Specialist Schools Trust
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| Private limited company | |
| Industry | Education |
| Founded | 1987 (City Technology Colleges Trust) 2003 (Specialist Schools Trust) 2005 (Specialist Schools and Academies Trust) 2011 (The Schools Network) 2012 (SSAT (The Schools Network)) |
| Headquarters | Islington, London, UK |
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Area served
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Europe, North America, Australia, Asia |
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Key people
|
Sue Williamson (Chief Executive) |
| Website | www.ssatuk.co.uk |
SSAT (The Schools Network) is a UK-based, independent educational membership organisation working with primary, secondary, special and free schools, academies and UTCs. Its work is focused on providing support and training in four main areas: teaching and learning, curriculum, networking, and leadership development.
The current company was set up in May 2012, registered as SSAT (The Schools Network) Limited, to carry out the business of the previous Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Whilst based in the UK, SSAT operates worldwide through its international arm, iNet. SSAT has almost 3000 member schools in England and internationally.
The Chief Executive of SSAT is Sue Williamson, a former headteacher of Monks' Dyke Technology College in Lincolnshire, and former Strategic Director of Leadership and Innovation at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Other educational staff come from a wide range of contexts and have diverse experience and expertise.
Kenneth Baker announced the CTC programme in Autumn 1986. City technology colleges would be comprehensive schools independent of local authority control and serving inner-city areas.
The CTC trust was established the following year in 1987, with Cyril Taylor as chairman. The trust was primarily tasked with identifying potential locations and sponsors for CTCs. The ambition was to open two hundred CTCs.
The trust's affiliation scheme was launched in 1992, allowing it to establish links with non-CTC schools. An inaugural conference for affiliated schools took place at St Ermin's Hotel in London the following year, and so a pattern was set for an affiliation scheme and accompanying annual conference.
It proved impossible to engage a sufficient number of major companies to establish the original target number of two hundred CTCs. Fifteen CTCs were established between 1988 and 1993 and are now among the most successful schools in England.
In 1994 Gillian Shepherd, the then Secretary for Education, opened the CTC programme to local authority schools and also introduced a second specialist area – languages. Schools could also now apply to become technology colleges.
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