Home Tags Posts tagged with "academy"
Tag:

academy

Education

Exclusive: The academy trusts that refuse to publish pay information

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Dozens of sets of academy accounts were qualified by their auditors over a three-year period.

Pay, land and pensions lead auditors to ‘qualify’ 93 sets of academy accounts over a three-year period

More than two-dozen academy trusts have refused to comply with government transparency rules about disclosing the salaries of directors and highly paid employees, TES can reveal.

One school, whose chair of trustees is Lord Ashcroft, the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, has had auditors formally qualify its accounts for six years in a row because it has not adhered to the regulations.

In total, 93 sets of academy accounts were given a qualified opinion between 2012-13 and 2014-15, meaning that auditors thought they did not give a “true and fair view” of the company’s affairs, had not been properly prepared in accordance with UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, or were not in accordance with the relevant regulations.

In the majority of cases (48 sets of accounts, from 25 different trusts), the concerns over the accounts centred on information given about the pay of the principal or chief executive, or other staff who were also trust directors or governors.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL teaching union, said: “If it’s the law, it should be complied with. There should not be any excuses, particularly around the spurious issue of commercial confidentiality.”

In 31 sets of accounts, the auditor’s concerns were connected to the value of land or buildings used by the academy. Five concerned information about pensions.

The Prospect Education (Technology) Trust – the sponsor of Ashcroft Technology Academy in Putney, which is named after Lord Ashcroft – is the only academy trust in the country with accounts that have been qualified for six years in succession over pay since 2011.

In 2013-14, auditors said accounts were “not compliant” with the Academies Accounts Direction because they did not reveal the pay of staff earning more than £80,000, in bands of £10,000.

They added: “The trustees have chosen to omit this information on the grounds of both confidentiality and business sensitivity.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We take breaches of the handbook seriously and respond proportionately according to the scale and nature of the issue. The vast majority of academy trusts’ accounts are unqualified.”

[Source:- tes]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Academy schools breach transparency rules

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Student raising hand

Nineteen academy schools are to be investigated for “flouting” rules on transparency following a BBC investigation.

The schools have not published a register of all their governors’ interests, against official rules.

Education campaigners say there is “a culture of secrecy” around some academies.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the “rules were clear” and it would investigate.

BBC England’s data unit selected 100 academies across England at random and found 19 of them had not either published a current register of interests for governors on their school or trust websites, or had only given the interests of directors and members.

There are 5,758 academies in England, making up more than a quarter of state-funded schools.

Guidance to academies produced by the DfE makes clear that academy trusts must declare business and pecuniary interests of “members, trustees, local governors…and senior employees”.

And it states: “Trusts must publish on their websites relevant business and pecuniary interests of members, trustees, local governors and accounting officers.”

The publication of interests by schools allows parents and other interested parties to see the background and business links of governors and academy trustees, including any potential ways they could benefit financially.

BBC News has chosen not to publish the names of schools while the DfE looks into the findings.

Academies in numbers

5,758

academies in England

28%

of all state-funded schools

  • 3,430 primary acadamies
  • 2,068 secondary academies
  • 260 special and alternative provision
  • 1,004 school in the pipeline to become academies
Source: DFE as of 1 October 2016
Thinkstock

Critics of the conversion of schools into academies say it shows how the system can be open to abuse.

Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “As a former chairman of an academy trust and a strong supporter of the academy programme, it is, nevertheless, clear to me that that the Achilles heel of the academy system is the probity of its financial management at the level of individual academy chains and individual schools.

“A lack of effective supervision and policing has made the system wide open to potential abuse.”

He said there was “clear evidence of a culture of secrecy and concealment that, too often, permeates academy business”.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “Education, rightly, is still a highly trusted sector and we should not do anything to endanger that.

“Education is now a high stakes and highly scrutinised business. It is important that schools lead by example, and demonstrate a gold-standard approach to financial matters.”

A spokesman for the DfE said it would look into the findings of the investigation.

“The rules are clear that trusts must publish interests of members and trustees, so that conflicts of interest are avoided,” he said.

“They must also publish annual audited accounts which are also submitted to the Department for Education.

“This system of financial oversight and accountability is more transparent and more robust than for council-run schools. We take any breaches seriously and where trusts are found to be flouting the rules, we will not hesitate to take action.”

Academies are independent, state-funded schools that get their funding directly from central government, rather than through a local authority.

