Small parts, joined together
The name comes from “atomic”. Small parts, joined together, release more energy than any of them holds alone. That is how this trust works.
Prior Pursglove College has taught in Guisborough since 1561. Stockton Sixth Form College opened in 1971. Alongside them are a primary school and a pupil referral unit, each with its own history and its own community. Priory Oaks Day Nursery in Guisborough is part of the wider Atomix family, run by the trust’s enterprise company rather than the trust itself.
We keep what makes each place itself, and we share what works, so a good idea in one setting reaches all of them.
Our aims
Our trust will engender a love of learning through an exceptional quality of educational provision in which every learner is inspired and supported to fulfil their potential, enhancing their personal development and benefitting their community.
We will recruit and retain teachers and support staff and managers of the highest calibre by investing in their professional development through training and progression opportunities.
Our schools and colleges will offer a friendly, caring environment with high expectations, aspirations and supporting the highest levels of achievement.
Our trust will work through partnership with employers, community groups and other agencies to make the Tees Valley a great place to live, learn and work.
Every phase, joined up
Atomix Educational Trust is a multi-academy trust in the Tees Valley. We run Prior Pursglove College and Stockton Sixth Form College, Errington Primary School and Bishopton Pupil Referral Unit. With Priory Oaks Day Nursery, run by the trust’s enterprise company, a child can be with us from their first day at nursery to their last day of sixth form.
Because we cover every phase, we can do something most trusts cannot: join the phases up. Our primary school knows what the colleges expect, our colleges know where their students have come from, and our pupil referral unit works alongside both.
Each setting keeps its own name, identity and leadership. The trust provides what is better done once and shared: finance, estates, safeguarding, data, HR and communications.
We are a charity. Everything we do is measured by what it does for the children and young people in our care and for the communities we serve.
We judge ourselves by one test: does every learner, whatever their background or need, get a fair chance to go further?
Our achievements
Prior Pursglove College holds the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award with Merit.
Stockton Sixth Form College’s results have improved three years running, measured by average points per entry. Both colleges were rated Good by Ofsted in December 2024, and students from both have studied abroad through the Turing Scheme, in Sri Lanka, Peru, Lisbon and Germany.
Our objectives
The trust board’s nine objectives, grouped under the four pillars that shape how the trust works.
01
Performance and value
Improve the life chances for young people in our region.
Support all staff to develop their skills to become an efficient, high-performing team.
Remove barriers to achievement and promote the highest aspirations for all.
02
Systems and processes
Ensure positive destinations through enhanced accountability for each learner.
Enhance progress at transition points through cross-phase working.
03
Communication and culture
Build partnerships within and beyond our trust to promote economic prosperity and social well-being across our region.
Promote and enable lifelong learning and citizenship which benefits the individual and the community.
04
Quality and improvement
Share good practice to further improve teaching and learning.
Maximise the outcomes and opportunities for all learners.
Three priorities
Three things run through all four pillars, whatever the age of the learner.
Mental health and wellbeing, because a learner who is not in a fit state to learn will not. Employability, because what is learned has to lead somewhere. An international outlook, because the work our learners go into does not stop at the Tees.
Our people
Our history
Our story starts with Prior Pursglove College, founded as a grammar school in the sixteenth century by Robert Pursglove. It has been educating young people in Guisborough for more than 460 years.
In 2017 the college became the founding member of a multi-academy trust. Today the trust runs Prior Pursglove College, Stockton Sixth Form College, Errington Primary School and Bishopton Pupil Referral Unit, and its enterprise company runs Priory Oaks Day Nursery.
That mix of history and reach is unusual. It means we can take the long view on education while working with every age from nursery to eighteen.
