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26-603: The Greenwood Academies Trust is a large multi-academy trust in England , centred around the Nottingham Academy , which was formerly the Greenwood Dale School. There are 34 academies within the trust, educating over 17,000 pupils. The trust's mission is "to enable every child within our academies to be the best they can be". The academies within the trust are clustered into four geographical regions: Each region has

52-481: A full list of active academy sponsors. In September 2017, the Wakefield City Academies Trust announced it was winding down and ceasing to trade as it hadn't the capacity to manage its 21 schools and asked the government to make an alternative arrangement. The Sutton Trust has verbalised the concerns that academies and particularly academy chains (MAT)s were not always delivering the results that

78-478: A liaising advisor. Individual schools do not have local governing bodies but advisory panels. A Central Team operates across the trust providing support services for finance, ICT, procurement, human resources, catering, data, curriculum development, staff development, health and safety. Schools have control of 94.5% of their budget: the Central Team budget is 5.5%. Source: Multi-academy trust BESA,

104-632: A record of running some schools, as at before 2020 at a deficit, relying on internal loans . In 2022, the Birmingham school Ark Kings Academy was given a funding warning after being found inadequate during an Ofsted inspection. The Ofsted report, published in May 2022, following an inspection in February 2022, said: "Some pupils, particularly those who identify as LGBT , experience repeated name-calling and prejudiced behaviour. This means that pupils do not feel safe in

130-405: Is Schoolsworks Academy Trust , West Sussex where the median hourly pay gap in favour of men is 62% – meaning that a woman is paid 38 pence for every £1 earned by a man. The Wakefield City Academies Trust , which managed 21 schools before its collapse, had a median hourly gender pay gap of 52%. The Kent Catholic Schools Partnership staff face a gender pay gap of almost 50%. In December 2018,

156-482: Is the parent organisation of Ark Schools , a separate legal entity that is a multi-academy trust in the English education system, with 39 schools (as of 14 October 2022) and nearly 30,000 pupils. Ark was founded in 2002 by a group of hedge fund financiers including Paul Marshall and Ian Wace of Marshall Wace – and Arpad Busson of EIM Group , founding chairman of the charity's board of trustees. Its aim

182-412: Is to invest philanthropy (benevolence, gift-giving) to improve, greatly, the life chances of children. Since 2014, the charity has been known as Ark or ARK. Its charitable objects are: "to make sure that all children, regardless of their background, have access to a great education and real choices in life. ark incubates, launches and scales ventures that share our mission and values." Ark operates in

208-491: The Education Policy Institute found that English MATs had significantly higher annual turnover of secondary classroom teachers (19.5%) than local authorities schools (14.4%). Large MATs, with 10 or more schools, also had higher rates of pupil absence, suspension and unexplained departures than smaller MATs and local authority schools. Following mounting ongoing concern a league table was produced to name and shame

234-591: The Sutton Trust published a report, Chain Effects 2018, building on work they had done in previous reports on the effectiveness of MATs in improving the performance of disadvantaged children. Poorer pupils in 12 out of 58 chains analysed by Professor Merryn Hutchings and Professor Becky Francis, performed above the national average on key measures of 2017 attainment for disadvantaged pupils. Three chains – City of London, Diocese of London, and Harris – were significantly above

260-797: The British Educational Suppliers Association states that in November 2019 there are 1,170 Multi Academy Trusts in England that manage at least two schools: 598 have five or fewer schools, 259 have 6-11 schools, 85 have between 12-25 schools and 29 have 26 or more schools. The Education Act 1944 established a national system of primary and secondary education, with schools under the overall supervision of ‘local education authorities’ who were responsible for funding all such schools. This legal called maintaining then in 1988 schools gained legal autonomy. Sponsored academies were introduced from

286-568: The UK, South Africa, Zimbabwe and India. In the US, it is affiliated to Absolute Return for Kids US, Inc. (Ark US), a US philanthropic organisation which shares Ark's mission, and which supports the work of Ark through grants. Ark works in education, health and child protection. In England, its subsidiary Ark Schools is a multi-academy trust responsible for the schools that Ark runs which, typical of its class, has exempt charity status since 2011. ) Ark Schools

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312-560: The average. However, in 38 of the 58 chains analysed, disadvantaged pupils performed below the state school national average. The Sutton Trust recommends that: Absolute Return for Kids Absolute Return for Kids (branded as Ark ) is an international children's educational charity based in London, UK . Ark is a registered charity under English law. In its reporting year 2017–18, excluding its few subsidiaries, it saw gross income of £14.66 million and had 42 employees. Ark

338-621: The central board. The board of directors originally were responsible to the Secretary of State for Education , through the National Schools Commissioner. In September 2014 eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) were formally appointed as civil servants within the Department for Education (DfE); were given responsibility for intervening in under-performing academies in their region and approving new free schools . Their role

