The Multi-School Organisation (MSO) model creates strong ‘families’ of schools, led by a shared executive team who work collaboratively with school leaders to improve education standards for all students across the family.

MSOs achieve this by aligning schools around a shared, evidence-informed approach to curriculum and teaching – supported by high-quality professional development. They also reduce the administrative burden on individual schools by centralising key operational functions like staff recruitment and budgeting

Effective MSOs expand over time as more schools join their families – with a size of 20 to 50 schools balancing the benefits of scale with the contextual knowledge needed for personalised support and deep impact.

Growing interest in MSOs is being influenced heavily by a 2024 Grattan Institute report, funded by McKinnon, which recommends Australia trial MSOs “to give schools a better chance of improving student performance”.

Based on the interest generated by the Grattan report, McKinnon funded a study tour to England in October 2024 to see leading MSOs in action.

Tasmania’s Minister for Education, Disability Services, Women and the Prevention of Family Violence, the Hon Joanne Palmer, attended the tour, along with Victorian Labor colleagues Nina Taylor MP and Ryan Batchelor MP, the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools CEO Ed Simons, and other education system leaders from Victoria and Tasmania.

Delegates met inspirational students, observed teachers in action, and learned from those who implemented successful reforms in England, including leaders of some of the highest-performing MSOs.

The visit was also an opportunity to learn about the wider enabling policy environment in England, and how that works together with MSOs.

McKinnon Director, Policy Innovation, Sam Mellett, said four key features stood out during the England tour:

1.      All children have a right to excellent education – if teachers keep expectations high and provide high-quality instruction, even children from highly disadvantaged backgrounds can achieve impressive academic success.

2.      Postcodes do not define destiny – many of the fully-government funded schools the delegation visited served communities that faced multiple challenges but were still some of the highest-performing in the country.

3.      Together, these schools can solve hard problems – working within an MSO gave schools the scale and capacity to better support and extend teachers, re-engage students and families, and tackle student learning gaps.

4.      When schools collaborate and share best practices, all students benefit - regardless of their background or location.