Parents urged to share views on ethos and value of KES with local authority
Last night parents attended a meeting with Andrew Jones, Director of Children’s Services at Sheffield City Council, to ask questions and learn more about the process of academisation.
One very important takeaway from the meeting was that the local authority can share the views of parents with the Department for Education (Dfe) regional office who are making the decision on what multi-academy trust (MAT) to select but we have a very small window of TWO WEEKS to do this. We have set up a Google form for parents to share what they most value about the school and its ethos and what is important to them and their children. We urge you ALL to fill this in as soon as possible. There will be a meeting in fortnight with Andrew Jones to discuss the outcome of this work. For example, if uniform turns out to be a very important issue to parents he can relay that information to the Department for Education, he said.
At the start of the meeting Mr Jones explained the context of the Ofsted inspection and that his understanding was this was triggered by one parental complaint. A one-day inspection then turned into two days. The school were given a copy of that report in September and formally challenged the findings three times. Eventually the report was upheld by Ofsted and sent to parents.
The inadequate rating triggered the school being issued with a directive academies order in December. The DfE has now invited interest from MATs in taking over KES and that invitation has been put out nationally.
Under this process the school leadership and governing body have no say in the choice of academy sponsor because they were judged to be inadequate and they cannot set up their own academy either. The criteria for selection of which MAT is chosen will not be made available.
The Local Authority do not make the decision of which academy trust is selected as this rests solely with the DfE but they can feed in the concerns of parents and the school community which is why it is so vital that they hear parents views. It was also made clear that the Local Authority have a legal obligation to enforce the Academies Act.
Other points made at the meeting included:
- In 2017 the school had tried to join Minerva Trust but this did not progress and the academy order in place from this process is now superseded by the directive order which forces academisation
- KES is likely to attract strong interest for various reasons including that it has a surplus budget. The issues which may cause more difficulty are the listed building of the upper school and PFI contract of the lower school
- Once expressions of interest from MATs have been received the Department for Education undertakes a due diligence process and will look at aspects such as the track record in improving schools particularly against the criteria set out in the Ofsted report, and the financial position. Geography may come into it in terms of an academies ability to support a school in Sheffield.
- When a recommendation on which MAT should be selected to take over there will be a parent consultation process. This can be a meeting with parents but can also be a simple questionnaire. At this point parents/public can access high level notes about sponsors/applications on DfE website. This is intended to be a transparent part of the process but it won’t include the full discussion.
- Once a selection is made there will be a conversion process. It was also pointed out that sometimes a selected academy doesn’t follow through.
- On the financial side, an MAT “top-slices” a proportion of the school budget for the running of the school. If a school is “inadequate” they can take more money from the school budget to finance rest of business.
- Ultimately once a MAT takes over they are the governing body. Some also have local governance arrangements that include parent representatives but this is up to the trust. Some keep existing structures others bring in new ones.
- An MAT with an already requires improvement school can take on another but factors such as how long it has been in the trust and what issues need improving may be taken into consideration
In terms of a timeline, it typically takes five months from the report publication date. This means for KES the process could finalise in June but this could also take longer due to the building issues.
During this period, the school can request a reinspection from Ofsted. Andrew Jones has the view that there is a risk that if this is done too early on after the inspection and you don’t show necessary improvements had been made because time is against you, a further ‘inadequate’ judgement is awarded. There are still unanswered questions about when Ofsted may reinspect.
If the academy process does not happen within nine months, the school will be subject to monthly monitoring visits by Ofsted looking at progress that has been made.
Parents who have more questions for Andrew Jones can please submit them via this form and a couple of parent/carers will collate them ready for the next meeting in 2 weeks with Andrew in 2 weeks. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSef5GrtJWdpRFJ5rVslRfIuEps71rEzUOiVENmlWpA1xzyclw/viewform
Please also do keep sending messages to your elected councillors and MPs on your views on this process and how it is being managed.
[Thanks Emma and Claudia for these notes]
Stop the academisation of King Edward VII School 