Schools set to join forces to set up Academy

THREE Warrington primary schools are planning to establish the borough’s first Multi Academy Trust (MAT) from September.
Evelyn Street, Bruche and Penketh primary schools – already members of the borough’s Primary School Teaching Alliance – are consulting teachers and parents on proposals to make the switch from the start of the 2016/17 academic year.
Cllr Jean Carter (pictured), the borough council’s lead member for children’s services, said: “Governors have reassured us of their schools’ intentions to maintain the strong relationship with the council built up over many years, and to continue playing an active role participation in Warrington’s ‘family of schools’ – a collaborative approach to education which is highly valued by schools across the borough.
“The fact that all three schools are already judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ means that this locally-based trust will have the capacity to support improvement of any Warrington primary school, should that ever be required in the future.”
A multi-academy trust is where a group of schools is governed through a single set of members and directors, with remit and governance decided collectively.
The overarching body then decides which responsibilities it wishes to devolve to individual schools, which it wishes to retain and which to contract from the local authority.