They were originally devised as a way of improving struggling schools, particularly in deprived areas. However, all schools, regardless of their success, have been invited to become academies.

There were plans to make all schools in England academies but they were abandoned following criticism from teaching unions, Conservative MPs and councillors among others.

[Source:- BBC]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Academy boss says grammar plans may leave children behind

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

The head of one of England’s largest academy chains says creating more grammar schools will do little to raise standards.

Jon Coles, chief executive of United Learning, which runs 60 schools, says the government has failed to explain how the plans will help most children.

He told the BBC the success of schools in London had shown that non-selective schooling could work.

The government said there would be strict conditions on new grammars.

Mr Coles says it is clear the government is facing “significant political opposition” from within the Conservative party and from other parties to plans to allow more schools to select by ability.

‘Pass or fail’

Mr Coles, who is also a former director general of schools for the Department for Education, says there is little evidence that increasing the number of grammar schools will have much impact.

He says he is concerned about what will happen to children who do not get a place in grammar schools.

“They’ve said they don’t want to it to be a return to the 1950s, they’ve said they don’t want it to be a return to the binary system of pass or fail.

“Yet they’ve given no visible means of support to that yet.”

Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to expand the number of schools in England that would be allowed to select by ability

grammarImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionThe government says grammars can help to promote social mobility

This could mean all state schools being allowed to introduce selection “in the right circumstances” and where there is demand

But new selective schools would have to meet access conditions, such as taking a share of pupils from low-income backgrounds, setting up a new non-selective secondary or primary school or backing an underperforming academy

Like many other academy chiefs, Mr Coles said he was surprised by the scale of the plans for more selection, but few have been prepared to voice their concerns publicly.

It is academy trusts that are being asked by the government to take on the running of schools in challenging and deprived areas.

He and other academy chiefs argue the new grammar policy is a distraction from raising standards across the system.

Struggling

Mr Coles led the improvement of schools under the London Challenge programme, which resulted in schools in the capital – many of which were previously struggling – to perform about 10% better than most of the rest of England.

“I think it asks a lot of questions – why aren’t people as angry that we’re not learning the lessons of the London challenge as they are about grammar schools.”

In the climate of post-referendum politics, he says the key question is how to galvanise change in working-class communities that feel left behind.

“So people who feel they’re struggling to get by, who want something for their children, we don’t put them in a position where they’re hoping they’re the one in three that get through the test.

“We have to put them in a position where they’re part of the 100% who get something better.”

The Department for Education said: “These proposals are about creating more good schools in more areas, giving every child the opportunity to fulfil their potential so we can build a country that works for everyone.

“The binary system is one of the past and, as set out in the consultation document, we are clear that relaxing restrictions on selective education can and should be to the betterment, not at the expense, of other local schools.”

[Source:- BBC]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Academy rejects call for parent governors

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Justine Greening

An academy chain which has already scrapped all its parent governors, says it has no intention of reinstating them, despite the education secretary saying schools should have them.

Justine Greening told MPs on Wednesday that she was ditching plans to allow academy chains to operate without any parent governors.

She said academy chains should not think they did not need them.

But the E-Act chain says it has no plans to return to parent governors.

Speaking to the Education Select Committee, Ms Greening announced she wasabandoning her predecessor’s plan, which would have allowed academy trusts to operate without any parent governors, either in individual schools or on the board of trustees.

“I don’t think we should be saying that MATs [multi-academy trusts] don’t need to have parent governors,” she said.

“I think parent governors play a vital role. I was a governor, I’m not any more, but I was a governor for 15 years, maybe more, and parents played a vital role on the governing body.”

She told MPs she would not proceed with allowing trusts to have no parent governors, saying that “parents are part of how success gets delivered”.

Head teachers’ leader Russell Hobby backed the education secretary’s decision to drop the plan to remove parent governors, saying “common sense has prevailed”.

‘Ambassadors’ not governors

The plan to allow trusts to remove all parent governors is part of the White Paper on academies, published before the latest plans for another change of direction in the Green Paper on grammar schools.

But under existing academy rules, chains are not required to have parent governors in individual schools.

E-Act, which operates 23 schools across England, has already scrapped all its parent governors in schools.

These were replaced by parent “ambassadors” who do not have the powers of scrutiny held by governors.

They have a role “celebrating the academy’s achievements” rather than holding the school to account.

