Next Gen News

The number of Co-op schools has trebled in just over a year. The model offers local accountability as well as independence

Mervyn Wilson feels bullish about the snowballing progress of the fastest growing network of schools in England. "It 'sa quiet revolution," he says. "Next year we expect it to well over 200 schools, with the potential to significantly growing in the coming years."

Who could follow the development of our rapidly changing educational landscape suspect that Wilson for one of England 's high-profile academy chains, often referred to in the speeches of ministers and seem very well in the department connected for Education Work are awarded.

In fact, Wilson is chief executive of the Co-operative College, a Manchester-based organisation that is helping to support and promote what he says is the ground-up, democratically driven growth of Co-operative trust schools. These are part of the Co-operative movement, with a history dating back to the 19th century.

Almost unnoticed, Co-ops are thought to have increased in number so they now make up the third largest association of schools in England, after those run by the Church of England and by the Roman Catholic church. They easily outstrip more publicised groups such as Ark Schools or the Harris academy chain.

Wilson compares their development to community-run village shops or Supporters Direct, which campaigns for football clubs to be run by the fans.

Reddish Vale in Stockport was the first school, a co-operative trust, less than four years ago has become, but there are already 151 co-op schools across the country, with numbers tripling in just over a year.

In Cornwall alone, says Wilson, 70 to 100 schools co-operating foundations are joined to the end of this year, bringing the total to well over 200 nationwide in early 2012. Nine primary schools in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, are already in a joint trust, with eight others, to consult on the accession. South Yorkshire, to be expected with about 50 schools by the year 2012, is another area of ??strength for the movement.

There are also now three Co-operative academies, where formal links with the local authority are even more minimal than in the case of trusts.

In Cornwall, schools have been encouraged by their local authority to form collaborative arrangements in order to pool resources.

It contrasts what it sees as the democracy of Cooperative movement, networking with schools and groups in each institution interacting with its stakeholders, with conventional arrangements sponsored academy, private sponsors for the majority of each school 's body can appoint, and where colleges are often monitored closely by head office.

However, academy chains are growing. Schools Ark was set in 2004 by the hedge fund manager Arpad Busson, and now has 14 academies either open or under development. The Harris Federation, sponsored by Lord Harris of Peckham, chairman and chief executive of the retailer Carpetright operates 13 Academies in South London, with plans for more 12th

E-ACT, a charity organization run by division of the former Labour government 's Schools Commissioner, Sir Bruce Liddington, operates 11 colleges and reportedly wants 250 schools within five years.

All this underscores the need for a co-op alternative, says Wilson. "The destruction of the local authorities and the development of these chains must be the last phase of the commercialization of the education system should be considered," he told a conference center for Successful Schools at Keele University in the last month. "There are many of us who now feel that it's not just space, but a desperate need for a community-based alternative."

Baker says: "Philosophically, we could not be further opposed to the top-down academy chain model. Education is very precious. It's much too precious simply to hand over to philanthropist sponsors. We had that model in the 19th century. We've come a long way from that."

Robert Owen was himself a 19th-century philanthropist, so there are ironies here. And academy chains obviously take a different view.