Our Story

The Orchard Learning Alliance is a family of schools dedicated to providing the best possible educational experience and serving our community through exceptional schools. 

We are a family of 10 schools, all in close proximity within the Wokingham and Reading area. Our schools first came together in 2022 to explore what a ‘co-designed’ multi-academy trust could look like and, since then, we have built on our shared values and commitments to our communities, social justice and school improvement to form the Orchard Learning Alliance.

We believe that education has the power to transform lives and that by working together, as a family of schools, we will enhance the life chances of all our children by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive.

Formalising the Alliance was a natural next step and builds on our long history of working together to provide the best possible teaching and learning, share best-practice and unlock potential for our schools. This was further supported by the Regional Director and the Department for Education, which approved our plans in February 2023.

As such, we are delighted to now be progressing our phased growth plans with schools joining the Trust over the course of 12 to 18 months, starting in April 2024.

Throughout the planning process and looking to the future, Orchard Learning Alliance is guided by the following principles:

•             Autonomy: respecting and celebrating what makes our students, staff and school communities unique

•             Co-design: innovating through collaboration and consensus and sharing best practice to enhance provision

•             Excellence: empowering our school communities to constantly strive for improvement, placing it at the heart of our culture. 

We recognise that our Trust exists because the leaders and governors of our schools chose to come together, and this process has therefore, been one of co-design and co-production. We are dedicated to carrying this ethos forward, ensuring we remain embedded in, and continue to support, our school communities.

Tom BartlettTom Bartlett | Chief Executive Officer