John Murphy, the chief executive of Oasis Community Learning, has announced he is to step down from the role in the autumn term.
He has spent nine years as CEO of Oasis, which now has more than 32,500 pupils in 52 schools across 21 local authorities.
The trust has paid tribute to his “innovative and forward-thinking approach” to leading the trust.
Oasis has gone from having 27 per cent of its schools being judged to be “good” or better by Ofsted when Mr Murphy took over in 2014 to 87 per cent of its schools receiving the same judgements today.
Mr Murphy said: “I am confident that the trust is at a point of success and stability which means now is the right time for me to hand over to a new CEO to take over the helm.
“It has been an honour and my passion to serve communities facing some of the highest levels of disadvantage in the country, ensuring that children and young people are given every opportunity to flourish.”
Mr Murphy has spent 36 years in education including as a headteacher in the primary, secondary and specialist sectors, and more recently as trust chief executive.
Caroline Taylor, chair of the OCL board, thanked Mr Murphy for his “hard work and exceptional leadership”, noting that students, teaching staff and hub teams would all be very sorry to see him move on.
She also praised “his dedication to providing the highest quality education for our students, passion for closing the ‘disadvantage gap’ and his innovative and forward-thinking approach to leading and improving our academies, including during the challenges of Covid”.
Mr Murphy has said he aims to continue working on a range of projects across the education sector in leadership, mentoring and supporting school leaders and trusts.
Mr Murphy said: “I am particularly proud to be one of the founding CEOs of the National Institute of Teaching and I look forward to seeing the great difference it will make in the education sector for teacher development and research.”
