Dear Parents and Carers,

I am really pleased to inform you that, after a thorough process including much investigation and consideration, the trustees at New Islington Free School have decided that they would like to join our multi-academy trust, Co-op Academies Trust.

New Islington has had several years of great success and is an outstanding educational community in the heart of the local area. We are really excited to welcome you. We will support New Islington as you continue to improve and make progress, building on what has been an excellent recent period of development for the school. 

We anticipate that New Islington will officially join the Trust on Friday 1st July 2022. After this date the school will be called Co-op Academy New Islington and you will notice some changes to signage and our logo. The school will also have a new website and email addresses. We will keep you updated on these developments.

In July we will also begin the rollout of uniforms with the new logo. These can be purchased through the same suppliers. Pupils can continue to wear the current uniform until it is worn out, as it goes against our values to waste perfectly good clothes. New uniforms will be available before the summer holidays, if you are purchasing for September. 

Co-op Academies Trust is sponsored by the Co-op Group, the largest co-operative business in the country. The Co-op Group started in Rochdale in 1844 when local residents opened their own shop selling honest food and goods at honest prices. Their first shop on Toad Lane had a room above it, which was used to teach local residents how to read. As our sponsor, Co-op provides excellent support for all of our academies and New Islington will benefit from this strong relationship.

We support 27 academies across West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Staffordshire. We are a good, stable, and dependable Trust – New Islington is in safe hands.

In the coming months, we will build the new Academy Governing Council (AGC) which is how our Trust arranges local governance for our academies. As part of this we will appoint some Co-op senior employees to the AGC. The current parent and staff governors will be able to reapply if they want to, but we will also be looking to gain support from other key partners we have in the local area.

We will be visiting New Islington on 7th July for introductions, a presentation and a Q&A session for parents. There will be a morning session (just after drop-off) and an afternoon session (just before pick-up). More details will be sent out but please pop the date in your diary now – we are looking forward to meeting you all.

If you want to learn more about us you can find us on all social media @coopacademies or visit our website www.coopacademies.co.uk.

Best wishes 

Chris Tomlinson 

CEO Co-op Academies Trust