The United Learning Trust, an Anglican charity, will take over one of the country’s leading private schools when it joins the state sector as an academy.
William Hulme’s grammar school, Manchester, is the first member of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference to abolish annual fees of almost pound;8,000 in exchange for Government funding as it becomes one of Tony Blair’s semi-independent state schools.
The ULT, which lists Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, among its trustees, is already the biggest sponsor of academies, with nine open and a further four, including William Hulme’s, under development.