The Co-op has just celebrated its 175th anniversary. From its simple origins in Toad Lane, Rochdale in 1844 it has now become the largest co-operative business in the UK and has shared the values and principles of co-operation worldwide. In 2010 it ventured into the world of academy schools by sponsoring two underachieving secondary schools in Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent. It now sponsors 24 academies in some of the most challenging economic and social areas of northern cities. The academy programme is a major element of the Co-op's community strategy and the benefits for pupils and their families tangible.

Frank Norris, the former CEO of the Co-op Academies Trust and currently the Co-op's adviser on education and schools will outline the trust's journey and how the values and principles of the co-operative movement have created better learning experiences for its +20000 students and how this work has empowered and improved the local communities they serve. Frank will also explain why the work of Dr George Leckie and Professor Harvey Goldstein has been crucial in its attempts to ensure that pupil data is used fairly to demonstrate pupil progress and the Co-op desire give this research much greater prominence in its community work nationwide.

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