St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust

What St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust does

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust is a private company limited by guarantee (registered in England and Wales, company number 08090890) that operates as a Catholic Multi-Academy Trust under the sponsorship of the Nottingham Roman Catholic Diocese. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Cossington, Leicestershire, the trust runs 23 academies — 19 primary schools and 4 secondary schools (De Lisle College, English Martyrs' Leicester, St Martin's Stoke Golding, and St Paul's Leicester) — serving approximately 9,000 pupils and employing around 1,200 staff across Leicester, Leicestershire, and (since 2022) Rutland. All Trust Board Directors are appointed by Bishop Patrick McKinney, embedding diocesan authority and a faith-based governance model.

The trust's core product is state-funded Catholic education from early years through Sixth Form, delivered through a unified network of academies with centralised functions including admissions management, teacher training via the L&R Teaching School Hub, and a newly launched trust-wide in-house catering service. The organisation uses standard commodity web infrastructure — Google Analytics, Vimeo, Instagram Feed Pro, and the mynewterm.com recruitment platform — with no proprietary technology, APIs, or AI/ML systems referenced.

The revenue model is government education funding channelled through the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, based on pupil numbers across the 23 academies. Education is provided free at the point of use; the trust has no tuition-based pricing and no commercial customers. Admissions are coordinated through Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, and Rutland County Council, with supplementary information forms processed for faith-based admissions criteria. Distribution is purely physical (the school estate), and customer segments are pupils, parents, and the broader Catholic community across the diocese.

Name

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust

Legal name

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust

Website

https://aquinas-cmat.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust is a UK Catholic education trust operating 23 state-funded primary and secondary academies across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, serving approximately 9,000 pupils and 1,200 staff under Diocesan governance.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

K-12 Education

NAICS

Elementary and Secondary Schools (6111), Religious Organizations (8131), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Faith-Based (Religious) K–12 Schools (EDAJABAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Faith-Based Early Learning Academies (EDACADAH), Campus Spiritual & Religious Life (EDALAHAI)

Keywords

• Catholic education
• Multi-academy trust
• Primary school education
• Secondary school education
• K-12 education

Headquarters

HQ city

Cossington

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Education Funding: As a Multi-Academy Trust, the organization receives Department for Education funding through the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). Funding is based on pupil numbers and covers operational costs of the schools.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust delivers Catholic primary and secondary education through a network of 23 academies (4 secondary and 19 primary), serving approximately 9,000 students with roughly 1,200 staff across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The trust provides a faith-based curriculum, statutory Catholic religious education and central support services such as finance, safeguarding, chaplaincy, catering and recruitment, operating under diocesan oversight from the Diocese of Nottingham with directors appointed by Bishop Patrick McKinney.

Product overview

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust operates as a unified educational platform comprising 23 Catholic academies (4 secondary schools and 19 primary schools) serving approximately 9,000 pupils and 1,200 staff across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. The Trust provides core educational services rooted in Catholic values, supplemented by centralized functions including teacher training through the L&R Teaching School Hub, professional development, admissions management, and a new trust-wide in-house catering service. The organization is governed by a Trust Board appointed by Bishop Patrick McKinney and managed by CEO Neil Lockyer and an executive team.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Catholic Primary School Education Faith-based primary education delivered through 19 primary academies to children of primary school age, blending the national curriculum with statutory Catholic religious education under the diocesan mission of the Diocese of Nottingham.
• Catholic Secondary School Education Faith-based secondary education delivered through 4 secondary academies, covering Key Stages 3 and 4 and including statutory Catholic religious education alongside the national curriculum, with progression through to sixth form where applicable.
• Central Trust Support Services Centralised back-office and quality-assurance services delivered by the trust's executive team (finance, performance and standards, business services, safeguarding and chaplaincy) to support the consistent operation of all 23 academies.
• Teacher Recruitment Service Trust-wide recruitment platform and process used to attract and appoint teaching and school staff across the 23 academies, supporting approximately 1,200 staff in total.
• In-House Catering Services Catering services provided in-house across the trust's academies, supplying meals to pupils and staff within the schools.
• Statutory Catholic Religious Education Statutory Catholic religious education delivered across all 23 academies as part of the curriculum, supporting the Catholic formation of pupils in line with the diocesan mission under Bishop Patrick McKinney.

Quantifiable outcome

• Educational excellence rooted in Catholic values with personal development central to the curriculum

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Nottingham Roman Catholic Diocesan Education Service (NRCDES)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe trust operates under Diocesan oversight with Bishop Patrick McKinney appointing all Trust Directors. NRCDES is a key strategic partner providing canonical authority and alignment with Catholic educational standards.
• Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, Rutland County CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal authority partners for school admissions coordination. The trust schools serve students from these council areas and admissions are processed through their systems.
• Schools Advisory Service (SAS)minorOthersEmployee wellbeing support provider offering counselling, physiotherapy, menopause support, SAS GYM, nurse advice, and wellbeing app access for all trust employees.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Notre Dame Catholic Multi-Academy Trust: Catholic MAT serving primary and secondary schools under Diocesan authority in the Midlands region with Bishop-appointed directors and shared ethos-based admissions, mirroring St Thomas Aquinas CMAT's structure.
• Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic MAT: A Catholic multi-academy trust in the Blackpool/Lancashire area operating a similar model of faith-based K-12 academies under Diocesan governance with Bishop-appointed directors, analogous structurally to St Thomas Aquinas CMAT.
• All Saints Catholic Collegiate: A multi-academy Catholic trust operating across primary and secondary schools in the East Midlands / Derbyshire area with comparable Diocesan-backed governance and K-12 coverage.
• The Painsley Catholic Academy Trust: Catholic multi-academy trust in Staffordshire combining primary and secondary Catholic schools under Diocesan sponsorship with comparable scale, governance and admissions model.
• Holy Trinity Catholic Multi-Academy Trust: A Catholic multi-academy trust running multiple Catholic primaries and secondaries under Diocesan sponsorship with Bishop-appointed governance, comparable in scale, mission and operating model.
• Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Trust: The most direct comparable: another Catholic multi-academy trust operating within the same Nottingham Roman Catholic Diocese as St Thomas Aquinas CMAT, with overlapping geographic footprint and shared Diocesan oversight model.
• St John Henry Newman Catholic Academy Trust: Catholic multi-academy trust operating a network of Catholic primary and secondary schools with Diocesan-appointed directors, providing a structural and operational parallel to the subject company.
• Romero Catholic Academy Trust: A Catholic multi-academy trust in the Coventry/Warwickshire area with mixed primary and secondary Catholic schools operating under Diocesan authority, structurally analogous to a faith-based MAT of similar size.
• Pope Francis Catholic Multi Academy Trust: A Catholic multi-academy trust combining primary and secondary schools with Diocesan accountability and faith-based admissions criteria, comparable in governance model and educational scope.

Broad incumbents

• Oasis Academy Trust: A large, established multi-academy trust operating 50+ academies nationally; not Catholic-focused but is a broad incumbent in the same UK multi-academy trust sector, with comparable scale, central services, and government funding model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/stthomasaquinascmat
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/stacmat

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries23 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust