THE new chairman of an academies trust that will soon include a Keighley district primary school has stressed the organisation's total commitment to pupils and their families.

Tessa Mason is now chairman of Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust (BDAT), which will be welcoming Oxenhope Primary School this summer.

She said she has been deeply impressed by the dedication of the trust's board members and their determination to further improve standards in education.

Ms Mason added: "The education world is changing quickly and the paths schools choose to take between now and 2022 mean collaboration, and often academisation, is the only way forward if we are to deliver a robust, sustainable and improving education offer."

While reiterating the Government's warning that “academisation is not a magic wand”, she said BDAT is optimistic about the impact it will be able to have on pupils during the coming years.

She added: “BDAT is developing and fine-tuning our school improvement capacities quickly and growing our own leaders of tomorrow.

"The next few years will be a time of consolidation and cautious planned growth.

"We remain 100 per cent committed to the schools, pupils and families of Bradford district we were set up to serve.

"We will need to balance our commitment to support new partners while maintaining our focus on those schools already in our family”.

Ms Mason took over the chairman's role from the Venerable Dr David Lee, the previous Archdeacon of Bradford, who had led the trust from its inception in 2012 through to his retirement in January.

She is an education advisor for the Government's Department for Education and a former headteacher, who was appointed based on the knowledge she could bring to the trust on the academies programme and the wider education agenda.

She is one of a number of recent new appointments designed to strengthen the BDAT board, alongside Bill Henry, a senior partner at Price Waterhouse Cooper; Margaret Platts, ex-headteacher at Belle Vue Girls; Anthony Bennett, a national leader of governance; and Denise Sterling, chairman of governors at Immanuel College, which joined BDAT in February.

BDAT will feature a total number of nine Bradford district schools once Oxenhope Primary joins.