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Top tips on joining a Trust from regional school leaders

This week, Schools North East ran two events to help schools navigate the changes to the school system laid out in March’s White Paper. 

The White Paper Academisation events were attended by hundreds of school leaders in the region and by the DfE, including Regional Schools Director Katherine Cowell, who ran sessions to help the North East understand what is happening with academisation in our region and the complexities of joining a Trust.

Plans to join a MAT

In March, the government published its Schools White Paper, setting out plans for all schools to be in a ‘strong’ multi-academy trust by 2030, defining a strong trust as having 10 schools or 7500 pupils. Although the government is currently undergoing a period of ‘fluidity(!)’ due to ‘musical chairs’ at the highest level, the DfE’s plans for a fully academised system are moving forward. 

Recently, Schools North East released data from a survey of Trust leaders in the NE that highlighted that  almost three quarters of trusts plan to expand or merge in the North East. With over half of trusts saying they are planning to expand, it is important that the region’s schools that are not yet within a trust fully understand their options and prepare to do their due diligence to avoid joining a trust that doesn’t align with their values.

10 Questions every school should ask before they join a trust.

Sir David Carter, Trustee at Centrepoint and former National Schools Commissioner, provided a guide for joining a trust for the delegates who attended the Schools North East White Paper Academisation Events. In this guide, he drafted 10 questions that he encourages schools to consider and trusts to reflect upon as they start these conversations.

1. What does the trust care about and how do the values match up?
2. How much autonomy will we retain?
3. Who is responsible for standards?
4. How will you improve our school?
5. What opportunities will there be for us to support other schools in the trust?
6. What is the role of the board of trustees and the members?
7. What role do you see our local academy board of governors playing?
8. How will the trust communicate with the school and how can we inform the trust and the board of our challenges and successes?
9. How do we influence key strategic decisions that impact our school?
10. If we join you, what will the trust be like in three years time?

Regional Variation

During Katherine Cowell’s session at the events, she discussed data from the DfE to give a broader picture of the journey to date of the formations of ‘strong’ Multi-Academy Trusts in the country. 

The data stated:

‘ In January 2010, there were just 203 academies with fewer than 200,000 pupils. The total number of academies has now exceeded 10,000, with over 4.8m pupils. There is also significant regional variation in the % of schools that are LA maintained, in SATs or in MATs. In September 2022 there were 84 MATs and 30 SATS based in the North East.

93 MATs have academies in the North East. The average size of trusts (incl. SATs) which have academies in the North East is 6.4 academies. The average size of MATs with schools in the North East is 8.2 academies. The average size of trusts (incl. SATs) which are based in the NE is 5.3 academies, 6.9 for MATs only.’

What’s next?

Feedback from the White Paper Academisation event showed the information given was extremely useful to those who attended, with one of the best tips being to speak to a regional DfE representative about your thoughts towards moving into or forming a MAT. 

Julie Sheppard, Education Leadership Consultant, stressed the importance of communicating with the DfE in the very early steps of formation, giving the example of schools who have worked hard to form a MAT amongst themselves and ultimately not getting approval from the DfE later down the line. Julie further explained that the most important thing is to put improving outcomes for all pupils at the heart of your decision making. 

Chris Zarraga commented:

‘It was great to see so many colleagues from across the region at these events.  We were joined by nearly 400 schools: maintained, federations, single academies and small trusts. Whether schools stay as they are, convert, or join Trusts, school leaders need to understand the White Paper proposals and how they do or don’t support the pursuit of the best outcomes for their children.  Knowledge is power.”

A big thank you goes out to the speakers, delegates and sponsor Vision for Education for a very inspiring and informative week.

We would encourage all schools, non academy or otherwise, or whether you are already part of a MAT or looking to form or join a MAT to attend our Academies conference in January to learn more as we will be joined by a host of outstanding speakers including Sir David Carter. 

The Schools North East Academies Conference will take place on January 26 at St. James’ Park. To book onto the Academies Conference click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdD1CBpv-NfPGm7oBRcB1zNUX05kg2AtyOErA7ZbjFcom2BTA/viewform

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