A lot of academy trusts are in financial difficulties and Ark is no exception, though they seem to be more stable and well regarded than many other trusts, several of which have collapsed, leaving groups of schools in the lurch, needing to be hastily 're-brokered' with other trusts. As for Acton, the W4 news item says 'the development of the site is being led by LocatED, a government-owned property company helping to deliver new free school sites across England.' The LocatED web site explains that they're '...a government-owned property company, responsible for buying and developing sites in England to help meet the Government’s commitment to build new free schools.' So presumably they bought the land in Acton, but others closer to the history of the development will probably know more details. It's interesting that the LocatED website explains that potential sites for schools can be 'brownfield; greenfield; mixed-use sites; and existing buildings, that can satisfy the building size requirements.' It goes on to say that 'LocatED does not dictate the acreage of sites required for schools *as we can deliver large schools over multi-storeys on very restricted sites in many areas – the key is the ability to deliver the required floor area*,' which explains why we're increasingly getting multi-story school buildings with limited outside space, combined with other developments, such as residential or retail. It's tempting to suspect that the new Ark Soane and Acton High will be combined and the extensive Acton High site eventually sold off for housing, or conversely they'll abandon the Soane site to residential and use the existing comparatively modern Acton High building as one enlarged school. I guess it depends on the numbers, as the new Soane must have been justified in the first place by increasing pupil numbers - unless the plan all along was to run down Acton High and migrate their remaining pupils over to Soane, which might happen anyway as parents vote with their (children's) feet for the new, shiny and unknown option (as they did with Priory and Byron) rather than the established and known one.
Peter Evans ● 2891d