Here we are in the middle of June and - with 3 Ofsted inspections in the rear view mirror and SATs completed - one might have thought we’d have a steady, sunny sprint to the end-of-year finish line... Well, with torrential rain in recent weeks and new partner schools joining our Trust, it’s certainly not going to be a quiet end to 2018-19.

I’m really pleased to share the news that Heatherwood School and Coppice School - two special schools in Doncaster - are in the process of consulting on joining our Multi Academy Trust. We’ve worked closely with the schools for a while now and I’m delighted that the governing board of each school has taken the decision to formalise that partnership by electing to academise and join us. Crags Community Primary School are due to covert on the 1st August 2019 and we’re aiming for autumn 2019 for Becton to complete the academisation process, so our MAT will go through a lot of structural change over the next 12 months. I’ve also been invited to speak to a couple of governing boards in the wider region, as other schools are also interested in learning more about our Trust.

In September 2020, we’ll be opening our first new (free) special school in Doncaster, which will be called Bader Academy. Bader is named for the inspirational legacy of Sir Douglas Bader, and will serve the needs of 100 children and young people aged 5 -19 with communication and interaction difficulties. The school will be built in Edenthorpe, adjacent to the Hunger Hill School site. Building work is due to commence from August 2019. More information will be shared soon.

I was lucky enough to be invited to visit Milestone House recently, which is the base of the new post 19 offer being set up by Landmarks, in partnership with Nexus MAT. When we created the Trust, a strategic priority for our founding academies was to improve the quality of the 19-25 offer for our young people, and we have worked with Landmarks to help them establish a Rotherham “hub” to better meet our students’ needs. We’re so excited about how this provision can and will develop!

It’s been another amazing year of success for the Trust in attracting government grant funding to improve our estate. A total of £650,000 has been awarded to improve the access road to Abbey; improve access of the site at Hilltop; and install new doors and windows at Kelford. That’s in excess of £2m of grant funding we’ve secured in under 3 years!

Finally, it was wonderful to see so many governors and senior leaders at this week’s Nexus MAT Leadership Summit. There was such a buzz of excitement during and after the event - thanks to all those who contributed!

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