Former UK Government schools minister Lord John Nash is the co-founder of the charity Future, which he set up with his wife, Caroline, in 2005. He is also the founder of Future Academies, which now runs 10 schools with 7,0000 students throughout London and Hertfordshire, including a new primary free school established by the multi-academy trust. Future Academies also runs a Curriculum Centre, which prepares teaching materials to assist and reduce the workload of teachers. As well as sponsoring Future Academies, Future continues to support organisations that work with young people such as the Pimlico Musical Foundation, the Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation, the Social Mobility Foundation, and the Hammersmith and Fulham Youth Zone.
Lord Nash has a particular interest in extracurricular and careers support for students, and this is an area in which Futures Academies is particularly strong. It runs an active programme of extracurricular music, sport, drama, art and careers advice, as well as a range of residential trips. Lord Nash believes it’s very important for young people to be taken out of their regular environment, shown a wider world and given access to a range of people from different professions and industries, with the goal being to boost their aspirations.
As a schools minister from 2013 to 2017, Lord Nash was responsible for, among other things, school capital, independent schools, faith schools, free schools and academies. During his time in tenure the number of academies rose to approximately 7,000 (from around 2,000), hundreds of free schools were founded and he took five acts of parliament through the House of Lords.
