AN education trust which runs schools and nurseries in Minehead and Williton is to merge with a larger organisation after serious weakness were identified in some of its establishments.

Beacon Education Trust was served with ‘termination warning notices’ in February, 2023, and in September, 2022, for Minehead Middle School and Minehead First School.

The Department for Education’s (DfE) regional director, who also challenged the capacity of the trust, then ‘encouraged’ Beacon to hold talks about a merger with the Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust (BWMAT).

Now, Beacon’s board of trustees has decided the merger would be in the best interests of staff and pupils.

The merger is expected to be approved by a DfE board on January 22 and would take effect in August, after the end of the current academic year.

Beacon, which has one of the largest catchment areas in England, stretching from Devon across the top of Exmoor and right up to the Quantock Hills, works with hundreds of West Somerset children aged up to 13 years.

It is also responsible for Danesfield School, St Peter’s First School, and St Peter’s Nursery, in Williton, St Michael’s First School and King Edward Road Nursery, in Minehead, and Old Cleeve First School.

Beacon’s chairman Andy Giles, said: “We have been in discussion with BWMAT since July this year and both trust boards have reached a positive decision to merge.

“Recently, we have experienced continuing difficulties when trying to recruit quality staff and this has significantly impacted the standard and consistency of teaching and learning we have been able to deliver.

“The pandemic and the resulting lockdowns also took their toll, especially with our special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pupils, and we are still dealing with various challenges that arose during this period.

“Furthermore, West Somerset remains at the bottom, 324 out of 324 regions, in terms of the social mobility index throughout the entire UK.

“There are severe challenges in this part of the world which are steadily worsening, undoubtedly due in part to the cost-of-living crisis, which is adding so much additional strain to our families.”

Mr Giles said the merger decision still had to be confirmed by a DfE advisory board later this month but he expected it to be straightforward.

He said: “We have worked hard to implement a range of improvement measures, but since we emerged from the pandemic there has scarcely been sufficient time for many of the changes implemented to bring about the outcomes required, given the additional staffing and recruitment problems we have also experienced.

“As always, it is more important to place our children at the heart of all our decision-making and merging with BWMAT is absolutely the right choice.”

Mr Giles said there were many benefits of merging with BWMAT, including an opportunity for staff to share best practice, move between schools to widen their experience, and additional capacity to tackle under-achievement.

There would also be various levels of in-house expertise, such as attendance, behaviour, mental health, and wellbeing support staff, allowing teaching staff to concentrate on delivering high quality teaching and learning.

BMWAT was established in 2012 and now operates 39 schools, employs 1,327 staff, and is responsible for the education of 7,623 pupils ranging in age up to 11 years.

Its schools include those in Lydeard St Lawrence, Bishops Lydeard, Cheddon Fitzpaine, and Norton Fitzwarren.

Mr Giles said: “BWMAT trustees have given us their assurance that they will be able to address and positively deal with the additional concerns we have raised around recruitment, training, parental engagement, and culture change, and the need for experience and knowledge of administering pupil premium due to the high number of disadvantaged families we have in West Somerset.

“We look forward to a smooth transition in our merger with BWMAT and to seeing the challenges we continue to face being positively addressed so that Beacon children can benefit from the all-round improvements BWMAT’s greater capacity will be able to provide.

“This is an exciting development for the future of education in the region."