Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), which runs 67 schools across the country including two academies on the Isle of Wight has today (Thursday) been given another warning from Ofsted.
Ian Comfort, The Trust’s CEO, challenged a letter from Ofsted (see below) which claims the Trust is failing too many pupils. He was disappointed the “significant achievements of the Trust and our schools have not been sufficiently recognised” in Ofsted’s letter.
Island focus
Ryde Academy was one of the schools inspected as part of Ofsted’s focused inspection of AET.
Even though the new head, Joy Ballard, had not long been in place, the school was found by inspectors to be ‘taking effective action’ and acknowledged there had been a dramatic improvement in the culture of the school.
AET’s other school on the Island, Sandown Bay Academy, has recently had a 6% improvement on the 2015 GCSE results confirmed as well as an excellent 13% increase on 2015 A-Level results.
Ofsted: AET letting down too many of its pupils
A Department for Education spokesperson told OnTheWight,
“We are determined that no child should have to spend one day more than necessary in an underperforming school.
“While Ofsted’s findings show that AET has made some progress, particularly in its primary academies, the trust is letting down too many of its pupils.
“The academies system allows us to spot and intervene in underperformance far more quickly than in council-run schools.
“AET must now show us how they will address the issues identified by Ofsted and we are working with them to raise standards. If we are not satisfied we will take further action.”
AET: Significant achievements not recognised
A spokesperson from AET told OnTheWight,
“Through strong leadership at all levels, we have ensured that over the past two years the number of good or outstanding academies in our Trust has doubled from 32% to 64%.
“Over the same period we have also focussed on reducing the number of academies judged as inadequate. As a consequence, the number of academies judged inadequate has fallen from 29% to 6%. This is in a context where the majority of our academies have been part of our Trust for three academic years or less.
“At Key Stage 2, our primary academies exceed the national average for pupils receiving level four or above in Reading, Writing and Maths. These are the key building blocks for the future success of our pupils.
“The gap between the proportion of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils receiving five good GCSEs including English and Maths is now 5.4%, well below the national average.
“We view the significant improvements since 2013 as a springboard which we are confident will enable us to achieve our vision to ensure all our pupils receive an excellent education. We have robust systems in place to sustain and accelerate progress.
“We have been a strong advocate of the policy to allow Ofsted to inspect multi- academy trusts, but are disappointed that the significant achievements of the Trust and our schools have not been sufficiently recognised in the letter published this morning.
“In January 2015, the Secretary of State wrote to Ofsted, urging inspectors to approach the inspection of MATs as a professional dialogue, which should “include consideration of achievement and other relevant data for all of the MAT’s academies”. The trust feels that inspection process and the letter have fallen short of the Secretary of State’s recommendation on this occasion.”
