Education Just five trusts now run half of all schools in city

AFTER a period of mergers and growth just five huge multi-academy trusts now run almost half of all Bristol’s schools - as the Government announced the organisations that manage a large number of schools will now be the subject of inspections for the first time.

- Tristan CORK

St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School is one of a handful of single-school academies left in Bristol - although consultations are taking place on joining the Lighthouse multi-academy trust

The merger of two of Bristol's biggest Multi-Academy Trusts has now been confirmed - it sees Trust In Learning, which ran eight schools in Bristol and many more in North Somerset, merge with Cathedral Schools Trust, which runs 12 in Bristol, including three secondary schools.

Every single secondary school in Bristol is now an academy, with a small number of what are known as ‘MATs’ - multi-academy trusts - controlling most of them. The rise of the ‘mega-MAT; through a series of mergers and takeovers, also now means that only a handful of multi-academy trust organisations run a large number of primary schools too.

The Government this week announced that there will be an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is going through Parliament this year, which will mean Ofsted are given the job of inspecting the multi-academy trusts, as well as individual schools.

The growth in multi-academy trusts has created something of a gap in scrutiny and governance. Ofsted inspects the standards at individual schools, and the DfE regularly inspects and assesses the performance of local education authorities, but multi-academy trusts, which are now increasingly taking over the role once occupied by local council education departments of managing schools in one area, have not been inspected at all.

“Every child no matter their background should be able to achieve and thrive, and strong schools working together through high quality trusts help make that possible” said Bridget Phillipson, pictured inset, the Education Secretary.