academy | Schools Week

Academy transfers fall to four-year low during pandemic

The government has spent £38.8 million moving academies between trusts since 2014, official figures show, but transfers fell to a four-year low during the Covid-19 pandemic. Analysis of new Department for Education data shows a significant drop in academies switching trusts over the past financial year, with both voluntary transfers and forced rebrokering drying up […]

RSC headteacher boards rebranded as fresh elections loom

The headteacher boards which advise regional schools commissioners are set for a rebrand, as fresh elections loom for the roles overseeing the academy system. A tender notice for a contractor to run elections between September and March refers to “regional advisory boards”, with four roles up for grabs in each of the eight areas covered […]

Downsizing trust ‘failed to balance books quickly enough’

The Department for Education has slapped strict spending controls on an academy trust accused of failing to balance its books rapidly enough after it was stripped of a school. The Castle Trust, which is now preparing to close, has been issued a financial notice to improve after it “failed to act quickly enough to make […]

Death of the single academy? Leaked documents reveal DfE vision

Standalone and small multi-academy trusts will wither away as mergers fuel the growth of larger trusts, according to leaked Department for Education documents seen by Schools Week. The news comes as a Schools Week analysis suggests a merger was approved every five days over the past year. It lays bare the scale of growth in […]

New academy rules put trust autonomy at risk, say sector leaders

Sector leaders are warning the new academy trust handbook could undermine board autonomy , and demanding the government confirm whether it spells “broader intervention” in future. Most of the changes to the rebranded 2021 edition, previously known as the academies financial handbook, are simply pulling in existing school guidance from elsewhere. Minister Baroness Berridge’s foreword […]

DfE blocks MAT’s bid to take shares in outsourcing firm

An outsourcing firm has urged the government not to be “hung up on fear of the different” after officials thwarted a multi-academy trust’s bid to take shares in the for-profit company. Schools Week revealed in March that Transforming Futures Trust (TFT) had signed a £1 million deal to outsource most of its central staff and […]

School claimed furlough cash then gave £64k payout to head

A junior school that claimed nearly £100,000 of furlough cash because of the “dramatic and potentially catastrophic” financial impact of Covid made a £64,000 redundancy payment to its executive headteacher. Accounts for St Stephen’s Junior School, a single-academy trust in Canterbury, Kent, show that executive headteacher Stuart Pywell was made redundant in August, and sent […]

Heads ‘handcuffed’ into anti-academy vows

Unions are using strike action to “handcuff” headteachers into signing pledges not to academise for up to five years. National Education Union (NEU) members have held strike action at Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brentwood. The diocese has outlined plans for eight new academy trusts to take over its local authority-maintained schools, although the […]

Revealed: The schools saving thousands slashing executive salaries

Some smaller trusts are slashing inflated leadership salaries – with one saving a six-figure sum in the process. Four trusts, each with just two schools apiece, have reduced pay after facing government scrutiny for the amount pocketed by their chief executives. The Transforming Lives Educational Trust, with one secondary and one infant school in Warwickshire, […]