Cllr Chris Whitehouse responds to AET’s rebuttal of allegations made over removal of Sandown Bay Academy funds.
CEO of Academies Enterprise Trust Julian Drinkall has issued his response to this and Cllr Whitehouse’s other press releases. Ed
The Isle of Wight Council’s Lead Member for Children’s Services has hit back at claims by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) that revelations by the councillor of reports that AET were diverting cash from Sandown Bay Academy were inaccurate.
Councillor Whitehouse (Conservative Member for Newport West Ward) says:
“It is a matter of fact that on or around 24th January, Sandown Bay Academy was told by AET it had to find £850,000 in cuts in the coming year so that the money could be retained by AET. Following representations over the last two months from many associated with the Academy, including from me, AET has now reduced its demand from £850K in the current year to £430K this year, but with the expectation of further cuts in the next year. Clearly as the first massive cut will be a recurring reduction, a potential £850K hit overall is potentially a huge underestimate of the impact of this savage reduction and diversion of funds to meet AETs other costs over the next two years.”
Adding that,
“Sources involved with Sandown Bay Academy report a catastrophic breakdown in confidence by teachers, governors and parents in AET’s commitment and abilities” Councillor Whitehouse repeated his call that AET “be relieved as soon as possible from its responsibilities in running Sandown. By their latest inaccurate, disingenuous and misleading statement to Island media, claiming that a cut of only £230K is being sought, and trying once again to sweep this potential financial and educational disaster for one of our high schools under the carpet, they have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted and are unfit to be involved any longer in this school.”
Councillor Whitehouse has also released a document [which cannot be published for data protection reasons], produced by AET to review their involvement with Sandown Academy, page 10 of which confirms the demand for a £430K cut, saying:
“We clearly have this in writing. AET should admit they have got this fundamentally wrong, apologise to parents, students, teachers and governors alike; and then surrender their responsibilities for Sandown Academy as soon as a replacement support organisation can be found.”
The released AET review of the Academy also admits on page 7 that: “The academy has been identified as a coasting school; it is RI [Requiring Improvement] and not making rapid enough progress to good”.
Page 5 of the review also reveals the AET view that “Sandown Bay’s academic performance is very weak”.
The review, argues Councillor Whitehouse “constitutes a damning indictment of AET’s dreadful record in running Sandown. For as long as I have statutory responsibilities as Lead Member for Children’s Services, AET can be confident I will continue to highlight their failures on behalf of all those students whose welfare and education are now, in part, my legal responsibility. There will be no hiding place on this Island for underperformance; parents would expect no less from me, and I won’t let them down.”
