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Multi-academy trusts are ‘key’ to raising standards in northern schools, review claims
EB News: 24/11/2016 - 10:18
Accelerating the growth of multi-academy trusts (MATs) ‘is key to driving up standards’ in the North, according to an independent review commissioned by the government.
Sir Nick Weller, chief executive of the Bradford-based Dixons Academies Trust, was commissioned to write the report by former chancellor George Osborne, and former education secretary Nicky Morgan.
Weller believes that academy sponsorship ‘is an important school improvement mechanism’ and suggests that the movement has ‘progressed more slowly in the North’, which has limited school improvement in the region.
He calls on northern local authorities to do more to support academy programmes and ‘facilitate the growth of strong and effective multi academy trusts’ because ‘it is in the interests of local children and young people to do so’.
Additionally, Weller argues that ’strong MATs require strong leaders’ and advises the Department for Education to assign funding to MAT CEOs from northern ‘cold spot’ areas to attend training, as well as fund a a mentoring scheme whereby successful MAT CEOs from across the country mentor CEOs of new or expanding
MATs in the North.
There a number of other recommendations included in the review, including launching a new ‘Teach North’ scheme to attract newly quality teachers to disadvantaged schools in the region.
The government has confirmed that they will not be extending their Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) grants, after five years of allocating money to public sector buildings, such as schools, to replace inefficient heating systems.
Scotland has seen an increase in the number of young people in work, training or further study nine months after they have left school, at 93.1 per cent in 2023-24.
The Scottish government have expanded their childcare provision through several projects backed by Access to Childcare Funding, which will see almost £1.5 million distributed across seven initiatives over the next two years.