E-Act had itself faced questions over standards, when in 2014 the academy chain lost control of 10 of its schools after Ofsted inspectors raised serious concerns about their performance.

The levels of scrutiny of academy chains has remained controversial.

Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has called for the education watchdog to be able to inspect academy chains, in the way that local education authority education services can be inspected.

E-Act said that the current arrangements improved “parental involvement” in their schools and that there were no plans to reintroduce parent governor roles that were removed earlier this year.

“One of the principal drivers of the changes we made to how our academies are governed was to enhance parental involvement in the life of our academies. This model is working,” said an E-Act spokesman.

[Source:- BBC]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Moaning parents of Hartsdown Academy kids are irresponsible and should support strict uniform code

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Matthew Tate

If I ever meet headmaster Matthew Tate I’m going to kiss him. He might not want me to kiss him but I won’t be able to help myself because this guy is my hero. And not just mine, it seems.

Parents up and down the country are applauding him for sending home pupils who turned up at Margate’s Hartsdown Academy on the first day of term wearing the wrong uniform .

Parents had been told back in July strict uniform codes would be enforced. An explanatory diagram was even posted on Facebook so there could be no confusion. But a bunch of lazy parents ignored it.

So Matt Tate did what he said he’d do and sent the offenders home – 60 on the first day, 20 on the second and 12 on the third.

But instead of ­admitting THEY were wrong, instead of being grateful the man who had achieved fantastic results in other schools had come to theirs, those parents staged a demo outside the school gates against Mr Tate’s “Gestapo-style rules”.

Others made excuses – little Johnny can’t wear a blazer because he gets hot and when he gets hot he gets headaches. Little Susie has to wear trainers, not proper shoes, because her feet hurt. Sorry but that’s b****cks!

Matt Tate is doing what every teacher, every headmaster should be doing: he’s trying to raise standards – an old-fashioned concept but they’re the cornerstone of everything.

We live by standards, some of us die trying to uphold them. We judge others on them. We try to live up to those of people we respect. They are the blueprint for everything that’s good.

And Matt Tate, God bless him, is determined to drive up standards at the Hartsdown Academy because its GCSE results are way below the Kent average and it has a reputation of being a “scruffy school” where the pupils do what the hell they want.

Well, not any more. But instead of being grateful that their kids might just get a decent start in life, these idiot parents are fighting him because he dared to say if children want to be in his school they have to follow the rules and wear the uniform.

Because anyone with half a brain knows uniforms aren’t just about the clothes. They’re about everyone starting on the same level playing field. They’re about discipline, standards, boundaries.

“People think caring for children is about letting them do what they want and having no expectations of them,” says Mr Tate. “But what’s needed is to say, ‘This is what we expect, this is what we believe in and we’re following through with it’.”

Now, that’s music to my ears. Yet all some of those dopey parents see are “Gestapo-style rules” and their precious offspring being told what to do by someone else – even if what he’s telling them is right. Well, maybe if those kids had been taught properly about rules at home, they wouldn’t have been sent home from school.

Yes, it’s a child’s instinct to kick against the traces. But it’s a teacher’s job (and a parent’s) to show them it won’t work.

And that’s what Matt Tate’s doing. It’s HIS school, HIS rules and if you don’t like it – shove off to a school capable of little more than preparing kids for life on the dole.

I just hope the school governors and council back Mr Tate and don’t cave in to these idiots with their excuses about why THEIR kids should be exceptions to the rules. Because the future of these children is at stake here.

And better it’s in the hands of a man who knows how to shape it than a bunch of gobby parents who’d rather shout the odds outside the school gates than get on with the job of having their kids educated.

One father complained: “We’ve been called irresponsible.” You are matey. You are.

As for all those parents threatening to take their kids out of Hartsdown – do it!

It’ll make Matt Tate’s job a damn sight easier.

[Source:- mirror.co.uk]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Councils ‘should monitor academy cash’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Academy budgets should be overseen by local authorities following a series of financial abuses, say council leaders.

Cash earmarked for education in England is too often “disappearing into the back pockets of those in charge”, says the Local Government Association.

Current scrutiny is ineffective, leaving the media and whistleblowers to uncover fraud, argues the LGA.

The government says academies and free schools are subject to greater scrutiny than council-run schools.

Council leaders are urging Education Secretary Justine Greening to restore local oversight of all school finances “providing democratic accountability so that parents and communities can be confident their children aren’t missing out”.

