New schools academy looking to grow

Kirsty Osman said the Four Hills Education Trust was looking to add more schools

A new four-school academy has celebrated its formation with a woodland get-together.

Four Hills Education Trust is currently made up of four Shropshire schools - Albrighton Primary, Meadows Primary in Ketley, Millbrook Primary in Leegomery, and William Reynolds Primary in Woodside.

Its CEO, Kirsty Osman, said its aim was to share resources and values and was "looking to grow, with a fifth primary school close to joining.

On Wednesday, pupils from all four schools got together at Haughmond Hill, and she said the trust planned to have lots of link-ups between the schools.

Ms Osman said the children would "get to know children from very different communities, perhaps from the ones they are in at the moment", and find new friends.

The trust formally came into being in September, but she said it wanted to give the schools time before having a formal celebration.

She said: "It feels a little bit surreal at the moment, its been a year-plus long project."

All four schools were originally under the control of their local authorities and funding from the Department for Education will now go directly to the trust, which is a charity and will not make a profit.

Ms Osman said the schools, which each have between 300 and 500 pupils, would benefit from economies of scale, and described her trust as a "values-driven organisation".

She said the Haughmond Hill beauty spot had been chosen because it "reflected the trust's ethos of empathy with nature and its promise to do things differently".

The fifth school to join the trust is expected to be Woodlands Primary School in Telford, and after that she said the trust would look to add other schools in Shropshire or perhaps in surrounding areas.