Councillor speaks out over academy proposals

AN EAST Riding councillor and former governor has criticised the Government’s academisation programme as Goole Academy is set to be taken over by its third sponsor in six years following the collapse of a Yorkshire schools chain.

Coun Keith Moore’s comments come after he joined fellow Labour councillors and members in leafleting parents outside a meeting at the school on Monday night.

The pamphlets featured a list of questions to put to Delta Academy Trust, the school’s preferred new sponsor, which was there to speak to parents ahead of its proposed takeover from Wakefield City Academies Trust, which announced it was shedding all 21 of its schools. They included questions on attitudes to pupils, curriculum, finances and staff turnover.

Coun Moore, who represents Goole North, said: “This is the third academy trust at this school in six years, that’s a new trust every two years, which is appalling.

“I am a former governor from when it was a local authority managed school and was the chair of the governing body for nine years. In the last six years since it was academised, there has been nothing but chaos and uncertainty.

“When we look at where this is going, I, and many others, believe we are heading for a disaster. Academisation isn’t a magic bullet for education.”

Last month Coun Moore tabled a question for the leader of the council, asking for all failing academies to be taken back into local authority control, but was “met with a negative”.

He said: “Wakefield City Academies Trust had 21 schools which it consequently failed to manage, East Riding Council has 127 and none of them are in the state that Goole High School (its former name) are in.”

Paul Tarn, chief executive of Delta Academy Trust, said: “It is my understanding that when the school was under local authority control that it had its fair share of problems at that time. My view is there isn’t an option to return to local authority control.

“That’s not to say I believe academy groups can’t be a force for good, as they absolutely can be. I would point to huge improvements and outcomes to our trust over the last 18 months. We shouldn’t be put against a yardstick that all academy trusts are the same, when they are not.”