School Middleton Technology School to join Great Academies Education Trust (the ‘Trust’)

Proposal for a school – Middleton Technology School - to join Great Academies Education Trust (the ‘Trust’)

The government recently announced its intentions to further expand its academies programme for all schools. The government’s expressed intent is to provide greater autonomy and opportunity to innovate, within a strong framework of accountability. However, the government also recognised that whilst the academies programme offers opportunities for schools, there is great effectiveness in matching a school with a strong sponsor. The Trust has developed as such a sponsor in order to be able to support more academies in the future.

The Trust is pleased to announce that the Local Governing Body of the Middleton Technology School (MTS) a secondary school, and rated by OFSTED as an ‘outstanding school’, has decided not only to convert to academy status but also to join the Trust. Although MTS is situated outside of the borough of Tameside, nevertheless, the synergies which exist between the Trust, its academies and MTS, in the opinion of the Trust, offers an opportunity to accelerate the process to achieving higher attainment across each of the Trust’s academies, by optimising the strengths of each academy, and through the support the Trust is able to provide. http://www.middtech.com/
It is the aim of the Trust to work closely & collaboratively both internally, through its academies, and externally with other organisations, to continue to provide all our children with the very best education. We believe that the joining of MTS will bring the following benefits:

• 
  A stronger collaborative partnership between our academies particularly through the creation of a central school improvement hub;
  
• 
  Improved educational provision and standards for all our children.
  
• 
  Building upon & protecting the ethos and identity of our academies for the future.
  
• 
  Enhanced leadership capacity by working more closely together, to share expertise and responsibilities across academies.
  
• 
  Shared central services including finance, HR, governance, legal and IT.
  
• 
  Greater purchasing power for contracts meaning cost savings through economies of scale.
  
• 
  Increased opportunities for funding from the Department for Education.
  
• 
  Improved professional development opportunities to help recruit and retain the best staff.
  
• 
  Improved capacity to grow the Trust, both at secondary and primary
  

The Trust is not intending to make any changes to its current academies or to the way they currently operate, nor to MTS, or to the way MTS operates in terms of, for example, (this list is not exhaustive): admissions arrangements and criteria; all staff currently employed by MTS will transfer under the TUPE regulations to the Trust on their existing pay and conditions and there will not be any changes to the existing pay and conditions of staff currently employed by the Trust; neither will MTS nor Trust academies be affected adversely in terms of funding; as stated above, through the Trust’s ethos, the prospect of further progressive improvement in terms of educational achievement across all academies will be strengthened; the Trust remains committed to promoting equality and to eliminating discrimination, these elements are intrinsic in everything the Trust undertakes, and are part of its Public Equality Statement.