About Our Trust
The John Milton Multi Academy Trust was established in September 2016. It was the culmination of planning across a number of schools, all of which were based in mid-Suffolk and all of which had been involved in Suffolk’s Organisation Review (SOR) resulting in the move from three tier to two tier education.
The choice of name was quite deliberate: no-one school in the Trust is ever regarded as the “lead” school; all schools regard themselves as partners in delivering the best possible education for young people. The Trust, therefore, sought a name which would resonate with local communities and yet reflect the gravitas and importance of education.
John Milton (1605—1674) had close links to the East of England and to the Stowmarket area in particular. He had lessons with “my excellent tutor” Thomas Young who was later to become Vicar of Stowmarket and Master of Jesus College Cambridge. Milton himself matriculated at Christ’s College Cambridge, graduating BA in 1629 and MA in 1632.
Milton was presumed to have been a regular visitor to the town of Stowmarket and, particularly, the vicarage (now the Register Office). Tradition links him to the mulberry trees in the vicarage garden and the mulberry leaf and colour have been the inspiration for the Trust’s logo.
John Milton was considered to be a thinker of his times, but his tractate on education has a surprisingly modern relevance.
Whilst educational debate focuses on the “broad and balanced” curriculum across all phases, Milton’s proposed curriculum was encyclopaedic in content. It included the study of: grammar, arithmetic, religion, agriculture, geography, astronomy, physics, trigonometry, ethics, economics, languages, politics and the law as well as the “organic arts” of poetry, rhetoric and logic.
In addition to the focus on breadth and depth of knowledge, Milton also emphasised the importance of erudition in the development of morality, not only for the individual, but also in the ability to serve the state in a wider public role (civic duty).