A government-backed pilot turnaround trust for Catholic schools will morph into one of England’s biggest – as church bosses say 70-strong MATs are “becoming the norm”.

The St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust is set to swell to 65 academies in just a few years, having originally been trialled by the government as a home for so-called “orphan” schools.

It is one of three trusts that will share over 200 schools across the Archdiocese of Liverpool, which has torn up previous plans to move its primaries and secondaries into 12 smaller trusts.