Academy status for a third of county’s schools
Concerns are raised over performance of trusts
ONE-THIRD OF schools in Yorkshire are no longer controlled by local authorities – showing the startling growth of the academy programme in the region.
The county now has more than 700 schools run by charitable trusts, including 183 secondaries, with sponsors ranging from churches to businesses and philanthropists.
Research carried out by The Yorkshire Post shows that 706 schools are now academies, encompassing nine alternative provision schools – often available to pupils who are on the verge of being excluded – two middle schools, eight all-through schools and 16 special schools.
There are also 28 University Technical Colleges (UTCs), studio schools and free schools in the region, which are brand new schools set up as academies by groups including parents, teachers and charities.
A total of 1,481 schools remain under council control in Yorkshire.
The Government wants all schools to become academies, independent of local councils, which traditionally ran English schools, and funded direct by Whitehall. Currently, 2,128 out of 3,172 secondary schools in England are academies, while 3,829 out of 16,649 primary schools have academy status.
The number grew dramatically under the Coalition Government, from 203 in May 2010, and has continued under the present Conservative government.
The staggering growth reflects the Government’s ambition of increasing the academy programme but it has raised questions about the accountability and the pace of change – particularly with a major increase of organisations running a large number of academies. Academies are overseen by academy trusts, and increasing numbers are part of chains, otherwise known as multi-academy trusts (MATs), with some running schools across the country. The Academies Enterprise Trust is England’s largest chain and looks after 66 primary and secondaries from London to Yorkshire, where it oversees 11 schools.
In England, the number of these chains tripled from 391 in March 2011 to 1,197 as of March this year. Out of 6,244 academies, more than 4,000 are in a trust – one in five of all state-funded schools in the country, according to the latest government figures.
There are currently 125 multiacademy trusts running schools in Yorkshire, with the Delta
Trusts ‘support other schools and each other to drive up standards’ Paul Tarn, chief executive of Delta Academies Trust
Academies Trust being the largest, running 38 schools in the region.
The chief executive of the trust, Paul Tarn, who harbours an ambition to use the academy programme as a catalyst to regenerate education in the North, said he was passionate about academy chains as they “support other schools and each other to drive up standards”.
But there are significant concerns about the performance, accountability and expansion of multi-academy trusts.
Neil Carmichael, Conservative MP and chair of the Education Select Committee, told The Yorkshire Post: “I’m very supportive of the academy programme and I think multi-academy trusts are a good way of running a collection of schools for several reasons,
THE LEADER of Yorkshire’s largest academy chain has unveiled ambitious plans to “regenerate education in the North” by teaming up with other leaders to drive up standards in some of the most underperforming schools.
Former coal miner Paul Tarn, who has spent the last decade turning around some of the worst performing schools in the country, took up his role as chief executive at the struggling Delta Academies Trust, which is based in Wakefield, just over a year ago.
Over the last 12 months he has overseen major improvements across its 43 schools, including 38 in Yorkshire, and has began working in partnership with Outwood Grange Academies Trust to overhaul education in the North.
Now he has revealed plans to roll-out the strategy further by teaming up with other academy chains.
Mr Tarn, who was previously the deputy chief executive for the fellow Wakefield-based Outwood Grange Academies Trust, one of the country’s highest performing academy chains with 22 schools across the North, said: “Children in the North have some of the worst outcomes in education. Poorly performing schools need to be working closely together, particularly in communities that have suffered from the decline of the mining industry and the manufacturing industries.
“We want to work together across the North of England with like-minded trusts to transform education. We are really serious about looking at a strategy to regenerate education in the North.”
Mr Tarn said the trust, which runs 26 primary schools, 14 secondaries and three “all through” schools across Yorkshire, including Doncaster, Grimsby and Hull, wants to work collaboratively with other trusts and leaders of education to overhaul consistently underperforming schools.
He said: “By doing this we can fix some of the ingrained performances that have marred education in the North for generations. There are schools that continually don’t perform when compared with similar types of schools in the South and it’s about saying what are we going to do about it and if we are really experts in education let’s sort it out.
“Working with the chief executive at Outwood Grange Academies Trust, Martyn Oliver, who is an expert in school improvement, we are developing this. We are already on a journey to do our best in the North but we are interested in talking to other trusts to find out if they are interested in joining us on that journey.”
Mr Tarn said the trust did not have to sponsor schools to help them improve as working with others was key.
He said: “If we are going to operate as a region with HS2 coming in, which will provide an opportunity for us to lead the economy in the North, we have to regenerate education. It’s about preparing the next generation of workers with the right skills. It’s a really exciting time in education and there are opportunities to make a difference - not in isolation but in collaboration with others.”
The Delta Academies Trust, which was completely rebranded in last October, changing its name from the Schools Partnership Trust Academies, was in dire straits when Mr Tarn took over, he explained.
“The trust was in quite a bit of trouble. It had huge financial problems. The standards in the schools weren’t particularly good. We had some outstanding schools, and we still have, but some were among the bottom performing academies in the country,” he said.
Mr Tarn said he believed a good academy trust focussed entirely on performance and outcomes of the children and was not about “collecting schools” to become a large organisation.
“If we can’t improve the outcomes, then we shouldn’t be running the school,” he said.
Over the last 12 months the trust has made a raft of improvements. “Things across the trust are really starting to pick up pace. The school improvement rate is phenomenal and I’m delighted with that,” said Mr Tarn. “There are lots of things you can do when you operate as one big organisation. It means you can really get the benefit of the expertise right the way across the trust.
We want to work together across the North to transform education Paul Tarn, chief executive of the Delta Academies Trust