Wallingford School is a school with an identity. The only school in the town, comprehensive and determined to serve its community, results are excellent, teaching and learning very strong, our extra-curricular and enrichment offer is deep and broad and our young people leave us ready to play their part in the world – Able and Qualified. We are rightly proud of our identity as a single school but also proud to be part of a family of schools – Merchant Taylors’ Oxfordshire Academy Trust.

The Trust consists of three schools, each with their own very distinctive identity – Wallingford School, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Primary School and Aylesbury University Technical College. Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Primary School is of course very much part of our local community as one of our feeder schools. It is a thriving school with an ethos based on Christian values in which children thrive. Since joining the Trust in 2017 it has had very close links with Wallingford School and the two schools have worked together with significant mutual benefits in areas ranging from curriculum collaboration to the sharing of staff to events such as July’s Sponsored Walk. Aylesbury University Technical College joined the Trust almost two years ago in November 2021 and collaboration with Wallingford School is fundamental to the journey it is on. Its focus on excellence in technical education with a particular focus on computing and health and social care is important and is increasingly going to provide opportunities for students at Wallingford School to use industry-standard facilities in their learning.

What is particularly great about Merchant Taylors’ Oxfordshire Academy Trust is that each school owns and cherishes their identities but is also part of a bigger whole. This is a supportive environment in which teaching and learning and the student experience are prioritised with the progress of each young person lying at its heart. The Trust carries the name of the Merchant Taylors’ Company and the interest and support of the Company have offered much to each of the schools and the collective over time. Just one example of this was on Thursday with the Speakers’ Trust working with a group of Year 12 students to develop their confidence in presenting and public speaking in preparation for forming a team for the annual Livery Awards Competition. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the team but everyone certainly gained a great deal from the experience and appreciated the opportunity. From an IT suite at Aylesbury University Technical College to a sensory space and garden at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Primary School to next year’s Year 6 Summer School at Wallingford, the examples of support from the Company are many and different and always greatly appreciated.

An individual school’s identity is important and defines a school community; it is also great to be part of something bigger where that identity is cherished but collaboration and shared values are also inherent and intrinsic. That is the feel of our Trust and we celebrate and value it.