They say the Education Funding Agency, the official body responsible for the financial oversight of academies and free schools, lacks the capacity “to provide the level of scrutiny necessary to ensure value for money and catch out fraudsters”.

The LGA highlighted two scandals this year at:

  • Kings Science Academy in Bradford where two members were convicted of fraud for transferring £150,000 of government grants into their own bank accounts
  • and Perry Beeches Academy in Birmingham where the chief executive was paid a second salary through two separate companies

In April, a report by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee raised concerns that the rapid expansion of the academies programme in England had made it difficult to keep track of spending and land.

In May, the government abandoned controversial plans to force all England’s schools to become academies.

The Department for Education says all academies operate under a strict system of oversight and accountability which is more robust than in council-run schools and ensures any issues are identified quickly.

“Unlike other schools, their accounts are scrutinised by an independent auditor and we have considerably more financial information about academies than we ever had for council-run schools,” said a spokeswoman.

“The academy programme puts control of running schools in the hands of teachers and school leaders, the people who know best how to run their schools.

“They also allow us to tackle underperformance far more swiftly than in a council-run system where many schools have been allowed to fail for years.”

Gove and Cameron at Perry Beeches
Image captionFormer Prime Minister David Cameron and then Education Secretary Michael Gove were at the opening of Perry Beeches III free school in 2013

Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “We are told that academies and free schools are subject to more financial scrutiny than council-maintained schools, yet we keep hearing that millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, which has been earmarked to make sure our children get a good education, is disappearing into the back pockets of those in charge.

“The National Audit Office has raised serious concerns about the ability of the DfE to effectively monitor academy trusts’ spending, even before the planned expansion of the academy programme, and we don’t believe it can possibly have effective oversight of spending in more than 20,000 schools,” said Mr Watts, who is Labour leader of Islington Council in north London.

“Centralising control of schools isn’t working, oversight needs to be devolved down to local councils,” he added.

[Source:- BBC]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Internet

Oracle Signs Accord With ICT Academy of Kerala

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Oracle Signs Accord With ICT Academy of Kerala

With its aim to educate 500,000 students in India annually through its academy, software and cloud major Oracle on Monday announced a new collaboration with ICT Academy of Kerala (ICTAK).

With this collaboration, Oracle Academy – the company’s flagship philanthropic educational programme – targets to reach 6,000 students in Kerala over the next three years.

As part of the new partnership, 125 colleges in Kerala will become members of the Oracle Academy programme.

“The agreement will enable us to provide professional development for more teachers in more subjects and, in turn, will enable them to reach even more students,” Damian Haas, Regional Director, Oracle Academy, Asia Pacific and Japan, said in a statement.

Over the next three years, ICTAK intends to leverage Oracle Academy resources to create strong computer science education pathways for 6,000 students as they prepare to launch successful careers in the field of information technology and meet growing demands for a highly-skilled technology workforce in Kerala, the company said in a statement.

Working with ICTAK, Oracle Academy will train 500 educators on its academic curriculum in Java Foundations, Java Fundamentals, Java Programming, Database Foundations, Database Design and Programming with SQL and Programming with PL/SQL.

Additionally, ICTAK will deliver a customised course in Java fundamentals to students through the Government of Kerala’s Additional Skill Acquisition Program (ASAP).

Recently, Oracle signed an agreement with ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) to implement Oracle Academy curriculum across 450 educational institutions in the state to help foster the next generation of IT talent.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Academy trusts ‘no better than councils’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Exam hall

Academy trusts are no better than local authorities at raising school standards, researchers have found.

The Education Policy Institute think tank has produced a league table of academy trusts and councils in England.

David Laws, former schools minister and the institute’s chairman, said successive governments had been “in denial” about failing academies.

The Local Government Association said it showed academies were no “magic bullet” for improving schools.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Our ambition remains for all schools to become academies.”

‘Rash and dangerous’

Mr Laws said that when he served as education minister in the coalition government there had been internal data showing weaknesses in academy trusts, but there had been a reluctance to publish such information when ministers were promoting academy expansion.

But the Education Policy Institute has now published its own rankings showing how local authorities compare with multi-academy trusts with at least five schools.

The findings show that academy trusts are among the most and least successful at improving pupil performance, at both primary and secondary level.

In between is a spread of success and underachievement, with the analysis concluding that there is little overall difference between academy trusts and local authorities.

The average for academy trusts and local authorities is described as “almost identical”.

