TWO primary schools on the outskirts of Taunton have joined a new education trust

North Curry CE Primary School and West Buckland Community Primary School will soon be joining Taunton Academy under the umbrella of the Richard Huish Trust.

The schools joined the family in a bid to improve and maintain high educational standards from May 1 earlier this year.

As part of the merger, the trust has secured funding from the Department of Education.

Huish principal and CEO, John Abbott, said: “We are extremely excited about working with North Curry and West Buckland Primary schools. As an outstanding college, we are in an incredibly strong position with an exceptional leadership, teaching and support staff team who are fully committed to ensuring that the Huish Trust always achieves the very best for our schools.

"The partnership will create a range of opportunities which will benefit all organisations through the sharing of best practice and resources. It will also create a strong educational vision across Primary, Secondary and Further Education in Taunton.”

The trust will be looking to use the educational expertise of Richard Huish College, an Ofsted Outstanding educational institution, to spread best practice through strong leadership qualities, strategic management and specialist resources.

The trust says that since being sponsored, Taunton Academy has made significant improvements in the last few years and has experienced a dramatic improvement in its GCSE results in 2017. It reported a 50 per cent rise in pass rates, from 33 per cent in the previous year to 53 per cent of students achieving grades A* - C in all subjects and grade 4 and above in maths and English.

Helen Morley, headteacher at North Curry C of E Primary School, said: “We are delighted to join the Richard Huish Trust alongside West Buckland Primary School. We are looking forward to the new opportunities and more collaborative ways of working that this partnership will provide. This new venture really embraces our TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) spirit and will enable our outstanding school to continue go from strength to strength”.

West Buckland Primary School headteacher, Helen MacGregor, said: “West Buckland Primary School is proud to be joining the Richard Huish Trust and to be working with one of the most highly regarded education centres in the country. We know that the partnership with the Huish Trust will give our children even greater breadth and depth of opportunity to grow into confident, happy, well-educated young people and we greatly look forward to working more closely with the staff and children at North Curry C of E Primary School”.