One of England鈥檚 biggest MATs is set to give up a founding school in a move that shows how important regional clusters are for national trusts. Ormiston Academies Trust has to transfer its only academy in Thurrock to the Unity Schools Partnership (USP) next year.听 The multi-academy trust (MAT) leadership believes the deal will allow the secondary, called Ormiston Park Academy, to 鈥渂enefit even more directly from [USP鈥檚] additional local capacity and collaboration鈥�. The trusts have worked together informally to drive improvement.听 ‘Grow, grow, grow’ Education consultant Lucia Glynn believes the case highlights the shift towards MATs organising 鈥渢hemselves and their resources into local clusters鈥�. 鈥淭here was a priority historically for big trusts to grow and grow and grow … but I think it鈥檚 much more strategic now. 鈥淸It鈥檚] more cost-effective for them to operate in a cluster model because they can have local finance, HR, estates, school improvement and shared services at a local level.鈥� When it launched in 2009, Ormiston took on three schools. One of these was Ormiston Park. But since then, it has remained the trust鈥檚 only Thurrock school. Being more strategic In 2016, Sir David Carter, the then national schools commissioner, attributed some of the troubles large trusts had in the early days of the academy movement to geography 鈥� noting some didn鈥檛 have a family of schools to cluster around. More recently, ministers have attempted to be more strategic.听Schools Week听revealed in 2022 that officials were working on plans to package up 鈥渃lusters鈥� of schools eligible for government intervention to be moved en masse into large academy trusts. Then academies minister Baroness Barran later said she would place fresh emphasis on how government sees 鈥済eographic coherence鈥� in strong trusts.听 She stressed this was not 鈥渢rusts operating in a single area鈥�, but instead trusts having clusters of schools. This was so they could 鈥渂enefit from some of the collaboration that can take place between schools that are close to each other.鈥� Unity’s ‘additional local capacity’ In documents shared with parents, Ormiston said the school started working with Unity in February 2024, shortly before it was downgraded to 鈥榬equires improvement鈥� by Ofsted. Baroness Barran By transferring the school over, it will 鈥渏oin a trust with strong local presence and capacity 鈥� creating opportunities for staff to collaborate, share ideas and best practice鈥�.听 An Ormiston spokesperson said the academy has worked with Unity 鈥渢o support and deliver a series of improvements at the school鈥�. The proposed move is 鈥渁bout deepening that relationship further and building on the progress made to date, enabling the academy to benefit even more directly from the additional local capacity and collaboration鈥�. A USP spokesperson said the academy鈥檚 鈥渧alues and visions are closely aligned鈥�, making it 鈥渁 natural and logical fit to join our family of secondary, primary and special schools鈥�.
Daniel Ricketts 15 November 2025 Local Clusters, what an excellent idea. Maybe this could be done on a basis of which county they are in and then there could be resources organised at that level to help drive improvements and collaboration? Local areas could have authority to buy in resources and hold schools to account.