Mr Laws says that it shows it would have been “rash and dangerous” to press ahead with forcing all schools to become academies, as it would have meant that some high-achieving local authorities could have been put into lower-achieving academy trusts.

The former education minister said that for successive governments there had been a “lack of political will to show that some academies are not doing well”.

Mr Laws, a former Liberal Democrat MP, said that a “lot of political capital has been invested” in presenting academies as the way to raise school standards.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has had to abandon plans to force all schools to become academies, but Mr Laws says their political protection went back to the early days of the first academies created by Labour governments.

Mr Laws said that they were seen by the government as “a small and precious flower that people wanted to stamp on”.

The comparisons produced by the think tank are based on how much pupils have improved, rather than exam results, as a way of measuring the effectiveness of local authorities and academy trusts.

Many academies operate as stand-alone schools, so these are not included in the rankings, which compare multi-academy trusts.

Mr Laws said that the findings highlighted the need to find ways to scrutinise and improve weak academy chains – but that did not mean that the principle of academies, with greater autonomy, was flawed.

But he suggested that it showed successful local authorities should be able to set up their own academy trusts, rather than have schools taken away from them.

Report author Jon Andrews also highlighted other factors, such as regional differences. Schools in London are higher performers – and he says that both local authorities and academy trusts are likely to do better if they have schools in the capital.

The Sutton Trust education charity has also published a report warning that too many academy trusts are not providing a good enough education for disadvantaged pupils.

It says that one in five academy chains is “performing substantially below the national average for attainment and improvement” for children from poorer families.

Lizzie Rowe, chief operating officer of the Education Fellowship, the lowest rated primary academy trust, said that trusts needed to be given time to make progress and that this was not always shown in immediate results.

“Data enables you to judge the pace and direction of a journey – data is not the journey. Some political powers forget this.

“Our strategy is very sound in developing leadership and enabling teachers to deliver outstanding lessons.

“Some of the most successful academies started well over a decade ago and were given millions of pounds to get established. We are a new trust working within an area of neglect and deprivation by all political bodies.”

She said: “We receive no support from our regional schools commissioner, only negative challenge.”

Roy Perry, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “Councils have long been highlighting the fact that school structures are not a magic bullet to improve education, and what really matters is outstanding teaching and strong leadership.

“Every school and every community is different, and head teachers need the freedom to choose, in partnership with parents and councils, the structure that is most appropriate for them.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “These reports highlight many impressive multi-academy trusts that are driving up standards and delivering an excellent education to thousands of children across the country.

“They are playing a vital and increasingly important role in the school system – thanks to their ability to share resources, expertise and provide support to schools that are struggling.

“Our ambition remains for all schools to become academies with more schools joining multi-academy trusts – our evidence shows this is the best way to bring about sustained improvement.”

Top performing secondary academy trusts and local authorities, based on pupil improvement

1. Inspiration

2. Barnet

3. Merton

4. Southwark

5. Outwood Grange

6. Hackney

7. Kent Catholic Schools Partnership

8. Wokingham

9. Surrey

10. Peterborough

Lowest performing secondary academy trusts and local authorities

165. Salford

166. Stoke on Trent

167. Newcastle upon Tyne

168. Woodard

169. Wolverhampton

170. Greenwood

171. Oldham

172. Nottingham

173. Knowsley

174. College Academies Trust

Top performing primary academy trusts and local authorities, based on pupil improvement

1. Harris Federation

2. First Federation Trust

3. Redcar and Cleveland

4. Kensington and Chelsea

5. Greenwich

= Camden

= Newham

= CFBT Schools Trust

Hounslow

Waltham Forest

Darlington

LEAD

Reach2

Lowest performing primary academy trusts and local authorities, based on pupil improvement

212. Discovery

= Walsall

= Diocese of Leicester

= Diocese of Norwich

216. Rutland

217. Poole

218. Education Fellowship Trust

[Source:- BBC]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Education

Academy chief accuses Government of ‘bottling’ forced academisation

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Nicky Morgan

The Government is facing a backlash after abandoning plans to force all schools in England to become academies.

Chancellor George Osborne used his budget in March to announce thatall schools would either have to convert by 2020 or be committed to doing so by 2022.

But yesterday Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, announced a climb-down after Conservative MPs threatened to defeat the policy.

Ministers now say the plan to make every school an academy is an ‘aspiration’, not a compulsory policy.

