Opposite nine-floor office building sits the prestigious White City House, a private members鈥 club in the Soho House group that is open only to the media and arts elite 鈥 and housed in the iconic former BBC Television Studios. While the new mega-development also has some swish facilities (an events space, theatre and podcast studio 鈥 and you can become a member, too), unlike the Soho House, its whole point is community inclusion, not exclusion. Lucy Heller, chief executive of the Ark Schools academy trust, puts her jacket over her head as we step out onto Ed City鈥檚 fourth-floor balcony to peer across an utterly sodden west London skyline. She points out the White City Estate below, a sprawling maze of council homes housing around 4,000 people, in Shepherd鈥檚 Bush, which sits next to Ark鈥檚 White City Primary Academy. Behind us is Grenfell Tower. The wider skyline is peppered with cranes next to half-built housing blocks 鈥 part of a huge regeneration project which aims to deliver 6,000 new homes and 10,000 jobs. 鈥淲e wanted to make sure that the regeneration in this whole area really percolates through to the estate,鈥 Heller says. EdCitizens While EdCity does not officially launch until next week, I have been invited (their first guest, I鈥檓 told) to check out the unique 拢150 million development, a striking example of what can be achieved when trusts and councils work together. Years in the making, the joint venture 鈥 funded between Hammersmith and Fulham council and philanthropic donors at Ark Schools鈥 sponsor, Ark charity 鈥 has turned a school鈥檚 run-down and often waterlogged playground into a whole new community. Alongside the new office block, the regeneration includes a rebuilt primary school, a new nursery, youth hub, adult education centre and more than 100 鈥済enuinely affordable鈥 homes for locals. The nine-story office block will offer four floors of office space at a below-market rate for education organisations. Ark鈥檚 head office, of around 100 people, moved in last week. Tenants already signed up to join them include Lift Schools (formerly AET, the country鈥檚 third biggest trust), physics charity The Ogden Trust and not-for-profit Purposeful Ventures. Not everything is finished yet. Phase two 鈥 which includes the homes and nursery 鈥 will be completed in a year鈥檚 time. But it is already mightily impressive. Community anchors The project also embodies many live education policy discussions. It is a very shiny example of an academy trust becoming a 鈥渃ommunity anchor鈥, something called for by the Confederation of School Trusts (CST). Heller describes the primary school previously as a 鈥渉uge and unwieldy site鈥. Some parts of the playground regularly became waterlogged and were unusable. Another part of the site, owned by the NHS, was all but abandoned. 鈥淎long with the local authority, we came up with the concept which was going to mean not only could we rebuild the primary 鈥 but we could bring the White City Estate into the wider regeneration that has taken place around [the area]. Lucy Heller 鈥淭hey were very keen to get the youth facilities 鈥 which are in sight of Grenfell.鈥 There was a 鈥渟ense of the needs of the young children in the area not being met adequately. It just came together that we could do all these things at once.鈥 It also fits in with what seems to be a new dawn of academy trust collaboration, instead of competition. 鈥淲e hope it will act as a kind of hub,鈥 adds Heller. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a training space, a podcast studio, a theatre, an assembly hall, co-working space. We hope people become members of Ed City. 鈥淚t’s cheap to join [拢50 annually to use the flexible working space], to have it as a base if you are located outside London, but coming down here.鈥 Those joining will be known as EdCitizens. 鈥楾ime trusts learn from each other鈥 Heller says the academy movement had been fuelled until now largely by competition (鈥渨hich is great and really important鈥). 鈥淏ut, particularly in a period where there鈥檚 no money, we need to move beyond that 鈥 and think about how we collaborate more effectively.鈥 Covid made a big difference. Heller points to weekly CST meetings at the height of the pandemic being 鈥渞eally important in bringing people together. It meant that people got to know and see each other.鈥 Ark wants to host events where schools and trusts can showcase their specialisms. 鈥淚 think it was always a pity that the DfE didn’t capture some of the intellectual property that was created right back at the beginning of the academies movement,鈥 she adds. 鈥淛ust the experience of people, whether it’s how to run estates or behaviour policies, those things all of us were having to do it on our own, and not necessarily learn from each other.鈥 Heller also points to other trusts doing similar. Delta Academies Trust, for instance, has the Education Exchange at its own headquarters next to De Lacy Academy, in Wakefield. She said other trusts are now also looking to follow them. But can smaller trusts 鈥 or those without such generous donors 鈥 afford to play such a role? Ark charity gave the trust more than 拢10 million in 2023, accounts show. Nearly all of this was for the primary school rebuild, but 拢700,000 was for extracurricular activities, and another 拢200,000 for mental health and digital transformation initiatives. 鈥淪cale helps鈥, Heller adds. But 鈥渢hinking about how you create spaces for schools to collaborate, how we come together, that’s something that I think anybody could do.鈥 Money raised from the office block, owned by Ark charity, will create an endowment to be reinvested. While some will go to the trust, most will help the charity to continue to incubate new education ventures. Those already established include Ark Curriculum Plus, NowTeach and Ark Start, an early years organisation. 鈥淭he motivation behind this [EdCity] is a commitment not just to the communities we work in, but the education sector as a whole,鈥 Heller adds. Schools as hubs The development also fits into the new government鈥檚 push to rebuild some of the wider support services for families that have been decimated over the past 15 years 鈥 but with schools at the heart. 鈥淎rk Schools has been around for 20 years, and we鈥檙e looking at the vision for the next 20. 鈥淗ow do you look up after such a long time spent in Covid looking down? One of those pieces is definitely about how you situate the school in the community, and make sure it is really acting as a hub for that. 鈥淚n a world where there’s not very much money, making sure that the different areas of the public sector really work together is critical.鈥 She wants the new government to 鈥渋ncentivise鈥 such collaboration. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about having more money, but it’s about using it really effectively to work together to do things.鈥 But is that the role of schools? 鈥淭he first and most important thing you have to do is to run good schools and provide great education. 鈥淵ou’re trying to avoid schools having an enormous burden. I don’t want schools to become the NHS. 鈥淏ut you’re saying schools have an estate, have relationships that are deep and long-founded with parents. We should be making use of those to sort of drive the health service.鈥 The West Youth Zone on site, part of the Onside Network, opens when the school closes, ensuring that children have 鈥渟omewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to鈥, says its chief executive, Elanor Gunn. 鈥淎 lot of thought goes into the 15 per cent of a child鈥檚 waking hours spent in school 鈥 but what about the other 85 per cent?鈥 Data shows that more than 1,200 council-run youth centres have closed since 2010. Membership for West is 拢5 a year, with 20 activities every night including art, music and cooking. They have youth workers in every space and provide hot meals for 拢1. Most of the school鈥檚 pupils aged over 8 are among its 2,400 members. 鈥淲e want to be near communities that need it the most, but it takes people involved locally to have that vision 鈥 it has allowed us to tap into that ambition and be part of something bigger,鈥 Gunn adds.