UPDATED: ‘AET has shown itself to be a trust that simply cannot be trusted’ – that’s the message from Councillor Chris Quirk as Ofsted release their latest inspection report on Sandown Bay Academy, which rates the troubled school as ‘requiring improvement’ for every category except ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’, which has been judged to be ‘inadequate’.
While there are criticisms of leaders ‘at all levels’, the report’s criticism of Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) is damning, stating that it has ‘let children down for far too long’ and that there is a widespread ‘loss of confidence’ in the Trust. The school is to be placed back in special measures.
One of the key criteria Ofsted look for when judging whether leadership and management are effective, is the capacity to secure further improvement. The recent Ofsted inspection, which has led to the release of today’s report, was undertaken at a time when the Principal, 2 Vice Principals and the school’s Business Manager had all resigned, and there was no plan in place to replace them. In addition the local Governing Body had been replaced by a Management Board that had failed to meet and AET had just announced its intention to close the school. There was, under those circumstances, very little capacity to improve.
Councillor Chris Whitehouse, who has been extremely critical of the performance of AET on the Isle of Wight, has commented:
“Senior management at AET should hang their heads in shame and write personally to the parents of every pupil and to every staff member to apologise unreservedly for their complete failure to support and develop what should by now have been a good school.
“This scathing criticism of AET by Ofsted comes as no surprise to those involved with the school and reinforces the clear message that AET should be sacked, forthwith. The damage that has been done to this school by AET is deeply shocking, but proposals for a new way to provide secondary education in Sandown are out for consultation and we are confident that a local team with community at its heart can turn the school around.”
The report – which will be published on Ofsted’s website tomorrow – notes improvements in behaviour and safeguarding procedures. It recognises the pride students, parents and the local community take in Sandown Bay Academy and Ofsted inspectors are said to have witnessed ‘pockets of good practice in teaching’, in which pupils ‘enjoy learning and make good progress’.
Despite 8 head teachers and the imposition of 5 staff restructures in as many years, the school is still on budget, a fact AET has failed to acknowledge in recent times. All this is in addition to a debilitating lack of support following the cyber-attack, which AET then insisted the school itself pay for as they had failed to insure against this eventuality.
At the same time as AET head office was discussing closing the school, it was demanding local management make another budget cut of over £700,000.
Councillor Chris Quirk, former Chair of Governors at Sandown Bay Academy has said:
“AET has never established a long term approach to deliver school improvement. Instead AET have focused on cost cutting and staff reductions beyond that required to balance the books, penalising the school financially and changing the goal posts sometimes several times in a single term. AET has shown itself to be a trust that simply cannot be trusted.”
A local authority consultation on securing future of good secondary education in the Bay area is underway and has already recorded over 1,200 responses. A link to the consultation can be found on the Isle of Wight Council website at https://www.iwight.com/Residents/Schools-and-Learning/Schools/Sandown-Secondary-School-Consultation.
Both Cllr Quirk and Cllr Whitehouse have emphasised:
“If you haven’t already responded to the consultation please do so urgently. We need your support to make sure we have a good secondary school in Sandown.”
The full report can be read today by visiting https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=YWV0aW5ldC5vcmd8c2FuZG93bi1iYXktYWNhZGVteXxneDoyZmI0MzY3MGU4NTgwNDk2.
UPDATE @ 17:05 – The Green Party’s Education spokesperson, Vix Lowthion, has this afternoon commented on the news.
“Students, staff and previous governing body have tried their hardest against the tide, where AET have clearly failed to support the school and the community to make even an expected level of progress.
“My concern is with the children, parents and teachers who in reading this OFSTED report must be confused. They have have been left with little interpretation or guidance by school management, including AET, as to what it means for the future of the school.
“Sandown Bay Academy and the wider community deserve much more support and the highest education standards for their young people. I urge all islanders to complete both public consultations which are currently live, as soon as possible.
“We must not be disheartened by this report, and instead look to all options in the future to ensure quality, local education for the children of Sandown”.
UPDATE @ 18:33 – AET has responded to the publication of Ofsted’s report by saying:
“We are very aware of the issues in the Academy as well as its strengths, and fully take on board this report. We acknowledge, as we have already acknowledged elsewhere, that AET has not succeeded in driving forward the educational improvements at Sandown Bay that we would all wish to see, and we fully understand the problems and challenges standing in the way of pupils’ progress.
“Many of these challenges stem from the underlying context within which Sandown Bay is working, where it has a falling student roll due to over-supply of secondary school places on the Isle of Wight, and as a result income has been falling steeply year-on-year. The resulting annual cycle of redundancies has put enormous pressures on staff and made it very difficult for the school to provide the resources and the teaching it needs.
“Beyond these underlying issues, Ofsted highlights problems with governance and leadership. Here, AET had put in place a Governing Body to replace the previous Management Board, but this was found to be ineffective in monitoring and holding the school to account. In line with current Government advice, therefore, we replaced the Governing Body and reverted to a Management Board which has the professional experience and capability to scrutinise performance and to offer both challenge and support to the school’s leadership. The Management Board has already met, and will meet again before the end of term. Meanwhile with regards to leadership, following the resignation of the Principal and one Vice-Principal, a new and experienced leadership team is in place for September, and has already commenced work to take the school through the coming period of transition.
“Plans are in place to ensure Sandown Bay Academy is fully staffed for September and, with the support of the Trust, to ensure the school is successful in future HMI monitoring visits, and that all development areas identified in the report are addressed, in the interests of all the school’s pupils. This is the rationale and reasoning behind our proposals to amalgamate the Academy with its sister school, Ryde, where performance is improving and where there is a track record of leadership success and notable gains in the educational outcomes for pupils. This proposal is currently subject to consultation, and any decision on Sandown Bay’s future will be taken by Ministers. Whatever that decision may be, AET undertakes to ensure it provides the support needed by the school through any period of transition, and to act on the recommendations of the Ofsted report”.
