Ask any of our current Directors to describe the Board and similar words come up: collegiate, professional, and, more than one has said this unprompted, a family.

Our are from very different professional backgrounds, and have built something rooted in shared values. As a Catholic Multi-Academy Trust, Catholic Social Teaching gives us a common bedrock that we haven't had to learn, it is simply there.

That doesn't mean an absence of challenge; discussion is robust, and Directors are expected to hold the executive team to account and ask difficult questions. But it happens without ego, in a spirit of critical friendship, and always for the sake of the children in our schools.

STCAT is, in many ways, a young organisation that has grown up quickly. In under five years the Trust has expanded from eight schools to eighteen, and much of the Board's and executive team's energy has, of necessity, been focused inwards, building the systems, structures and capacity needed to support that growth.

The period of rapid, large-block growth is now drawing to a close, and the Board's attention is shifting from expansion to consolidation: building the systems, structures and executive capacity to match the Trust's current scale, and to look outwards to become an influencing organisation in Catholic education.

Over the coming period, the Board is focused on:

• growing the number and breadth of expertise on the Board; our Board did not grow at the pace our schools did, and this is a direct reason we are recruiting now

• developing associate and committee roles for strong Local Academy Committee (LAC) members, spreading the workload of governance more evenly

• strengthening the executive team, now led by Chief Executive Officer Mark McLaughlin, so that day-to-day operational matters increasingly sit with the Trust's central team rather than the Board

• shifting the Board's focus from internal, operational governance towards external representation: building STCAT's profile with the Diocese, the Department for Education, and the wider Catholic education and multi-academy trust sector

Mark McLaughlin was appointed Chief Executive Officer in September 2025, after four years leading school improvement within STCAT and eighteen years working in Catholic education, including as a headteacher and executive headteacher.

Mark leads an executive team that also includes a Director of Education. Chief Finance Officer, a Chief Operations Officer, a Director of Mission, and a Director of Inclusion, reflecting the Trust's growing central capacity.

STCAT has grown quickly since its predecessor trusts first formed a decade ago:

September 2015 - St Alban Catholic Academies Trust formed in Luton and Dunstable (3 schools)
September 2017 - St Peter's Catholic Academies Trust formed in Slough (3 schools)
February 2020 - St Alban and St Peter's merge to form St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust (8 schools)
2021-2024 - STCAT grows through the addition of schools across Buckinghamshire and Luton, including a significant single-year intake (17 schools by October 2024)
March 2026 - St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Luton, joins STCAT (18 schools)

It is the Diocese of Northampton's stated vision that, over time, all schools in the Diocese will join either STCAT (covering the South) or OLICAT (covering the North). STCAT therefore expects to welcome further schools in the years ahead, though at a steadier pace, one school at a time,

Slough and Berkshire

• Holy Family Catholic Primary School

• St Anthony's Catholic Primary School

• St Joseph's Catholic High School

• St Ethelbert's Catholic Primary School and Nursery

Buckinghamshire

• St Michael's Catholic School
  (Aylesbury and High Wycombe campuses)

• Our Lady's Catholic Primary School

• St Joseph's Catholic Infant School

• St Joseph's Catholic Primary School (Chalfont St Peter)

• St Edward's Catholic Junior School

• St Louis Catholic Primary School

• St Peter's Catholic Primary School

STCAT's eighteen schools span three local authority areas across the South of the Diocese of Northampton:

Luton and Bedfordshire

• Cardinal Newman Catholic School

• St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

• St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Primary School

• St Martin De Porres Catholic Primary School

• St Mary's Catholic Primary School

• Sacred Heart Primary School

• St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

In the last published accounts, for the year ending 31 August 2025, when the Trust had seventeen schools, STCAT reported 9,499 pupils on roll, 1,267 staff, and a total income of £69.7 million. These figures have grown further with the addition of an eighteenth school, St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Luton, in March 2026.

• Our Catholicity is at the core of everything we do
  

• Every child will receive an excellent education
  

• We will recruit, develop and retain the best people
  

• We will support our schools by providing exceptional central services
  

• We are financially robust and provide value for money
  

• We will maintain high levels of service whilst expanding

St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust (STCAT) is a Roman Catholic educational charity providing outstanding Catholic education across a family of schools in the South of the Diocese of Northampton. Rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church and guided by the Bishop of Northampton, STCAT is committed to the spiritual, academic and personal development of every child in its care.

STCAT was formed in February 2020 through the merger of existing Trusts within the Diocese, and grew rapidly through the subsequent addition of Diocesan schools, including a significant intake of schools across Buckinghamshire within a single academic year. STCAT now comprises eighteen schools, educating pupils aged 2 to 18. OLICAT is its sister Catholic Academy Trust for schools in the North of the Diocese.

Every school in our family is united by a shared commitment to educate the whole person in the image of Christ, and to foster excellence in every aspect of school life.

"The glory of God is a human being fully alive."
St Irenaeus, STCAT's guiding mission