An academy chief executive who was previously a senior civil servant at what is now the DfE is leaving his post at the end of this month.

Chris Tweedale joined Aldridge Education, which has clusters of schools in London, the North West and the South East, shortly after it was founded in 2016.

The academy trust has yet to name an interim chief executive, but said it will do so “very shortly”, and added that the process of finding a permanent replacement is “well underway”.

Aldridge Education lists nine schools on its website, and is also co-sponsor or partner of two university technical college and Ada, the National College for Digital Skills.

Brent Thomas, chair of Aldridge Education, said Mr Tweedale had “laid the foundations for our school improvement model and the management of our governance and financial control systems”.

He added: “Having achieved the initial task of setting up the trust, Chris wishes to look for other opportunities, the board has chosen to release Chris early so that he has the space and time to plan for his next professional challenge.”

Mr Tweedale, it has emerged, is to become the interim chief executive of Guildford Education Partnership -  an academy trust with seven primary and secondary schools - at the start of September.

Aldridge’s schools include Kensington Aldridge Academy, which is next to Grenfell Tower in Kensington. It was rated “outstanding” by Ofsted despite the trauma of the disastrous fire, and was named Tes secondary of the year in June.

According to the DfE’s league table of multi-academy trusts published in January, Aldridge Education had the sixth-worst overall Progress 8 score for pupils in 2016-17, at -0.44.

Last month, the closure UTC@harbourside was announced. Aldridge Education is one of its four sponsors.

News of the UTC closure came days before the publication of an Ofsted report which judged it “inadequate” in all areas, and said “too many promises made by the UTC have been broken too often”.

Mr Tweedale was previously chief executive of CfBT Schools Trust, schools’ director in the Welsh government, and a deputy director at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, now the DfE.

He was a serving teacher for 28 years, including eight years as head teacher at John Masefield High School in Ledbury, Herefordshire.