ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the ways in which there has been a proliferation of different stakeholders in English schools, especially as a result of academisation. It explains the story of one school’s decision to become a co-operative academy. In 2008 there was only a small network of almost ten Co-operative schools in England, the situation had changed dramatically by 2014. In 2014, data held by the Schools Co-operative Society (SCS) indicated that there were 700 schools in England affiliated with the SCS and a further ninety-four undertaking the process of ‘implementation’. The Co-operative Society’s involvement in schooling via trusts, academies and Multi Academy Trusts is different from many of the other stakeholders’ engagement with schooling in that this involvement is grounded in an agenda that has deep roots in the English political context. The process of becoming a co-operative school is undertaken through the Co-operative College that provides support, including the legal process of becoming either trusts or academies.
