Growth. It’s typically seen as the holy grail of any academy trust.

Any trust that is doing well - so the reasoning goes - must be in want of more schools, mustn’t they?

Two years on from the (now shelved) Opportunity for All White Paper, and a month on from a change of government - despite a shifting political landscape - academy trusts are here to stay.

So, all trusts must surely now be considering their place in the education world and how they will establish themselves as strong sustainable organisations. For many that means growth. Large trusts even have whole teams dedicated to hunting down this treasured growth.

When it’s right to say no

But just because a school wants to join your trust, doesn’t mean they should. The truth is (whisper it), not all growth is a good thing.

We recently found ourselves in a situation where easy growth was on the table. Four schools (strong schools with good Ofsted outcomes and healthy finances) were keen to join us.

But we said no. Because it just wasn’t right; they weren’t the right schools for us and, critically, it wasn’t the right time. This was about us, not them.

We had other priorities in our existing schools that we needed to put first. It would have been so easy to have said yes, but it would have been a mistake - for us, for them and, most importantly, for the pupils and their families.

Important questions

That temptation is strong but it’s important to resist it. It goes without saying that robust due diligence is critical, but aside from that there are some sensible questions a multi-academy trust (MAT) can ask when considering welcoming schools into its fold.

• Does the location of the schools make sense for the trust? Geography and localism will be more important to some trusts than others, but it’s an important question to ask.
• How do the schools fit with the communities of the schools already in the trust? Are there any feeder primaries? Or secondaries that pupils in the trust will move on to?
• Does the trust have the capacity to support the new schools well? Does the right school improvement capacity and expertise exist in the trust to ensure any new schools thrive and are successful?
• Is it the right time? What are the existing priorities, challenges and opportunities for the trust? How does any new school fit with these?
• Is there values alignment? There will always be an element of transition and potential compromise when a school joins a trust but are values sufficiently aligned to support success?
• Does it make financial sense? What is the budget position of the school and how will this fit with the trust’s financial strategy? Education will always be the main driver for decision making but at the end of the day, the numbers have to add up.

So how can a MAT manage situations like this?

Letting them down gently

Transparency at all stages is key. At any point in a due diligence process, either party might feel it’s best not to proceed. It’s important to make that clear and keep communication channels open with regular check-ins.

To do this, we organised a meeting to touch base with the schools and we let them know that, mainly owing to timing, we didn’t think it was the right thing for them to join us.

When we broke the news, they were slightly surprised, as I think there is an assumption that all trusts are keen to grow. But they told us that they appreciated the honesty and transparency.

And, of course, just because a full transfer doesn’t go ahead, it also doesn’t mean that schools and the trust can’t agree to collaboration and partnership working.

A CEO should always put the existing schools and families in their trust first when considering growth. New schools joining a trust can bring diversity, innovation and fresh energy, whatever their position in their school improvement journey. But it needs to be the right schools at the right time.

After all, saying no upfront is a lot easier than saying sorry further down the line.

The author is the CEO of a MAT with more than 10 schools

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