Staff at outstanding Fulwood school walk out over proposed academy conversion
Teachers and support staff at Corpus Christi Catholic High School in Fulwood, Preston, walked out this week in a two-day strike over plans to move the school out of local authority control and into a church-run multi-academy trust. The action closed the 800-pupil school on Monday and Tuesday, with unions warning the planned transfer could cost the school up to £400,000 a year.
The dispute centres on a proposal from the Bishop of Lancaster that would see the school leave Lancashire County Council and join the Mater Ecclesiae Catholic multi-academy trust (MECMAT). Teaching staff, represented by the National Education Union (NEU) and the NASUWT, say the trust’s central charges would top-slice between 5 and 7% of the school’s budget to pay for services currently provided by County Hall.
- School: Corpus Christi Catholic High School, Fulwood, Preston
- Pupils affected: 800
- Estimated top-slice: 5–7% of budget (up to £400,000)
- Action: Two-day strike by NEU and NASUWT members
"We're fighting to save our school community as we know it"
The action follows earlier industrial disputes within the same diocese. Staff at Cardinal Allen Catholic High School in Fleetwood also staged strike action over the same plan, and had taken previous industrial action in July. Teachers on the picket line in Fulwood warned parents and pupils that the changes could have practical consequences for staffing and the quality of education, arguing that senior leaders and classroom staff might be forced to absorb cuts.
Union representatives say the conversion could see money that currently pays for local support services reallocated to the trust’s central teams. That, they argue, would mean fewer resources delivered directly to pupils and could put roles at risk. The NEU estimates the potential top-slice at between 5 and 7% of the school’s annual budget; the figure frequently repeated in reporting of the dispute is £400,000.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Pupil roll | 800 |
| Estimated budget top-slice | 5–7% (up to £400,000) |
Parents and pupils were visible at the picket line, and some students joined staff in voicing concerns. On the line, teachers chanted, "We don't trust the trust," a slogan that encapsulates the fundamental mistrust many on site express about handing day-to-day management and budgets to a centralised church body.
The Catholic Church counters that its existing academies are "flourishing", pointing to other diocesan schools which have made the transition. Officials for the Mater Ecclesiae trust have argued that academy status can bring benefits including shared expertise and pooled resources across the trust’s schools. But that message has not convinced the unions or many staff at Corpus Christi.
Local authority services currently supply a range of support functions to the school, from special educational needs coordination to finance and human resources. Unions fear that repackaging those services under a central trust team will reduce the direct provision to individual schools and increase bureaucracy, while the trust says centralising such services can raise standards and free headteachers to focus on classroom outcomes.
For parents in Preston the dispute is immediately practical: two days of closures disrupted routines and child care, and uncertainty remains about the school’s financial future should conversion proceed. For staff, the strike was presented as a last resort to defend jobs, conditions and the model of local accountability that comes with Lancashire County Council’s oversight.
The stalemate looks set to continue until a resolution is negotiated or a formal conversion process is completed. In the meantime, the strike has laid bare a wider national debate about the role of multi-academy trusts, local accountability and the financial trade-offs that can come with joining a larger academy group — a debate now very much playing out on Preston’s doorstep.
