Academies – still a controversial issue 20 years on

Brian Crosby is pro- school academies

After almost 20 years since their introduction, we take a look at how academies have changed the landscape of UK education. Brian Crosby, CEO of an academy chain in York, outlines the advantages of school academies while Simon O’Hara from the Anti-Academies Alliance discusses the potential dangers as new research reveals that a third of […]

School finance – has your MAT considered GAG pooling?

GAG pooling - Mat Smith on improving school finance

Mat Smith, chartered certified accountant and solutions architect at PS Financials, part of the IRIS Software Group, puts a spotlight on improving school finance through General Annual Grant (GAG) pooling. Lord Agnew, the under-secretary of state for the school system, suggested that GAG pooling – where a multi-academy trust (MAT) collects general annual grant funding […]

Ofsted’s new Vision: Benchmarking your MATs performance 

Ofsted’s new Vision: Benchmarking your MATs performance 

In light of the recent announcement that Ofsted[1]will focus less on exam results and place emphasis on the quality of teaching, it’s more important than ever that Multi-Academy Trusts – MATs – are spending their time on creating a rich curriculum learning rather than data crunching. Today, there are 1532 MATs[2]throughout the UK and this number is […]