St Paul’s Way School was a failing 11-16 school in East London with less than 700 students against a capacity of 1,200. The pupils were from homes with the highest levels of deprivation in the country and they ended their time with some of the poorest examination results at KS4.

In 2009, SPWTS was established as a Trust School in collaboration with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with six University partners and a number of public and private sector partnerships.

Royal Greenwich University Technical College (UTC) opened its doors in September 2012. 

Four years later in 2016, it was rated "Requires Improvement." It then joined the UST Trust.

SPWT Sixth Form admits its first intake. 

SPWTS deemed “Outstanding” by Ofsted.

The SPWTS Primary Phase opened its doors in September 2014.  By 2020 SPWTS had grown to its full complement of pupils, with over 1,800 learners from nursery to Year 13 (covering ages 3 - 18 year olds).

Following the decision of the governors and senior leadership at the school to expand the successful model at SPWTS into a Multi Academy Trust, UST was formed in September 2016 with SPWTS and RGTS as the founding schools.

In March 2021, the DfE granted Cyril Jackson Primary School an Academy Order, enabling this highly successful and Ofsted rated "Outstanding" school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to join the UST family in the September.