Mossbourne Community Academy began with a simple idea: Hackney children are as bright as children anywhere.
The issue was the schools and the too-low expectations of the people in charge, driven by unfounded assumptions about what Hackney children could achieve.
Over the last 20 years, Mossbourne Federation has influenced the quality of education received by children throughout England and beyond, still embodying the same principles set by its founder: outstanding quality of teaching and learning, with high expectations of every student.
2004
Founding Mossbourne Community Academy in 2004, the late Sir Clive Bourne made it his mission to provide Hackney children with a world-class education and drive the standards of educational provision in the borough.
This required Mossbourne to create an environment where teachers can teach and children can learn—that is, an environment where learning is the norm.
He believed that the children of Hackney were being incorrectly blamed for the failure of schools in the borough to reach good educational standards and that the real reasons lay elsewhere. “Good enough” was not a mantra he was prepared to put up with.
Sir Clive Bourne’s vision changed the face of education in Hackney.
Mossbourne Community Academy was not only one of the country’s first academies but the very first in Hackney, with the goal to re-imagine what inner-city, non-selective education could be. It showed everyone what was possible when the community focused on high-quality teaching and didn’t allow excuses, mediocrity and disruptive behaviour to get in the way.
2014-2016
With the opening of Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy in 2014, Mossbourne Parkside Academy in 2015 and Mossbourne Riverside Academy in 2016, Mossbourne Federation has come to provide a world-class education for children from 3 to 18 years old.
2021
Under our guidance and driven by our shared ethos of excellence, unity and no excuses, Mossbourne Parkside Academy achieved its first ‘Good’ Ofsted judgment in 30 years.
2024
Following the merger with Ortu Trust in late 2024, Mossbourne Federation welcomed Mossbourne Port Side Academy, Mossbourne Fobbing Academy, Mossbourne Herd Lane Academy, and Mossbourne Sixth Form Thurrock into its growing family.
The merger was an opportunity for the Federation to extend beyond Hackney, delivering the same unwavering quality of teaching and learning.
After two decades of challenges and triumphs, Mossbourne continues its story of outstanding educational success, having grown to be one of the highest-achieving Multi Academy Trusts in the country.
100 Years, Not Tomorrow
For 20 years, we have been unapologetic in our ambitions.
We continue to break down barriers to education and break the mould. We are creating an environment where every child can excel, following the Mossbourne Mindset that keeps us working together to be truly exceptional.
Still, we believe that things that last a long time know how to move at an appropriate place.
Children get one chance at education and Mossbourne knows it. But we also know that if we are going to create meaningful change in the communities we serve, we need to think that the idea of Mossbourne is bigger than any of us.
This idea will and should outlive us, no matter the person in charge – we want it to survive forever and conserve its ethos as guardians, not owners.
It will take 100 years more for what we want to change in education to fully bear fruit, knowing that all the achievements of today, every Oxbridge admission, are just a part of the whole and an artefact of our enduring legacy.