Converting a group of schools into a multi-academy trust at the same time “makes sense”, a Department for Education regional director has said.
Hannah Woodhouse, the DfE’s regional director for the South West, told the Schools and Academies Show today that there was no central instruction to the department’s regional chiefs to convert schools in clusters.
But she said that, nonetheless, the move would make sense because “no trust” would want to grow at the rate of “one primary school” a month.
Ms Woodhouse said: “It does make sense to be thinking about schools joining trusts in groups at the same time.
“No trust wants to grow with one primary school one month, another one the next one and so on. That makes no sense in terms of resources. So, yes, we should be looking at groups of schools.”
Ms Woodhouse started her role as regional director for South West in September 2022, having previously worked in the predecessor role as regional schools commissioner for the region.
She was speaking at the Schools and Academies Show in Birmingham in a panel discussion on the government’s target for all schools to be in or moving towards multi-academy trusts by the end of the decade.
2030 target could ‘wreck’ academy system
Speaking at the same event, Paul Gosling, president of the NAHT school leaders’ union, warned that the target for moving all schools into MATs by 2030 could “destroy” the system.
“A lot of people are waiting to see a plan because we haven’t grown at the speed that we would have to meet the 2030 target. And, actually, growing that rapidly could wreck the trusts we have already got,” he said.
“By setting the target of 2030 without any real plan of how that looks, it could actually destroy the very thing they’re looking to create or jeopardise it or lead to a period of real chaos.
“People are very worried. So if we want to do this, the government needs a plan, not just ‘a plan will come tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow’. We need the vision.
“The 2030 target is not a vision for education - it’s a pragmatic solution.
“School leaders run on vision for themselves and their community. We need that level of political vision for our system in order to buy into it.”
