• Ofsted amends report of Harris school at centre of framework row after admitting inspection error

    Ofsted has amended the report of a school run by one of its most high-profile critics after inspectors wrongly applied new transitional measures. Harris Academy St John’s Wood, in north London, was rated ‘good’ by the schools watchdog in January – including ‘good’ judgments for ‘quality of education’ and ‘leadership and management’. In the wake…

    5.01 Mar. 13th, 2020 | News

  • Harris schools swamp ESOL exam with native English speakers

    A top trust last year entered hundreds of native English speakers into a qualification intended for pupils with English as a second language. In February Luke Tryl, then Ofsted’s director of strategy, warned that the watchdog was looking at secondary schools entering native speakers into the Cambridge International level 1/2 certificate in English for Speakers…

    5.00 Apr. 26th, 2019 | News

  • Minister 'at war' over academy CEO pay defends Moynihan's £440k salary

    A minister who claims to have “declared war” on excessive executive pay in academies has ruled that the £440,000 annual salary of England’s highest-paid academy chief is “reasonable”. Lord Agnew, who is leading the Department for Education’s clampdown on largesse in academy pay, told Schools Week he had spoken to the Harris Federation about the…

    7.00 Nov. 30th, 2018 | News

  • Major MAT Progress 8 scores tumble when accounting for ex-pupils

    The progress scores of major multi-academy trusts including Harris Federation, Outwood Grange and Delta all drop off if they include pupils who leave before the end of year 11. Researchers at Education Datalab have “reweighted” the performance data of the 62 trusts in MAT league tables last year to include the GCSE results of pupils…

    5.00 Jun. 30th, 2018 | News

  • Harris accounts: Redundancy payouts double as Moynihan gets £20k pay rise

    Redundancy payouts have more than doubled at London’s Harris multi-academy trust last year, while chief executive Dan Moynihan received a £20,000 pay rise, the chain’s accounts reveal. The documents, published today, show the Harris Federation paid out £470,000 in redundancy pay in 2017, compared with just £189,000 the year before. They also show that Moynihan…

    18.13 Jan. 31st, 2018 | News

  • Harris to move alternative provision pupils to new vocational school site

    Harris has announced plans to move its Aspire AP academy, which caters for pupils at risk of exclusion, onto the same site as its new vocational sixth-form. The Harris Professional Skills Sixth-Form, also known as HPS6F, is a free school opening in south London in September which is unusual for only offering vocational courses. Harris…

    7.00 Jan. 13th, 2018 | News

  • Harris academy chain to build 100 homes for teachers

    The Harris Federation, one of the largest multi-academy trusts, is planning to build up to 100 homes in partnership with a housing association in a bid to stop teachers being priced out of London. The chain presented a proposal to the Department for Education in March last year about using surplus land it owns that…

    5.00 Oct. 6th, 2017 | News

  • Pioneering London academy absorbed by Harris Federation

    One of the country’s first ever academies has been taken over by a major London academy chain, after it fell into special measures. The Garrard Academy, formerly known as the ‘Business Academy Bexley’, was opened in 2003 by the then-prime minister Tony Blair, who hailed it as the “future” of state education. But financial woes…

    14.04 Sep. 1st, 2017 | News

  • Harris Federation boss's salary reaches £420,000 after latest pay rise

    The country’s best-paid academy boss has been handed another pay rise – boosting his salary to at least £420,000. It marks another salary increase for Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, who was paid at least £395,000 in 2015. New annual accounts published by Harris, which runs 41 schools, show another seven…

    11.48 Feb. 2nd, 2017 | News

  • Passivhaus schools claim to reduce energy costs by 80 per cent

    The first secondary school to use energy-saving Passivhaus design principles is set to be built for the Harris Federation in south London. Its design could help to reduce costs by 70 to 90 per cent “post-completion” compared with a normal school, Schools Week has learned. Eleven schools in England are built on the architectural principle…

    5.00 Jan. 22nd, 2017 | News