CEO Welcome

Dear Visitor,

Many thanks for taking the time to look at our website. I hope you will get a flavour from these pages of the work of The Beckmead Trust with our children, families and staff. We welcome visitors, so please feel free to contact the central team in Croydon to arrange a visit to any of our schools to see first-hand the wonderful work of our staff and the fantastic achievements of our pupils.

The Trust is now five and a half years old and several individuals and organisations have used the expression ‘The Trust is growing up’. I would agree with this statement in several contexts, especially the strengthening of governance at all levels and financial expertise led by the central team in harmony with each individual school. 

The maturing of the trust has been supported by our regulators.  The DfE has entrusted Beckmead with further work on the southern coastal strip where, in September 2024, we will be opening St George’s House as an extension of Ropemakers Academy, Hailsham.

We have also been awarded the sponsorship of two new Free Schools in West Sussex. We also continue to expand our hubs elsewhere, such as with the opening of Greenwell Academy in Harlow which will support the excellent work of Moundwood AP in the same town.  

Our schools have excelled in several section 5 Ofsted inspections where the ‘Personal Development’ and the ‘Behaviour and Attitudes’ of our wonderful pupils are invariably judged to be ‘Outstanding’.

Beckmead has also worked closely with the central funding agencies, especially in the context of bringing the T4 trust into our family of schools.  Achieving the strong financial position the trust is in during a period of rapid growth is testament to excellent financial management and governance.  

Building works are continuing at pace at the Sir Geoff Hurst School site in Chelmsford, which will open early next year. Work at the London River Academy site in Barnes has begun, demolition of existing NHS buildings has been completed, and we are anticipating a full opening within the next eighteen months.  

As Beckmead remains true to its founding values of ‘Love, Social Justice, Community, and a sense of Flourishing for All’, I find myself in a position where I have never been busier or happier.  When I walk around our amazing schools, which are full of happy, engaged children and enthusiastic, passionate staff, I am filled with pride at what our pupils, staff and academies are achieving.  

This was summed up for me by the visit of Steve Van Zandt (E Street Band and The Sopranos) to our Croydon schools in July.  Little Steven, as he is known, joined in a jam with the college electric guitar group and was enchanted by the Chaffinch Brook rap, which was based on a sense of community inspired by the TeachRock modules they had been studying.  When I saw Stevie later that week, he said “You guys are miracle workers.”  Huge praise from someone whose education-based charity works with over sixty thousand teachers in the United States.  

Wishing every one of you a happy and successful 2024 to 2025 academic year.

Very best wishes

Jonty
Dr Jonty Clark OBE: ‘CEO and Founder of The Beckmead Trust’