New Hall Multi Academy Trust

In 2012, New Hall was invited to become the first independent school in the country to sponsor a state primary school that was seeking to become an Academy under the new Government scheme.  Our Governing Body decided to respond positively to this request for assistance from the Department for Education and the Governing Body of Messing Primary School. The new academy, sponsored by New Hall, formally opened in September 2013.

Background

In the spirit of the founding Religious Community, who were pioneers in education, we welcomed this opportunity to create a new type of educational partnership in order to share our educational expertise and experience with a school in need in our local community, for the benefit of children’s learning.

Messing Primary School, 15 miles north east of Chelmsford, is a rural village school, with a small number of pupils and staff; there are currently around 55 pupils on roll.  We believe schools like this are hugely important to village life and, over the years, we have enjoyed working with a number of local schools.   

Resources

The partnership means pupils from Messing Primary school can use the outstanding facilities on offer at New Hall, including our 25-metre indoor swimming pool where they can receive swimming lessons, free of charge, from the dedicated swimming coaches at New Hall.

Impact

At New Hall, we will always have a great appetite for development and improvement, and the enhancement of teaching and learning is at the heart of all that we do.

We were delighted that New Hall School was shortlisted in the Independent School Awards 2014 in the Best Independent-Maintained School Collaboration category for its sponsorship of Messing Primary School. In June 2015, Ofsted graded Messing Primary School as ‘good’ with ‘outstanding’ leadership and management.

Pupil Involvement

Through our partnership, the pupils at Messing are benefiting from the wealth of experience of dedicated subject-specialist teachers from New Hall School. Staff specialising in PE currently teach at Messing at different times throughout the week and pupils join New Hall for occasional lessons in other subjects (pictured) and quizzes.