Central oversight over 9 schools, with 91% uptake for Matrix Academy Trust

Industry

Multi-Academy Trust

Challenge

With nine schools and growing, Matrix Academy Trust's biggest challenge was bringing parent communications under one roof. Across the trust, schools were using a mix of parent apps, SMS, email, and paper letters home, with no central visibility or consistency. Parents were juggling multiple platforms and passwords, and the Trust had no standardised way to communicate. Parents were frustrated, staff were confused and the Trust itself needed more insight into how schools and parents communicated.

Results

Today, every Matrix school runs its parental communications on a single, Trust-branded app - and the difference is clear. Parents have one place to go for everything, from absence reporting to events to news from their child's classroom. Admin time has dropped, paper communications are largely a thing of the past, and the Trust has full visibility across all nine schools. Uptake has been strong, parent feedback has been positive, and for a Trust that takes its reputation seriously, having a consistent, professional presence across every school has made a real difference.

Key Product

Custom School Branded App, Newsfeed, Messaging, Parent app

www.matrixacademytrust.co.uk/

schools served by one platform

91%

reach across all schools

£43,000

saved on SMS per year

30+

hours saved on absence reporting per year

ReachMoreParents allowed Matrix Academy Trust to combine two to three systems into one Trust-branded app, improving parental communication and allowing for further parental insights into some of the amazing achievements their child has achieved within school.

Mitchell Palmer

Head of ICT Services, Matrix Academy Trust

About Matrix Academy Trust

Matrix Academy Trust has transformed some of the country's lowest performing schools into successes, with many Matrix schools now achieving some of the best outcomes in England. Renowned for expertise in education development, the Trust's flagship school operates the Careers Hub for the entire Black Country.

Nine schools, nine different directions

Before moving to ReachMoreParents, every Matrix school was doing parent communication its own way. Across the Trust, schools were juggling a mix of parent apps, SMS providers, a separate cashless catering system, and paper letters home.

Parents were frustrated. They needed to remember multiple logins across multiple platforms just to stay in touch with their child's school.

The Trust was also frustrated. There was no visibility, no standardised approach, and no consistent branding. For a Trust that prides itself on transformation - with a dedicated marketing team focused on reputation and enrolment - having five or six systems doing the same job was not working.

No more blind spots: Trust-level visibility

For a Trust as focused on branding as Matrix Academy Trust, the ReachMoreParents custom-branded app was an immediate draw. Every family across the Trust downloads the Matrix app - it's familiar, consistent, and instantly recognisable.

Each school has a dedicated ReachMoreParents ambassador to drive adoption, while the Trust coordinates everything from the centre. Every few months, engagement reports go out to headteachers so they can see exactly how their school is performing.

ReachMoreParents punches well above its weight. Parents can report absences, book parents' evenings, and stay on top of everything happening across the school, all without leaving the app.

Our schools still have control, but we have visibility as a Trust.

And from the centre, the Trust can push communications out to all nine schools at once, or target a single year, class or parent directly. When the Trust flagged that they needed a behaviour tracking function, our development team had it built and ready to use within six weeks. One less system to pay for, one less platform to manage.

91% reach across nine schools

The results speak for themselves. Matrix Academy Trust now runs nine schools from a single Trust-branded platform, with full visibility over communications, engagement, and parent uptake across every school.

Absence reporting is streamlined, events and updates go out consistently across the Trust at the click of a button, and parents' evenings have been transformed. Where parents once had no choice but to come in person, they can now also book and attend through the app - something not every school offers, and a change that parents have noticed.

Matrix Academy Trust was recently shortlisted for a Tes School Award (2026) – and its star is only growing. “We’re actually oversubscribed for most of our schools!” says Mitchell. "And we manage our reputation proactively. That doesn't just help us attract schools, it helps our schools attract families."