Schools should not rush to join multi-academy trusts, despite the government鈥檚 2030 vision for an all-academy system, the head of the has said. Emma Knights (pictured), the group鈥檚 chief executive, told the School and Academies Show in Birmingham that it 鈥渞eally worries me when people say 鈥榳e’re being told to do this鈥�”. One headteacher in the audience said the schools white paper earlier this year 鈥渉ad everybody scrambling suddenly not to be last one to be picked for the team鈥�. But Knights said: 鈥淔or those of you that are leading or governing 鈥榞ood鈥� or 鈥榦utstanding鈥� schools, the decision is still yours. 鈥淚 think sometimes the mythology feels different, but actually that is the way the system is set up. That is what the law says.鈥� She said the past decade had shown that when trusts rushed and grew too quickly, it 鈥渄idn鈥檛 necessarily work terribly well鈥�. Mergers had not been that common so far, but the NGA expected them to pick up, she said. The diminishing number of maintained schools was gradually limiting trusts鈥� ability to grow through conversions. Most trust leaders expect to take on more schools Meanwhile research by Arbor, a school management information software provider, shows 92 per cent of multi-academy trust leaders surveyed expected their trust to add at least one school over the next three years. While 58 per cent said their preference was adding new schools, 26 per cent said they would prefer mergers. But the vast majority said they wanted mergers with similar or smaller trusts, not larger ones. The poll, shared exclusively with Schools Week, also asked maintained school leaders if they expected to be part of a multi-academy trust by 2030. Almost half (45 per cent) agreed, but almost as many answered 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know鈥�, and 14 per cent said they did not. At another panel event, Lord Knight, a former Labour minister and chair of the E-ACT trust, said he feared that some trusts would grow 鈥渏ust because they鈥檙e rescuing trusts, because they鈥檝e become unviable鈥� as financial pressures increased. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 no way to start a partnership and relationship.鈥� Hannah Woodhouse, a DfE regional director, said four single-academy trusts had joined MATs in the past month in the south west. She said there was a 鈥渜uestion about how鈥e consolidate small trusts who can鈥檛 all grow.鈥