364-558: The early 2000s by the Labour government. The sponsor paid the capital cost and the revenue costs were paid by central government. A sponsor set up a charitable trust and individual contracts were signed with the Department for Education (DfE). These were all schools that had been failed the Ofsted criteria. By 2010 there were 203 such schools, out of a total 3333. The Academies Act 2010 was passed by

390-426: The form of a ‘free school’. They were no longer allowed to construct it themselves. In 2014, eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) were appointed as DfE civil servants. with the responsibility for approving new academies and intervening to address performance issues in academies. They have significant powers to influence to academies and local authority maintained schools. The academy trust model of governance

416-441: The government as an example of a successful multi-academy trust, where at least seven others were failing . Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw stepped down in 2016 and was replaced by Amanda Spielman , the founder of Ark Schools and an accountant. As of 2019, Ark runs 36 schools in the English education system, and plans to grow further. It has been, by a sector analyst of a periodical, criticised or seen as unusual for

442-433: The government had hoped for. They sponsored and published research challenging aspects of policy; the programme is called Chain Effects. Other, independent research has examined the impact of MATs. Bernardinelli et al (2018) found no positive impact from MAT status overall, but that pupils in small and mid-sized MATs tend to perform better, on average, than their peers in comparable maintained schools in both phases and, in

468-418: The incoming Conservative Government, It provided a bespoke statutory mechanism for maintained schools, both primary and secondary, to be forced or allowed to ‘convert’ to academy status. The DfE adopted various ‘model funding agreements’ for new academies. New academies called ‘free schools’ could be built. A local authority needing to build new school in its area had to seek proposals to establish an academy, in

494-578: The primary phase, than comparable standalone academies. Conversely, secondary school pupils in larger MATs (with 16+ schools) tend to do worse compared to those in both standalone academies and maintained schools. Other studies have focussed on the wider impact of MATs. This includes Greany and Higham 's (2018) study of academisation and the Government's wider 'school-led self-improving system' reforms, which showed that MATs were contributing to fragmentation and reduced democratic oversight of schools. In 2024,

520-509: The role assigned to them by the MAT board itself There is one central board of directors, who may call themselves the board of governors. The majority are appointed by the sponsor. They appoint the executive head teacher, and run the back-office services such as building, human resources and allocation of special fund. They may govern all the schools centrally or appoint local governing bodies with defined delegated powers which act as subcommittees to

546-472: The school." As of November 2018 the Ark Schools trustees were Ian Wace (Chairman), Lord Fink , Sir Paul Marshall , Anthony Williams and Anthony Clake. In April 2024, Marshall stood down as chair and trustee after being accused of liking and sharing far-right extremist social media posts and conspiracy theories. However, Ark Schools said he had "indicated earlier in the year his intention to step down from

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572-987: The strength of these, they informed headteachers that their schools were failing and must apply to become academies and join an academy chain. In effect there were two inspection regimes: the education minister Damian Hinds told the 2018 NAHT this must change: “Ofsted inspectors should be the only people who should be inspecting schools…which means no more RSC-initiated visits that can feel like inspections with those extra demands for data, adding to bureaucracy.” Regional School commissioners do not stay in post for long, and often leave to become CEOs of multi-academy trusts. A number of private and charitable organisations run groups of academies. These major operators include ARK Schools , Academies Enterprise Trust , E-ACT (formerly Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust), Emmanuel Schools Foundation , Harris Federation , Oasis Trust , Ormiston Academies Trust , Tauheedul Education Trust and United Learning Trust . The Department for Education publishes

598-505: The worst performers using the Progress 8 benchmark , which measures GCSE results after compensating for each pupil's performance at the end of Key Stage 2 . A summary of the league table for 2017 is: Trusts are exempt from all Teacher Pay and Conditions agreements. In March 2018, The Guardian revealed that they fail in gender equality. The study reveals several trusts where women face hourly pay deficit of more than 50%. The worst offender

624-440: Was created in 2004 to work with the Department for Education and local authorities to create new schools for inner cities through the academies programme. Its aim is to help close the achievement gap between children from disadvantaged and more affluent backgrounds. Its academies focus on raising attainment with the aim of every pupil going into higher education when they complete school. The schools are frequently held up by

650-613: Was expanded in July 2015 to approve converter academies and assign sponsors. It remained unclear exactly what the limits to the role of Regional School Commissioner were and how they related to the elected Headteachers Board (HTB), to the Local Authorities , to Ofsted and the local community. Ofsted is a separate government department not answerable to the DfE. The regional commissioners ran shadow inspections of schools and trust, bypassing Ofsted. On

676-467: Was the one imposed on all: By 2017, the concept of academy chain was in retreat, the multi-academy trust was the predominant model of governance. The MAT contracts with the Secretary of State directly and schools run by a MAT have no separate legal identity. Each school is, in law, simply the local site through which the MAT delivers the central contract. Local staff and any local ‘governing body’ have only

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