Sir John Townsley

The GORSE Academies Trust has an increasingly well-known reputation for changing the deal for children and young adults who come from some of the most impoverished parts of the country. Our central mission is to ensure that we play a significant role in removing the stubborn link between poverty and academic underperformance. Consequently, our students and our professionals are in the vanguard of the national drive which seeks to prove that where teaching is excellent, leadership inspiring and behaviour standards exemplary all children excel regardless of background. Because of the trust’s reputation, we are also seeing the development of a new approach to academisation which is bringing already strong and successful schools forward to convert as new partners within The GORSE Academies Trust. Those schools recognise the enormous advantage that comes from belonging to a network of excellence in both leadership and teaching, and we as a trust recognise that there is much to be gained when great organisations are brought together.