After a great deal of thinking, Abbey Academies Trust's Trustees feel this is an exciting proposition for our school.
Key considerations:
The Board of Trustees has considered several reasons for looking at this course of action. This has included:
- Our ambition to provide even greater opportunities for pupils to flourish academically, socially, and personally.
- A continued commitment to our Christian ethos, identity, and values.
- The opportunity to improve capacity (leadership, school improvement and central services) to provide the very best for our communities.
- Our desire to do more for our staff - enhancing professional development and career progression for all staff.
- Our expectation that we can achieve financial efficiencies from economies of scale - and do more with the funding that we do have.
- With declining birth rates and increasing outcosts, financial resilience is an important consideration.
In short, in the ever changing and fluctuating world of education, we want to be part of a more sustainable trust, strengthening the stability of our schools for the long term.
What happens if we do merge?
Alongside the sharing of ideas and best practice, the structural changes are:
- Governance changes: Infinity Academies Trust becomes the “receiving” trust and AAT will no longer exist as an entity.
- Transfer of schools: AAT academies legally transfer into Infinity Academies Trust.
- TUPE of staff: Staff are transferred under the Transfer of Employment (Protection of Employment), which ensures employees’ rights are protected when they transfer to a new organisation.
- Financial consolidation: Budgets, assets, liabilities, and central services are combined into one organisation.
- Harmonising systems: Policies, IT systems, safeguarding procedures, and curriculum approaches are aligned across the new trust.
What stage are we at now?
When two trusts begin informal discussions about merging they go through a process called due diligence. During this stage everyone looks through all aspects of the other Trust. They explore:
- Vision and values
- Geographical fit
- School improvement needs
- Financial health
- Central team structure
If it looks promising, each trust’s board agrees to then formalise their intention to merge. We have not yet reached that stage.
MAT mergers in England require approval from the Department for Education (DfE).
After a merger, all schools become part of one unified trust with a single board of trustees, one central team, and a shared vision, policies, and operational structure.
