Ofsted, trusts and the shape of things to come

All across England, school leaders who manage to create any mental headroom may be starting to wonder about the implications of the recent schools White Paper, with its aim that all schools should be part of a multi-academy trust by 2030.

This, it seems, is the bedrock of its ‘vision’ for education.

We don’t know exactly how the government intends to leverage this change in the way schools are organised, but the direction of travel is pretty clear. There will be those who agree with its intentions, those who are not sure, and those who are bitterly opposed. 

But at the same time there will also be a lot of thinking about what this means for schools, for local authorities, for stand-alone academies, and for existing multi-academy trusts.