Are schools about to be given other “trust” options, beyond the academies scheme?

The schools white paper, expected imminently, will see every school “benefit[ing] from being in a strong trust,” the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said in a tweet on Tuesday.

But what, exactly, did he mean?

Background

There has been speculation about the contents of the white paper since last autumn, with the Guardian reporting in October that ministers were considering re-instating key stage 3 Sats and abandoning limits on teachers’ working hours – ideas which have since reportedly been ditched.

However, clearly there will be elements of the white paper which will see ministers returning to the issue of school structures.

Some observers have wondered whether the government will seek to break what – for all the unending hype from the government and its supporters about the academies policy - on the ground has been a kind of stalemate in recent years, between the academy trust and local authority schools systems.