About United Learning's Academies

United Learning is the largest single sponsor of academies in the UK with 20 academies currently open and more set to open in the future.

Our academies are free of charge to attend and welcome students regardless of faith, background or ability.

Responding to the challenge - past and present

As the Millennium approached, our Trustees reflected on the future and asked themselves: ‘what would our founders have done had they been alive today?’  The answer was to respond to the key education issue of the day by raising the aspirations and life chances of young people living in some of the most deprived parts of the country.  They looked to the newly-launched Academies Programme which initially replaced the country’s worst-performing schools with academies.  They accepted the government’s invitation to develop one or more new academies and they established the United Learning Trust (ULT) as a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Church Schools Trust (UCST), with our first opening in Manchester in 2003 quickly followed by others in London, the Midlands and the North West.

Over the past ten years, the group, still as two linked charities, has grown at pace and today comprises 20 academies and 11 independent schools with more joining each year. In August 2012, we came to the view that the depth and value of our connections mean that we want to emphas

ise more strongly our unity, coming together as a group as ‘United Learning’.

United Learning is uniquely united across both the state and independent sectors; we make learning and improvement our focus.  Together, we are one of the country’s largest education providers, currently educating over 30,000 students and employing over 5,500 members of staff including over 2,500 teachers.

Our academies are a force for improvement, bringing hope and opportunity to thousands of young people across the UK.

For more information go to our central website