Embattled Bright Tribe chain poised to merge with sister trust and lose its name

Whitehaven academy, which has been a focus for the Bright Tribe controversy

The beleaguered Bright Tribe academy chain is consulting parents on merging with its sister trust in a move which would eventually see the Bright Tribe trust and brand cease to exist, Education Uncovered can disclose.

The Stockport-based Bright Tribe chain, which has faced endless controversy centred on its management of Whitehaven Academy in Cumbria, would merge with a less high-profile organisation called the Adventure Learning Academies Trust(ALAT).

All Bright Tribe schools – other than those lined up to leave the trust – would transfer to the newly-merged organisation, to be called the Adventure Learning Academies Trust.

The consultation letter to parents – this website has seen one sent out to parents with children at Alde Valley school in Suffolk, sent today – makes this clear.

Adventure Learning Academies Trust is technically based at one of its academies in Cornwall, although in practice it and Bright Tribe have been set up to be two trusts run as more or less one organisation.

They have had overlapping management and trustee personnel, with the businessman Michael Dwan, two of whose charities have sat within the trusts’ governance frameworks, the key figure in both.

The consultation opened earlier this week and will conclude on May 25^th.

I shall update this story shortly, with a bit more detail from the letter to parents.

Here’s that further detail:

The detail of the letter for parents confirms that this plan, if it goes ahead, would eventually see the Bright Tribe trust “cease to exist”.

The plan being consulted on is for the four current ALAT schools to be joined by five Bright Tribe academies in a single trust, to be called the Adventure Learning Academies Trust.

The transferring Bright Tribe schools comprise academies in Essex and Suffolk as well as one in Oldham, meaning the resultant chain would have schools in Cornwall, the East of England and that one school in the North-West. The letter does not state where the merged trust's headquarters would be; ALAT's are currently at Fowey River Academy, Fowey, in Cornwall.

Four Bright Tribe schools in the north of England are currently in the process of being transferred away from the trust, in what seems a protracted process. The consultation letter says that these schools, including Whitehaven, will remain with the Bright Tribe trust (BTT) until this transfer process is completed.

Once it has been, the trust will “cease to exist”, says the letter, with current BTT trustees “ceas[ing] to act as such”.

The letter seen by Education Uncovered has not been signed, although it starts “the Bright Tribe Trust is proposing”, which suggests its trustees – and those of ALAT; the individuals on each board are currently identical - should be seen as its authors.

Setting out their reasons, the letter states:

“Specifically, the Trust boards consider that joining together as one MAT could:

• Maintain and further develop strong governance at the school level and central Trust level
• Provide greater opportunities for the schools to work together across a range of school activities
• Through its clear strategic vision and direction, help the schools to secure greater influence and support the delivery of outstanding adventure learning education
• Enable the schools together to create efficiencies in how we buy supplies
• Increase opportunities for career development and training for staff.”

 

It is unclear, however, how several of these could not still be achieved through the current structure of two trusts basically under the same management. Adventure Learning Academy Trust resourcing decisions have sometimes been controlled via Bright Tribe’s headquarters in Manchester, this website understands.

On “efficiencies”, staff and unions within the Bright Tribe chain have long queried seemingly high budget “top-slice” figures, which have come despite staff at Whitehaven complaining of not having sufficient funding for the basics.

Sceptics, including parents, are likely to speculate that the Bright Tribe brand has simply become too toxic for the organisation, with stories such as a two-page spread on the chain in Schools Week last week continuing to put it under the microscope.

The letter to Alde Valley parents flags up consultation meetings on May 16^th at that school and at Bright Tribe’s Colchester Academy in Essex. It also states that the two boards will not make a decision “until the consultation process has completed”.

The changes involved in merging the trusts, as set out in the letter, are mostly legal and technical, including “transfer[ing] the assets, including land and operations of the BTT schools to ALAT”.