‘Insulting’ order to turn special school into a city academy is overturned
RATED INADEQUATE BUT IMPROVEMENTS MEAN IT CAN STAY WITH CITY COUNCIL
AN “insulting” decision to force a special needs school in Leicester to become an academy has been overturned.
West Gate School, in Glenfield Road in the Fosse ward of the city, was served an academy order by the Department for Education in 2018 following an “inadequate” Ofsted inspection rating.
The government has the power to demand inadequate schools become academies as it considers this the best way to support the school in improving.
But if a school then achieves a good or outstanding rating before it is converted to an academy, the government can revoke that order.
Part of the criteria for this is that it must believe the school can maintain the improvements without the additional support.
West Gate School, which supports pupils aged four to 19 with moderate to severe learning difficulties, achieved a good rating this year after replacing its board of governors, head teacher and deputy head teacher.
The governors, head teacher, the local teaching unions and Leicester West MP Liz Kendall then united to have the academy order revoked.
A joint statement by the National Education Union (NEU), the largest education union in Leicester, Unison, the UK’s largest union, and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said that the original proposed sponsor had pulled out and the replacement only has the one school, which itself is failing.
The statement, released before the decision was made, said: “It’s an insult to the hard work of all those people.”
Ms Kendall had also written to the Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi, to request they reconsider.
She said: “Given this hugely positive turnaround, both the head teacher and chair of governors strongly feel they should be in charge of their own destiny and not forced into taking an academy partner not of their choosing.
“I hope you will consider their request so the school can continue driving even further improvements in future.”
The Department for Education has now made the decision to overturn the order, allowing the school to remain under the control of Leicester City Council.
The united unions said: “This is a brilliant outcome for the school, and testament to the hard work of staff, leadership and the governing body.”
Unison East Midlands regional organiser Elliot
Dean said: “It’s welcome news that the Department for Education has listened to staff, parents and the local community. “This common sense decision is in the best interest of the school and means the staff can now fully concentrate on delivering the highest quality education possible”.
The parents of the school’s pupils also supported the efforts to have the academy order revoked.
One parent, district judge Nahied Asjad, said he has seen a huge improvement in the school: “My daughter has been a student at West Gate School since 2016.
“The last three years has seen a period of real change. There are now better safeguarding practices in place and there has been a huge improvement in the quality of teaching and the way in which the personal development and behaviour of children is managed.
“That improvement has been the direct result of the change in governance and leadership.
“I am sure that I speak on behalf of all those parents when I say that the school does not need to become an academy.
“It has demonstrated that it can improve significantly without the need for a sponsor and with the current structure in place, it can continue to achieve even more.”