven new classrooms and two rooms for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Since the minutes were published, this grant has been approved by the DfE.

North West

Three primaries in Bury (St Mary’s RC, St Joseph’s RC and St Bernadette’s RC) and one primary in Rochdale (St Joseph’s RC) were approved to join St Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Academy Trust. The board discussed the “preference for clusters of schools to join the trust to support “the sequencing”. Before the approval, St Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Academy Trust had seven primary schools and three secondaries.
The board also approved the conversion of Leyland Methodist Infant, Leyland Methodist Junior, Wheatley Lane Methodist Primary School, and Hey With Zion primary - all in Lancashire - to join Epworth Education Trust, a MAT with six primaries in the Manchester and Oldham area. The conversion will see the trust expand further north into Leyland and Burnley.
The board approved the formation of Four Rivers MAT. Four schools (two special and two primary) in Stockport were approved to convert and join the new trust.

London

The board approved the conversion of two secondary schools and three primary schools across Hackney and Tower Hamlets to form a new Catholic MAT: East London Catholic Academy Trust. Becoming a MAT, board members said, “will enable them to manage the challenges around pupil numbers, staff retention and recruitment.”
The board also approved the merging of Inicio Educational Trust - a trust with three schools - and Charles Darwin Academy Trust - a two-school trust - both based in Bromley.

Note: Published regional advisory board minutes do not contain full details of the school context.

Written and compiled by Matilda Martin

Find our interactive map of England’s multi-academy trusts here, along with links to all of our MAT Tracker content