When I joined Ark Schools in 2012, aligned curriculum and assessment was in its infancy. A few trusts were implementing the same phonics programme, like Read, Write Inc, for all their schools. Others were beginning to align their exam boards at Key Stage 4. A few were thinking bigger: Ark piloted Mathematics Mastery that year, for example. But by and large, MATs left curriculum and assessment decisions up to their schools.

Fast forward to 2026 and it’s increasingly rare to find a MAT who isn’t at least working towards some degree of alignment. To illustrate this fact, here’s a not-very scientific poll of 20 MATs from the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) “Flourishing” conference in October 2025:

Not one trust who we spoke to that day considered themselves to have no curriculum and assessment alignment. Now, it could be that our sample was self-selecting; if you’re attending a MAT conference, maybe you’re more likely to be leaning into the opportunities you have to centralise some services. Still, I think it’s clear that there’s been a pretty dramatic shift in the way a MAT and its schools interact in these areas.

However, there’s very little research on how to align curriculum assessment well, and the range of strategies MATs are using. We therefore decided to do something about this - Smartgrade supports around 50 MATs with the process of administering online and offline MAT-wide assessments, so we felt well-placed to investigate. To this end, over the past year we have assembled a panel of 10 MAT leaders who have been incredibly generous with their time and shared their experiences. 

The result of that work is our brand new paper, Aligning Your Curriculum & Assessment Across a MAT, which we’re delighted to be launching at the CST School Improvement Conference on the 26th March 2026. There’s really no better forum for the launch - we’re huge admirers of the work of CST, and this event is THE premier event for MAT education leaders to share good practice and network amongst their peers.

You’ll find insights from leaders at MATs including Ark Schools, Harris Federation, United Learning, The Dean Trust, GLF Schools, Unity Schools Partnership, Oasis Community Learning, Astrea Academy Trust and Creative Education Trust. Within the report you’ll find a whole range of approaches described that have worked well, but also a few insights into things that didn’t work so well. It’s this mixture of advice and candid acknowledgement of mistakes along the way that we think makes this such a powerful document. 

Download: Aligning Your Curriculum and Assessment Across a MAT

Key Insights

The best way of finding out what our panel thought is to read the report, but as a taster, here are a few insights that jump out:

1. Even highly centralised MATs mandate less than you might imagine. I must admit, even though I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on this subject, I was surprised at how many MATs were clear they were not mandating usage of their centralised curriculum. That’s not to say that there wasn’t a conversation to be had where schools deviated, but I think it is a misconception that MATs who align are dictating what to do to schools. Martin Cassidy from the Harris Federation (widely regarded as a MAT with a strong central team) pointed out that while the MAT has a very strong and well-evolved set of central curriculum and assessment resources, “individual academies have the choice, subject by subject, as to whether or not they want to opt in to our MAT-wide assessments.”
2. Resources can be produced centrally or co-created with schools. One area where we saw a huge range of approaches was in how resources were developed. Some trusts have full-time central teams creating curricula and assessments, with that work sometimes funded by offering the resources to other MATs as a traded service. At the other end of the spectrum, we spoke to MATs who had produced high-quality resources with central capacity limited to coordinating the process, and school staff working together to agree the content and do the work. Nimish Lad from Creative Education Trust described their process as follows: “The assessments are written by our subject communities, and then quality-assured centrally, so no one could turn around and say, ‘well, this is a trust assessment, and the content that I teach isn’t on there.’”
3. Change management is the key to success. While we heard from a wide range of trusts that had taken quite different approaches, one common thread was that success is closely tied to good change management processes. This means lots of communication, and space for schools to question, comment, and object; and then for the approach to change based on that feedback. It also often involves a real investment in training - in the words of Charlie Cutler at GLF Schools, “I’m increasingly seeing the process of curriculum alignment as a process of professional development.”

Download your copy and share your own insights

Whether you are just starting your alignment journey or looking to refine your current strategy, this paper is designed to help you navigate the trade-offs and maximise the benefits of being a part of a trust. 

We plan to update the document periodically, so if you are interested in sharing your own perspective, please do get in touch. 

Download: Aligning Your Curriculum and Assessment Across a MAT

Get involved in the discussion – join our next MAT Assessment & Data Dinners

We regularly host MAT Assessment and Data dinners with our network throughout the year. Our MAT Dinners are relaxed, informal events where MAT leaders can share insights on data and assessments, discuss common challenges and connect with fellow education leaders over great food!

Conversations from previous dinners cover a variety of topics, including:

• aligning curriculum and assessment across a MAT
• using digital and AI-powered tools in assessment
• conducting mock examinations at KS2 and KS4 across a MAT.

Past events have welcomed leaders from over 50 MATs of all sizes, including United Learning, Ark Schools, Creative Education Trust, Lift Schools, Oasis Community Learning, Transform Trust, Astrea Academy Trust, Future Academies, Ormiston Academies Trust and many more.

If you’d like to be one of the first to hear about our next dinners, please fill in this form, and we’ll add you to our MAT Dinners mailing list.