Here are the key regional board decisions affecting multi-academy trusts across a number of regions in England in May 2024. For more updates, visit our regional advisory boards hub.

Some 123 decisions were approved, including six academy orders, 50 conversions, two new MATs, seven single-academy trusts joining a MAT, and 11 rebrokerings.

There were also 44 “significant changes” approved, many of which involved lowering the age ranges of primary school intakes and establishing new settings for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

London’s regional advisory board did not meet this month.

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

• North East
• South West
• East Midlands
• Yorkshire and the Humber
• North West
• West Midlands
• South East
• East of England
   

North East

• Reid Street Primary School, a single-academy trust in Darlington, was approved to join the Education Village Academy Trust (EVAT). The trust has three primary schools, two special schools and one secondary across Darlington. The board minutes show that Reid Street Primary School and EVAT are already working in partnership.
   
• In South Tyneside, Dunn Street Primary School, Marine Park Primary School and Whitburn Village Primary School were approved to join the Barnwell Academy Trust - a MAT with one school in Houghton le Spring. The name has now been changed to Tyne and Wear Learning Trust. The board also discussed the potential for the chief executive officer to work with another CEO “in a trust of similar scale and size to share experience and knowledge”.
   
• Woodlea Primary School and Aycliffe Village Primary School in County Durham were approved to join Eden Learning Trust, which has seven schools across the North and South of England.
   
• The board approved the North East Learning Trust to sponsor Baliol Primary School, North Tyneside after it received an “inadequate” Ofsted rating. North East Learning Trust currently has eight secondaries and five primaries.
   

South West

• The Cardinal Newman Catholic Educational Trust (four schools in Bristol and North Somerset) is gaining three primary schools: St Bonaventure’s Catholic Primary School, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School. St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School was previously in a single-academy trust of the same name. The decision was approved with conditions that the trust board is balanced with educational expertise across primary.
   
• A new free school in Weston-Super-Mare has been approved. It will be part of the Cabot Learning Federation (35 schools across the South West).
   
• Canford Heath Junior School, part of TEACH Poole (four schools in Poole), will be adding a 20-place resource base for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
   

East Midlands

• Cavendish Learning Trust was approved to close, with all four of its schools - Barrow Hill Primary Academy, Dunston Primary and Nursery Academy, Netherthorpe School and Whittington Moor Nursery and Infant Academy - transferring to Minerva Learning Trust (six schools in Sheffield).
   
• Oundle Church of England Primary School (Peterborough Diocese Education Trust, 33 schools) and South Wilford Endowed CofE Primary School (Transform Trust, 24 schools in Nottinghamshire) are both adding nursery provision to their schools.
   
• Denton Primary School and Yardley Hastings Primary School, both in West Northamptonshire, are joining The Nene Valley Partnership. The trust has four schools in Northamptonshire.
   
• A new free school is opening in Nottinghamshire - Ravensdale, a presumption free school - which will be part of Diverse Academies Trust (14 schools in Nottinghamshire).
   
• King’s Sutton Primary Academy (part of Prime7 MAT, which has three schools in Banbury) is adding a resource base to meet the demand for SEND and alternative provision (AP) places.
   
• Babington Academy - Learning Without Limits Academy Trust, five schools in Leicester - is changing its existing 30-place resource provision to a 30-place SEND unit for speech, language, and communication needs.
   
• Billingborough Primary School, Lincolnshire, is voluntarily converting to join Community Inclusive Trust (15 schools in and around Lincolnshire). The school is experiencing a change in pupil makeup with a greater number of pupils with complex and additional needs.
   
• Booth Wood Primary School, Leicestershire is also voluntarily converting to join The David Ross Education Trust (35 schools in and around Loughborough).
   
• Swineshead St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Lincolnshire, is changing trust to join Lincoln Anglican Academy Trust (21 schools in and around Lincolnshire). It was previously part of the Emmaus Federation, which now has one school in its trust.
   

Yorkshire and the Humber

• A single-academy trust school has been approved to move into the largest multi-academy trust in the country. Fir Vale School in Sheffield has been approved to join United Learning Trust. The school was rated as “requires improvement” in its last full-graded Ofsted inspection.
   
• Primley Woods Primary School in Leeds has been approved to move to Nishkam Schools Trust from Khalsa Education Trust.
   
• Two schools in North Yorkshire have converted to academy status and joined multi-academy trusts. Mowbray School, a special school in Bedale, has been approved to join the Ascent Academies Trust. Osmotherley Primary School is to join the Yorkshire Collaborative Academies Trust. Both schools were rated as “good” at their most recent graded Ofsted inspections.
   
