academies | Schools Week

Durand Academy Trust funding to be terminated

The government has announced it will proceed with the termination of Durand Academy Trust’s funding agreement after the chain refused to sever ties with its controversial former highly paid executive headteacher. The Education Funding Agency has issued Durand with a notice of intention to terminate its agreement, claiming the trust has failed to comply with six of eight […]

Durand: We will fight any slur on Sir Greg Martin’s good name

An academy trust set to have its funding axed by the government has hit back – blasting department officials for “waging a campaign” against the school, and has vowed to fight any “slur” on the trust or its staff. The Education Funding Agency issued Durand Academy Trust with a notice of intention to terminate its […]

REAch 2 director joins struggling chain

A regional director of the country’s largest primary-only trust has joined the board of a struggling chain. Simon Wood, regional director for East Anglia at REAch2, has joined the Seckford Foundation Free School Trust as a non-executive director. REAch 2, which runs 55 schools and which was last month given approval to open another 21, […]

Academy CEOs could face local council ‘scrutiny boards’

Councils could soon have scrutiny powers over academies similar to those they already have for health bodies as the government seeks to boost mechanisms for intervention in schools. Schools Week understands the Department for Education (DfE) is in talks about replicating the work of council “health scrutiny boards” to address fears about the quality of […]

Floreat’s financial woes flag small trust concerns

Financial difficulties that have forced an academy chain founded by one of the government’s education advisers to consider a merger have prompted warnings about the viability of primary schools trusts. The Floreat Education Academies Trust, founded by former David Cameron aide Lord O’Shaughnessy, is proposing to join another trust after financial problems in its second […]

SPTA academy trust ‘rebrands’ to Delta Academies Trust

One of England’s largest academy chains is changing its name as part of a major rebrand to make a “fresh start” after a turbulent couple of years. School Partnership Trust Academies (SPTA), which sponsors 44 academies across Yorkshire and the Humber, will become Delta Academies Trust from next month. The rebrand has been led by […]

EXCLUSIVE: Labour admits ‘no policy’ on academies

Labour does not have a policy on the future of the academies programme, a member of the party’s frontbench team has admitted. Lord Watson, the shadow education minister in the House of Lords, told a fringe event at the Labour party conference that the party was in the “early stages” of policy development. Party leader […]

Grammar get-out clause confirmed: selection ‘permissible’ within trusts

The government has confirmed it has a grammar school get-out clause that allows academy trusts to filter their brightest pupils to another site, effectively creating selective schools and dodging the need for new laws to be passed. The education green paper introduced by Justine Greening a fortnight ago outlined proposals for multi-academy trusts to move […]

Academies are vital to May’s reform agenda

The government’s determination to expand selection must be done within the current system – and that includes academies, says Amy Finch. But academy chains vary in their effectiveness; Reform’s new research attempts to find out why Selection in 2016 looks very different from grammars and secondary moderns, Theresa May insinuated last week at prime minister’s […]