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29 April 2026

Tag: academies

Sponsored academies lose more pupils after takeovers

More pupils leave schools when they become sponsored academies than when they are under local authority control, a new report has shown. Researchers at Education Datalab analysed up to three years of data for 149 schools. Among those that became sponsored academies in 2010-11, the rate of pupils leaving – to other schools, alternative provision, […]

Tuesday Humby, principal, Ormiston Chadwick academy

Never in a month of Tuesdays did I think Bankfield, a comprehensive in my home town and well-known as “the dodgy school”, would become a turnaround success. When it went into special measures two years ago I advised local councillors to raze it the ground. But it didn’t take a month of Tuesdays to resolve […]

Why councils should check up on academies

There is an accountability gap in the new education landscape that council scrutiny committees could help to fill, just as they do in health, says Su Turner. Accountability matters and is well understood within schools between pupils, teachers and parents, as it is between staff, headteachers and governors. The same is not the case, however, […]

New Aldridge Education trust ditches struggling academy

A cash-strapped school has been ditched by the new academy trust founded by its sponsor, leaving the government to search for a trust with better local resources. The Isle of Portland Aldridge community academy (IPACA), in Dorset, was set to join the multi-academy trust (MAT) founded by its lead sponsor, the Aldridge Foundation, in January. […]

DfE to open up academy finances in transparency drive

The government is set to lift a veil of secrecy over academy spending in a transparency drive that will reveal reported frauds, and uncover who the highest-paid chief executives are, how much they are paid and how much trusts spend on consultants. The education select committee this week published a “dry run” of a new-look […]

Academy sponsors owe £13m in pledged funding

Nearly £13 million in pledged capital funding is still owed to the government by eight academy sponsors, with two trusts owing more than £10 million between them. Early academy sponsors were required to pay 10 per cent of capital costs, capped at £2 million, towards building a new school. But a Freedom of Information (FOI) […]

David Carter: The weakest academies will be supported not ‘shamed’

The country’s 100 weakest academies will be singled out for increased government scrutiny from January as the schools commissioner ramps up implementation of his masterplan to improve failing schools. Schools Week can reveal that the 100 secondary academies with the lowest Progress 8 scores, which we understand will be known as the “P100”, are to […]