• Five schools have been approved to establish or expand special educational needs units or resourced provision in Hull, minutes for the May meeting show. Four Hull schools have been approved to set up new units: Victoria Dock Primary, Biggin Hill, the Boulevard Academy, and Thorpepark Academy. Spring Cottage Primary has been approved to increase the size of its resourced provision from 10 to 20 places.
   
• Mercia Learning Trust in Sheffield has been given approval to establish three integrated resource units specialising in ASD, speech and language, and communication. These will be based at Nether Edge Primary, Woodlands Primary and Newfield secondary school in the city and will create 65 places in total.
   

North West

• Greengate Academy Trust will cease to exist after submitting a voluntary request to transfer both of its primary schools in Wigan to the Rowan Learning Trust, which has nine schools across the North West. Prescot Primary School in Knowsley will also convert and join the trust.
   
• The DfE confirmed it is in the process of closing down empty MAT Pear Tree Alliance after Pear Tree Primary School in Cheshire East was approved to transfer to the Cornovii Trust, which has five schools in Cheshire East. The school transferred on 1 September.
   
• Special schools Meade Hill School and Southern Cross School, both in Manchester, were approved to convert and join Ambition Community Trust. Ambition Community Trust received approval to become a new MAT in November 2023.
   
• Bolshaw Primary School in Stockport will convert to academy status and join with Mellor Primary School to create a MAT. Mellor was previously approved to change from a SAT to a MAT back in November 2021 with another school - but that school withdrew from the conversion process.
   

West Midlands

• New MAT the West Midlands Academy Trust was approved by the board. Three secondaries in Birmingham were approved to make it up - converter Swanshurst School and SATs Hall Green Secondary School and King Norton Girl’s School.
   
• Shropshire CE Academies Trust had already been approved by the board, but three primaries in the area received approval to convert and join it in May.
   
• The New Leaf Centre in Walsall, a pupil referral unit rated as “inadequate”, received approval to join the Mercian Trust, which has nine schools in Walsall. Board members discussed how New Leaf would be able to benefit from the trust’s experience in AP.
   

South East

• The Alternative Learning Trust was given the green light to open a satellite alternative provision setting, to be known as Estuary Academy, and to take over the development of the Norse Academy school for students with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs on the same Isle of Sheppey site. Norse had previously been developed by East Sussex-based Sabden Multi Academy Trust.
   
• The board supported the escalation of an academy order decision to ministers for Compton and Up Marden Church of England Primary School, which had received a “good” Ofsted rating in April, following two consecutive “requires improvement” judgements previously. The board noted a new MAT was potentially opening in the area, which the school might want to join voluntarily.
   
• The regional director approved the transfer of Kent single-academy primary trust Temple Grove Academy to Kent MAT, Skinners’ Academies Trust.
   
• All of the other decisions taken by the South East board in May were to convert primary schools into MATs. A total of eight primary schools were approved to be converted across the region, into the same number of different MATs.
   

East of England

• Reedham Primary School in Norfolk was approved to become an academy and join Consortium Trust in Suffolk, which now has 15 schools. The board discussed the challenges of small, rural schools and a recent school resource management adviser (SRMA) deployment at the trust.
   
• Dunstable Icknield Lower School in Bedford will convert and join the 10-school Scholars Education Trust in Hertfordshire, which runs a mixture of primaries, secondaries and all-through schools.
   
• Mount Grace School, a single-academy secondary trust in Hertfordshire with two consecutive “requires improvement” grades, will transfer to Future Academies Trust, which has 10 academies.
   
• Sacred Heart Primary School in Luton will convert and join the 16-school St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust, also in Luton.
   
• Two primaries will transfer from 23-school Diocese of Chelmsford Vine Schools Trust in Esse to Canonium Learning Trust, also in Essex: Mistley Norman Church of England Primary School and Two Village Church of England Primary School. Canonium currently runs six primaries in the county.
   
• Approval was given for five Essex primaries to form a new MAT known as the HIVE Family of Schools: Moulsham Junior and Infant Schools (both single-academy trusts), and Writtle Infant School, Writtle Junior School and Highwood Primary School, which are all converting.
   
• Outside of the meeting, Castle Newnham School, a primary in Bedford, was approved to convert and join Bedfordshire Schools Trust Ltd, which now has 12 academies.
   
• Two primaries - in Hertfordshire and Norfolk - were approved to set up specialist resource bases.
   
• Five primaries in East Anglia were approved to lower their minimum age to 2 or 3 years.
   

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

Written and compiled by Mary-Louise Clews, Matilda Martin, Cerys Turner, Jasmine Norden, John Roberts and Charlotte Santry

Find our interactive map of England’s multi-academy trusts by clicking here, where you will also find links to all our MAT Tracker content