A LEADING figure in education nationally has taken the reins at a North East academy trust.
Mike Butler has become chief executive of The Education Village Academy Trust, Darlington, after working in some of the most challenging schools in the country and at the cutting edge of academy development.
The 46-year-old will hold overall responsibility for the Trust’s five schools – Haughton Academy, Springfield Academy, Beaumont Hill, Marchbank and Gurney Pease – but with a principal in each his role will be more strategic.
“I am there to provide quality assurance and support, to challenge and help the principals and their senior management teams, as well as ensuring value for money,” he said.
“Most of the schools are already good or better and I am there to support them all to help them become outstanding and to stay that way.”
He joins at a time when Beaumont Hill is expanding its special needs provision, Gurney Pease and Marchbank are growing to meet demand and while some changes are being introduced at Haughton Academy, which have already resulted in significant improvements.
EVAT is also working with other schools locally and regionally and becoming a centre of excellence helping professionals develop and hone their skills.
Born in Kent, Mike moved to Lincolnshire aged 10 and studied at King Edward VI Grammar School and Boston College before reading English at Cambridge University. He was bitten by the education bug after taking a summer job teaching English as a foreign language.
Mr Butler studied a PGCE at Manchester and taught in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, where he was head of sixth form and in charge of ICT development.
In 2000 he joined the Djanogly CTC, a proving ground for a new movement in self-governing schools. Within a short space of time he was asked to help a failing school in Nottingham.
“Only eight per cent of pupils achieved five GCSEs, dropping to just one per cent if you included maths and English, making it one of the worst schools in England,” he said. “We couldn’t just sit back. Even when the local authority closed and demolished the school we educated the students under licence using a converted lace mill.
“We moved performance up rapidly, from eight to 20, 40, 60 per cent, by using all the methods available and by asking students why they were not enjoying school. For instance, in order to re-engage some youngsters, we knew by putting on a motor vehicle engineering course it would be easier for them to understand why they needed to learn maths and physics.”
It was massively challenging and rewarding and the school became one of the first city academies in the country, eventually moving into a new building designed by Sir Norman Foster and subsequently winning many awards for its achievements. The success led to approaches from other schools wishing to join what became a multi-academy trust and academy sponsor, of which Mr Butler was chief executive.
His work also led to Mr Butler having a two year stint as chairman of the Independent Academies Association developing policy and strategy at a national level and to his being appointed an associate head teacher of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. He was a governor of another school for over a decade and has been a trustee of the National E-Learning Foundation for five years.
But his passion for education saw him look for a new challenge in the cut and thrust of school leadership.
“I had been to Darlington before to the Department for Education, at Mowden Hall, which is now Marchbank, one of our schools,” he said. “Then when I visited before applying for the job, I loved the set up at EVAT the minute I saw it; the all-through provision, the ethos of personalised learning and the evident moral purpose to meet the needs of every child.
“I have been massively impressed with the immense dedication and commitment at the trust to serve young people the best way it can.”
A keen motorcyclist, mountaineer, skier and mountain biker, Mr Butler says he loves rising to a challenge and is ready for his next adventure – helping to boost the life chances of young people in Darlington.
