{"id":237856,"date":"2025-11-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=237856"},"modified":"2025-11-14T10:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T10:17:15","slug":"ormiston-trust-gives-up-founding-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/ormiston-trust-gives-up-founding-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Ormiston trust gives up founding school"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of England\u2019s biggest MATs is set to give up a founding school in a move that shows how important regional clusters are for national trusts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ormiston Academies Trust has applied to the Department for Education<\/a> to transfer its only academy in Thurrock to the Unity Schools Partnership (USP) next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The multi-academy trust (MAT) leadership believes the deal will allow the secondary, called Ormiston Park Academy, to \u201cbenefit even more directly from [USP\u2019s] additional local capacity and collaboration\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trusts have worked together informally to drive improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Grow, grow, grow’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Education consultant Lucia Glynn believes the case highlights the shift towards MATs organising \u201cthemselves and their resources into local clusters\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a priority historically for big trusts to grow and grow and grow … but I think it\u2019s much more strategic now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] more cost-effective for them to operate in a cluster model because they can have local finance, HR, estates, school improvement and shared services at a local level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it launched in 2009, Ormiston took on three schools. One of these was Ormiston Park. But since then, it has remained the trust\u2019s only Thurrock school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being more strategic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Sir David Carter, the then national schools commissioner, attributed some of the troubles large trusts had in the early days of the academy movement<\/a> to geography \u2013 noting some didn\u2019t have a family of schools to cluster around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, ministers have attempted to be more strategic.\u00a0Schools Week<\/em>\u00a0revealed in 2022<\/a> that officials were working on plans to package up \u201cclusters\u201d of schools eligible for government intervention to be moved en masse into large academy trusts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then academies minister Baroness Barran later said<\/a> she would place fresh emphasis on how government sees \u201cgeographic coherence\u201d in strong trusts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stressed this was not \u201ctrusts operating in a single area\u201d, but instead trusts having clusters of schools. This was so they could \u201cbenefit from some of the collaboration that can take place between schools that are close to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unity’s ‘additional local capacity’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In documents shared with parents, Ormiston said the school started working with Unity in February 2024, shortly before it was downgraded to \u2018requires improvement\u2019 by Ofsted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Baroness
Baroness Barran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By transferring the school over, it will \u201cjoin a trust with strong local presence and capacity \u2026 creating opportunities for staff to collaborate, share ideas and best practice\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Ormiston spokesperson said the academy has worked with Unity \u201cto support and deliver a series of improvements at the school\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed move is \u201cabout deepening that relationship further and building on the progress made to date, enabling the academy to benefit even more directly from the additional local capacity and collaboration\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A USP spokesperson said the academy\u2019s \u201cvalues and visions are closely aligned\u201d, making it \u201ca natural and logical fit to join our family of secondary, primary and special schools\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The academy chain plans to hand the school over to a trust ‘with strong local presence and capacity’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311204,"featured_media":73941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,28,239],"post-theme":[2381],"class_list":["post-237856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-academies","tag-dfe","tag-education-policy","post-theme-academies"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t