Education Trusts merge to create new ‘mega-MAT’

AHUGE merger of multi-academy trusts has taken place in the West of England, creating a second ‘mega-MAT’ organisation that will have almost 12,000 children and 1,500 staff under its umbrella.

The Futura Learning Partnership has merged with the Clevedon Learning Trust to create a huge organisation that will run state-funded nurseries and schools for children from the age of two to 19. The new mega-MAT has a total of 28 schools, from primary and secondary schools in some of the most economically deprived areas of South Bristol to small village schools in rural Somerset.

It is the second such merger of two already large multi-academy trusts in the past few months. Just before Christmas, the Post reported how a merger between the Gatehouse Green Learning Trust and the Excalibur Academies Trust had created a ‘megaMAT’ that would be running a total of 22 schools in Bristol and beyond, including some of the city’s biggest secondary schools.

This new ‘mega-MAT’ is even bigger, and consists of schools from two different multi-academy trusts that grew out of two secondary schools in the former Avon county area.

The Clevedon Learning Trust was founded at Clevedon School when the Government introduced academy schools as a way ending the previous system of schools being run by local education authorities centred on county and city councils.

Futura Learning Partnership originated from the Wellsway School in Keynsham, and over time, other schools joined one of those two academies. The merger will see one organisation in charge of a total 28 schools.

In Bristol, they include Cheddar Grove Primary School and Bedminster Down secondary school in Bedminster Down; Four Acres primary and nursery in Withywood, Wansdyke Primary School in Hartcliffe and Bridge Farm primary school in Whitchurch. On the outskirts of Bristol, the newly-merged organisation will also run Sir Bernard Lovell Academy in Oldland Common, The Meadows Primary School in Bitton, and pretty much every school in Keynsham and Saltford: St John’s, Wellsway, Two Rivers, the IKB Academy, Chandag Infants and Chandag Juniors, and Saltford CofE primary school.

In Bath, the trust now runs the Aspire Academy special school, and will also now run a number of schools from Clevedon to Bridgwater in Somerset, including two secondary schools: Clevedon School and Chilton Trinity in Bridgwater, and 11 primary schools – All Saints, St Nicholas Chantry, Yeo Moor and Mary Elton, in Clevedon; Tickenham CofE village primary school just outside Clevedon, Puriton Primary and Woolavington Village school on the Levels, and Willdowdown, Westover Green and Northgate primary schools in Bridgwater.

The woman ultimately in charge of all 28 schools is chief executive Andrea Arlidge, pictured inset above.

“Every school in our family of schools is of equal value,” she said. “It is an absolute pleasure to welcome everyone from CLT into our trust. They have given us their strapline – Children, Choice and Collaboration – which perfectly sums up our shared values and ethos.”

The board of this new huge multiacademy trust is made of members from both Futura and Clevedon. The new chairman is Malcolm Broad. “This is a landmark day,” he said. “Our merger has created a strong trust and we look forward to an exciting future.”