With the recent BBC Panorama investigation into Bright Tribe Trust, MATs have yet again been cast into the national limelight for all the wrong reasons. If you were looking at MATs from outside of the sector, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s all bad news and a cursory Google search of multi-academy trusts would support this view with plenty of stories on financial misconduct and a failing system. Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom, this is a post to promote positivity - I promise.
I know that academisation and MATs are not everyone’s cup of tea nor do they align with everyone’s political persuasion. Either way, they're here to stay and we are now seeing a surge in new MATs that are typically opening with no fewer than five schools each. According to Schools Week, we now have nearly 4 million children across the country being educated in academies and MATs, so surely there are good news stories out there?!
Well… there are. By working with over 200 MATs across the country we are lucky enough to get to see all the great work that’s going on within MATs first hand. I see it in the collaborative practice between schools and trusts, innovative approaches to forming new operational models or driving school improvement as a collective. Now, I’m working with some MATs that are taking it upon themselves to spread these good stories and create some positive PR themselves around the great work in academies and trusts. This is a call for you to share your good news stories and we’d love to hear you voice them on the MAT Leaders Facebook group.
For some additional insight, download our free 'Demystifying MAT Expansion' whitepaper here.
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As ever, please leave any thoughts in the comments below and have a great week!
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