Paul Luxmoore, Executive Headteacher of the Coastal Academies Trust, told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 the Government had ‘bottled it’.

“I’m dismayed,” he said.

“The Government’s policy has been for a long time to develop a school-led self-sustaining education system by devolving decision making and money directly to schools.

“That’s been done by the academisation programme and developing multi-academy trusts.”

Mr Luxmoore, whose multi academy trust oversees five academies in Kent, said the Government’s u-turn was motivated by political reasons and had little to do with education.

“Across the UK we’ve reached a tipping point where local authorities, who have been delivering school improvement until now, no longer have the money or capacity to do that effectively,” he said.

“The Government’s policy to make all schools academies over the next few years was entirely predictable and entirely sensible, but they’ve lost their courage to go ahead with it.”

Despite abandoning the main policy of forcing all schools to become academies, the new legislation will give the Government the power to force schools to convert when local authorities show consistently poor results.

Mr Luxmoore said this provision lacked necessary clarity.

“Does this mean the point at which the Government will step in is when schools are in special measures,” he asked.

“By that stage it will be too late.”

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

Ofsted chief criticises academy chains

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

England’s largest academy chains have “serious weaknesses” as bad as the local authorities they were intended to replace, Sir Michael Wilshaw has told the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, in strong criticism of the government’s flagship school improvement programme.

In a memo to Morgan published on Thursday, the Ofsted chief inspector singled out seven of the worst-performing multi-academy trust (MAT) chains, citing weak leadership, poor performance and lack of oversight as among the concerns found by his inspectors.

“Many of the trusts manifested the same weaknesses as the worst performing local authorities and offered the same excuses. Indeed, one chief executive blamed parents for pupils’ poor attendance affecting pupils’ performance,” Wilshaw said in his letter.

“There has been much criticism in the past of local authorities failing to take swift action with struggling schools. Given the impetus of the academies programme to bring about rapid improvement, it is of great concern that we are not seeing this in these seven MATs and that, in some cases, we have even seen decline.”

Trust leaders were not doing enough to improve attendance or behaviour, according to Wilshaw, who criticised a lack of urgency, insufficient scrutiny from trustees and confusion over responsibilities.

“Given that the academies movement was initiated principally to improve the performance of disadvantaged pupils, it is particularly concerning that many of the academies in these trusts are failing their poorest children,” Wilshaw said, citing the wide variations among chains.

Wilshaw’s remarks are the latest in a string of controversial comments. Ministers are said to be increasingly exasperated at his almost daily interventions as he approaches retirement later this year.

A Department for Education spokesperson said Wilshaw’s report presented “a partial and skewed picture”.

“Work is already underway in all of these cases with regional school commissioners challenging these chains to show how they will improve and, where that is not happening, taking swift action – a sharp contrast to days when underperforming schools were left to languish under local authorities,” the DfE said.

Wilshaw said he was publishing the appraisal in light of “the government’s clear intention to move to a fully academised system and, in the prime minister’s words, ‘make local authorities running schools a thing of the past’”.

A DfE source said: “It’s surprising that Sir Michael thought he could produce advice on MATs based on such a skewed selection”

Labour seized on Wilshaw’s remarks as evidence that the government should scale back plans for all state schools in England to become academies, arguing that a pause was needed to resolve the problems.

“Ofsted has identified a number of very serious concerns within these academy chains. The lack of oversight, the lack of capacity within the governance structures and failure to deliver improvements are all issues we have been raising for months,” said Lucy Powell, the shadow education secretary.

“As the government continues, without evidence, with its agenda to turn all schools into academies and no system of local oversight to spot and challenge underperformance early, these problems will only get worse.”

Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Academy chains simply do not have the resources or expertise to resolve problems where they occur. The government needs to change tack and admit that its obsession with structural changes to schools has failed.”

“Given the lack of leadership capacity and the ineffective monitoring of individual academies in these trusts, it is surprising that some continue to operate over such wide geographical areas,” Wilshaw told Morgan.

“If we are to improve national standards in an increasingly autonomous system, much more needs to be done to reduce the variation in standards between the best and the worst academy trusts,” he said.

The most recent inspection of SPTA was published alongside the letter to Morgan. It found “persistent weaknesses in the quality of teaching that prevent pupils making good progress”. The Ofsted inspectors recommended that the trust “urgently” improve, especially in its secondary schools.

[Source:- Theguardian]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
error: Content is protected !!