To despise MATs (Multi Academy Trusts)

[Violashifts]

At the end of the day they are businesses. I don't think they benefit education.

What was wrong with a local authority looking after all schools in their area? Now you can't share with the school along the road but can with one in another town as they are in the same trust. So travel 30 miles instead of 2.

Sure they may save on HR, can share results and data etc but they waste more on improvement officers, marketing videos. A crew coming in filming chosen shots and then adding it to music. Not cheap. Don't even get me started on CEO pays as in the article below. How can they justify 40k pay rises an
or 250k salaries. Heads should be able to run a school. It is not needed.

Meanwhile at the chalkface the number of teachers, TAs and even lunch time supervisors are reduced and new equipment isn't afforded.
How is this helping the students?
How is this helping the recruitment crisis?
How is this helping the woeful SEN
provision?

Am I wrong?

I think its a big scandal waiting to happen.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-the-academy-ceo-pay-premium/

[Title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

Absolutely agree!
Can employ unqualified teachers too. I wouldn’t work in one or send my child to one.

It was meant to put more money into education. Instead it put more money into the top of the food chain. For any school in an academy you can look for the report for the Chair of Gov and find out how many people in the trust are on more than £80k, £100k etc. it’s a disgrace, I don’t know why there’s not more public outrage about it!

Having some experience of dealing with education authorities of old (in the last century), they were an argument for their abolition by their awful performance. Poor administrators and managers seemed to be the only people they recruited.

That does not make what the OP highlights any better, but I can see why the academy route was chosen instead.

It’s a tragedy that education has been turned into business, with the emphasis on profit, in the sense of ever increasing results, expectation, workload, demands, data, curriculum and anything else you can think of.

Where’s the caring, where’s the humanity, where’s the support?

Totally agree. They make their own rules up and stick to them no matter how unreasonable. They’re a disgrace.

The marketisation (and consequent enshittification) of public services.

I've worked in 2 LAs . In one, the LA support for schools is so inadequate MATs make a really big difference. Heads and staff feel far better supported and students, parents and results can see the improvement.

In the other, we still have c. 80% maintained schools.

The problem now is the Local Authority has no money. They take a top slice greater than many of the academy trusts and provide very little in return. There are not enough schools staying in the LA to pay into the pot making it bad value for money.

I agree, it should have never been a policy but it’s too late now.

My dc are in one and I love it! Things like Duke of Edinburgh, music performances, theatre etc are shared between the four schools which has really opened opportunities for them. It seems extremely well run and resourced

I think it very much depends on the mat. Oasis are a mat who are excellent ime.

My DC school has improved a lot under a MAT. All the schools around us were dire and there wasn’t much choice. Then it got taken over by a MAT and the improvements could be seen within a few months. It’s now a highly sought after over subscribed school.

So it’s worked for us

I am a supply TA. On a long term posting I had the misfortune to watch an aggressive MAT takeover. I loved the school, it's ethos, it was the school with the best staff ratio I have worked at. New MAT came in towards the end of my alloted time there. Slashed staffing levels based on their other schools without looking at the particular challenges of this school, made sweeping changes to the method of curriculum delivery with no understanding or consideration for the high EAL demographic and didn't listen to those who worked there and understood the needs of the area. I was genuinely shocked at how staff were treated and generally how it was done.

The CEO was paid more than the annual cost of all the TAs whose contracts they refused to renew. So sad, needless.

But as others have said, I am sure it depends on the MAT.

But surely a school’s sole purpose is to churn children out with as high a grade as they can achieve. That is the measurement of success. These results help the children get better, well paid jobs.

hopefully a lot of schools are caring, certainly my children have very caring schools with high grades. But ultimately as a parent I want my children to come out with the highest grades possible. The caring I can give at home.

My daughter is a secondary teacher in a MAT and loves it. She has found the school very supportive (it’s her first job) and the staff and pupils all seem happy.

A friend of mine used to work as a school business manager in a LA primary with a very poor headteacher and weak governing body. She was delighted when it was taken over by a MAT because for the first time someone other than her was challenging the head’s poor decisions.

My DCs school is part of a MAT ( as is every other non fee-paying school in a 15 mile radius so no I didn't have a choice). This school alone pays a head, 3 deputies, 5 year heads, a welfare lead and a SENDCO, all to be non teaching. How does it make a profit? I genuinely don't understand how but clearly they do because they're a business.

Every MAT school I’ve worked in has been much better than LA maintained.

You all realise that it was Labour who brought in academies as a way of tackling under performance in LA run schools?

I work at a MAT which encompasses one of the top secondary schools in the country and several other very low achieving schools. MAT says that things have to be standardised ...including the curriculum, behaviour policies, everything. No acknowledgement that it is not one size fits all, and that while the changes will improve outcomes in the other schools, they are likely to make ours worse.

I agree. I think MATs have been responsible for a huge increase in mental health difficulties in young people. They also treat young people as a homogeneous mass and not individuals.

I work in a MAT which has schools in three different local authorities. We don’t make a profit and our oars are all volunteers. The upsides are that our schools can support each other - share good practice, if a Head is off for any reason another Head can step in, schools can work together and there is always someone to ask for advice. Our aim as a central team is to support the Heads so that they can concentrate on teaching, the children and their staff. What would make a difference is SEND provision being properly supported financially so we can support the children and outside expertise provided if needed. Also what would be helpful is levelling up the amount we are paid per child, the North is paid less than schools in other areas even though the majority of our costs are the same (we pay based on the national rates for teachers).

There is a lot more to education than just getting the highest grades which are useless if getting the higher grade leads to more young people with anxiety, mental health difficulties and not being work ready.

250k CEO salaries are not needed. We have heads running schools. This is scandalous.

Our figures suggest that Amanda Nicholson, of the Kings Academy Trust in Manchester, received the highest pay packet per pupil (£320.64/child) last year. The chain consists of one primary, one special school and two APs.

For pp who mentioned oasis they do a bit better.

He was followed by Oasis Community Learning’s John Barneby (£5.77). A spokesperson said: “Remuneration is purposefully set to ensure fair compensation while holding true to our principles of equity and justice”.

"A school’s sole purpose is to churn children out with as high a grade as they can achieve."

©1865 Thomas Gradgrind.

"Our figures"? Are you a Labour researcher? BP has been speaking out against MATs today......🤔

1. MATs are charities not businesses and have to operate according to charity commission rules.

1. Chairs and trustees are unpaid

1. MATs educate larger proportions of disadvantaged pupils

You may have had a bad experience with a MAT, but any are doing tremendous work with some of the most challenging schools in the country.