Academy schools in 2026: The state of play in nine graphs

The English school system is now in the third decade of academy schools. But, where are we today and what might the future hold?

The pace of growth has slowed, so let’s dive into academy schools and trusts to reveal the picture in autumn 2026.

1. Academy schools today

The first academy school opened in 2002. During those early days, only secondary schools could become academies (and fewer than 200 of them did so).

From 2010, government policy changed and both primary and special schools could become academies too.

The number of academies for all types rose steeply.

Graph shows growth in academies in England from 2006 to 2026.
The number of secondary academies rises steeply between 2010 and 2012, after which the growth slows.
The growth in primary academies begins later and shows steady growth from 2011 onwards to current numbers of almost 8000 primary academy schools.
Growth in special school academies follows a similar trend to primary schools with 440 special schools now being academies.

We now have over:

7,900 primary academies
2,400 secondaries academies
440 special school academies

2. Primary academy schools

craft shows the number of schools converting 2 Become a primary academy from 2010 until 2026.
the highest growth was between 2016 and 2018 when over 700 schools converted each year.
The number of schools dropped significantly during 2020 and 2021. This was a period when school leaders were heavily focused on responding to challenges of the Covid pandemic rather than Academy conversion.
numbers spiked in 2024 at under 600 schools, which is likely to be due to conversions that were postponed or delayed by the pandemic as well as Conservative government policy. Conversions have since fallen in 2025 and 2026.

Notes

2026 is part year data.
If academies change trusts, data shows when they last became a new academy (and not when they first became an academy).
Sector graphs include both convertor and sponsored academies. Free schools are not included.

Conservative Ministers had wanted all schools to be academies by 2022 (Nicky Morgan MP) and then by 2030 (Baroness Barran), but both plans faltered. So, it’s unsurprising that the primary conversion rate has slowed.

The current government wants all schools to be in a trust, but has not set a deadline.

It is also exploring the idea of local authorities opening academy trusts. This single policy could cause academy numbers to explode.

3. Secondary academy schools

Graph shows a number of secondary academy conversions from 2006 to 2026.

Most years, fewer than 100 conversions took place but a significant spike in 2011 and 2012 saw over 1000 secondary schools convert to become an academy in a two year period.

The secondary peak was 6 years before the primary & special school peaks. During the secondary peak in 2011 and 2012, almost a third of secondary schools converted in a two year period. This meant about a million more pupils attending an academy.

Only 15% of secondaries remain local authority (LA) maintained, so it’s understandable that fewer than 40 convert each year (and some of these may be academies that transfer into a new trust rather than new academies).

4. New special school academies

Graph shows a number of special school academy conversions from 2006 to 2026.

craft shows a variable picture of number of conversions with peaks in 2016 and 17 when over 40 special schools converted to become academy schools each year.

The special school picture is almost identical to primary:

A later start.
Highest numbers in 2017.
A recent slowdown in the number of new academies.

5. Future growth of academy schools

Becoming an academy does not happen overnight and there are almost 400 schools in the DfE ‘pipeline.’ These schools are in the process of becoming an academy.

Looking at the pipeline indicates that any future growth will be mostly in the primary phase.

The number of secondaries who have not converted is small.

Some areas have no secondaries that are not already academies (e.g. Hull, Middlesbrough, Doncaster).

Of those secondary schools that remain LA maintained, some have chosen not to convert (e.g. King Edward VII in Sheffield where a campaign in 2023 stopped forced academisation).

Therefore, any growth will mostly come from the primary phase, where half of our 16,800 primary schools remain LA maintained.

Graph shows the proportion of schools that are academies versus maintained schools at 1st August 2026:
Primary academy 49.6%
Primary maintained 50.4%
Secondary academy 84.3%
Secondary maintained 15.7%
Special school academy 53.5%
Special school maintained 46.5%

6. What about academy trusts?

This graph shows the size of over 1,300 academy trusts (all trusts with fewer than 42 schools).

Graph shows over 400 trusts have 1, 2, 3 or 4 schools in them.
The higher the number of schools that a trust has, the less common it is for a trust of that size.

The most common trust size is 2 schools and 55% of trusts have 5 or fewer academies. Whilst the huge trusts pop up in the news more often, there are only a few dozen, whereas there are over 1,000 trusts with 10 or fewer academies.

It will be interesting to see how the size of trusts changes over the next five years. How many single-academy trusts will merge or be absorbed into a larger trust? Will medium sized trusts decide to stick within their region (and avoid expensive four hour round trips from HQ to far-away schools) or expand more widely?

7. The ten biggest multi-academy trusts in 2026

Here are the ten biggest trusts based on the number of schools in the trust.

Graph shows the 10 biggest trusts in order from largest onwards, with the number of schools that belong to their trust:
United Learning Trust 96
Reach2 Academy Trust 65
St Gabriel the Archangel Trust 64
Delta Academies Trust 64
Lift Schools 59
Oasis Community Learning 55
Harris Federation 55
Bath and Wells Diocesan Academies trust 46
Oxford Diocesan Trust 46
Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Trust 46

There are 16 trusts that have more than 40 schools. This group includes United Learning Trust which is the largest and has 96 academies. These giant trusts are still growing, albeit at a slower pace.

8. Opening new academy trusts

Graph shows how many new academy trusts opened in each year from 2011 onwards.

There was a spike of new academy trusts opening in 2011 and 2012, with over 500 opening in that period.

The number of new trusts per year then fell to around 100 per year for each year until 2017.

It has been lower than 50 every year since.

New trusts do open, but this is now uncommon. Each year, fewer than 20 new trusts open.

Generally, schools that become an academy will join an existing trust rather than launch a new academy trust.

Within recently formed trusts, there are several groups of faith schools that joined together under a new trust (e.g. Emmanuel Diocese in Warrington).

Typically, when trusts merge, one trust is wrapped into another and no new trust is opened. Whilst it is rare, some mergers create a brand new academy trust. For example, Eveleigh Link and Great Baddow trusts in Essex closed and launched as Quantum in 2025. The era of new trusts being created from LA-maintained conversions is over, but for occasional exceptions (e.g. Wulfruna Partnership in Wolverhampton).

9. What might affect future academy conversion rates?

Government policy choices and direction.
Schools converting to avoid closure as a result of falling birth rates.

10. So what for school leaders, governors and trustees?

If your school is maintained, you may face a big decision in the next few years. It is worth having internal leadership conversations to consider “what would we do if conversion became inevitable?”

That said, it seems unlikely that the current government will force all schools to be academies. The Conservative government proposed this and u-turned under pressure from their own backbench MPs. Labour ministers would likely face similar pressure from their MPs worried about ill feeling that comes from save-our-school campaigns.

If your trust is small, the consolidation question is worth asking now rather than later. Small trust does not equal bad, but with the onset of MAT inspections from 2027, it is important to ensure that any small trust has the leadership to be highly effective.

The future is always uncertain but smaller trusts look set to face more pressure as the sector matures. It’s better to plan for the future now. You may decide to remain a small trust (and that’s fine). You may decide to look for suitable partners to merge (and that’s fine).

One big wildcard is inspection of academy trusts. This may accelerate the growth (or demise) of some trusts. When that policy moves ahead, it could reshape all of the above landscape faster than anything we’ve seen so far.

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