The academy schools movement is increasingly dominated by chains. These self-styled ‘charities’ are in reality ‘edu-businesses’ paying fat cat salaries to their CEOs, developing corporate branding and seeking aggressive expansion in the education ‘market’. This briefing looks at the Harris Federation.
The Harris Federation is a key player amongst academy chains and has played a leading role in developing academy policies since they were introduced by New Labour. Harris Federation have several well established schools.
The Federation is named after Lord Phillip Harris of Peckham, one of the richest men in Britain who has a personal fortune of £275 million and runs the Carpetright chain of carpet stores. Harris is a member of the Tory Party and has many large donations including to several leading figures (see below).
The Harris Federation currently runs 13 academies, 1 of which is a primary school and has 2 more in development. 2 primary schools, which Michael Gove has declared are ‘underperforming’, are to be forced to become academies with Harris identified as a sponsor. Harris also has 2 ‘free’ schools in development, one in Tottenham, North London.
Parents, staff, governors and the head opposed Downhills Primary being forced to become an academy. Gove sacked the governors and has made Harris the preferred sponsor.
Harris boast that the “Harris Federation has a performance record in terms of improvement in examination results combined with numbers of outstanding Academies which is unmatched by any Academy group in the country.”
We are happy to acknowledge the success of Harris where it is due but it is important to look more closely behind the spin. The use of GCSE equivalents and the high rate of exclusions may have helped Harris. It is also important to recognise that most of the Harris academies for which results have been published were set up under the New Labour programme. This was a very different programme that carried with it massive capital and generous transitional funding. In effect, brand new schools were set up.
Harris has spun its figures by using GCSE Equivalents
Under New Labour a set of GCSE ‘equivalents’ were introduced where other qualifications were counted as equivalent to 2, 3 or 4 GCSEs. This was used by many schools, but particularly academies, to improve their GCSE rankings.
The government recently removed 3,000 GCSE equivalents. While many school results were affected by this, academies were most affected, and academy chains did very badly.
When the equivalents are removed the average drop for all maintained schools nationally is 6 percentage points for 5 A*-C with English and Maths from 59.1% to 53.2%.
Harris Federation has 8 schools which entered pupils for GCSE in 2011. When you remove equivalents Harris GCSE results fell by 14% – far more than the national average.
| Claimed GCSE A*-C withEnglish and Maths | Result adjustedto remove equivalents | drop inresults | |
| Harris Academy at Peckham |
50% |
29% |
21% |
| Harris Academy Bermondsey |
64% |
57% |
7% |
| Harris Academy Falconwood |
57% |
44% |
13% |
| Harris Academy Merton |
75% |
61% |
14% |
| Harris Academy Purley |
61% |
42% |
19% |
| Harris Academy South Norwood |
75% |
46% |
29% |
| Harris City Academy Crystal Palace |
95% |
88% |
7% |
| Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich |
67% |
58% |
9% |
The national average for 5 GCSE results at A*-C with English and Maths with equivalents removed is 53.2%. This means that half of the Harris Academies are below the national average.
GCSE data: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2012/01/26/2011KS4Publication_alldata.csv
Exclusions
Many people (eg the recent children commissioner report http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_561) are concerned that one way for academies to improve their results is to exclude a disproportionate number of the pupils.
The average permanent exclusion rate for local authority schools is 0.15% for 2009/10.
Harris Academy South Norwood permanently excluded 0.92% of its pupils, that’s 6 times the national average.
Harris Academy Falconwood excluded 0.53%,
Harris City Academy Crystal Palace excluded 0.41%,
Harris Academy at Peckham excluded 0.36%.
These figures illustrate a significantly higher rate of exclusion than the national average
Exclusions data: http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196834/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-from-schools
Is Harris Federation a charity or a business?
The annual report for 2010 shows that the Harris Federation has a turnover of £130 million. It employs 1,157 people.
Whilst for legal, and perhaps moral reasons it presents as a charity (it was made an exempt charity in August 2011 so it no longer has to publish accounts with the charity Commission) its operations make it appear much more like a business.
It runs two separate but connected business arms
- Harris Academies Project Management Limited “The company is used for construction work on a number of Harris Federation academy buildings.” Made £337,000 profit.
- HCTC Enterprises limited “The company is used to carry on business as a general commercial company”. It operates the Lewis Sports and Leisure Centre and made £23,000 profit.
CEO gets ‘fat cat’ pay and business culture pervades the federation
In 2009 29 people earned more that £60,000 per year, totalling £2,460,000.
By 2010 this had risen to 46 people earning £3,850,000 – an increase of 56%
For comparison an MP earned £65,738 in 2010.
In 2011 the government allowed academy chains to be defined as an ‘exempt charity’. This prevents us looking at their more recent annual reports. However the Guardian reported in November “A director of the Harris Federation earned £243,027 – a rise of £26,411 on the year before.” This compares to a paltry £142,500 for the Prime Minister.
It is clear that Lord Harris sees his business interests and his schools in a similar way. Author Francis Beckett reported in 2008 that “[He] phones his stores to see what the sales figures are, he calls his schools to find out the attendance figures.”
http://antiacademies.org.uk/Pre-2010/francis-beckett-pamphlet-we-pay-the-piper/
In an interview in the Financial Times in 2009 Michael Skapinker reported a discussion with Lord Harris “Can hospitals really be run like carpet shops? Aren’t they public services rather than businesses? Well, everything’s about serving a customer, he says.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/439e29e4-c8fb-11e0-aed8-00144feabdc0.html
Aggressive expansionism
In 2010 Harris attempted to take over Kelsey Park school in Bromley, backed by Michael Gove. Both the Headteacher and Bromley Council were against the school becoming a Harris academy. The TES reported:
‘Kelsey Park head Brian Lloyd said he felt his school was the subject of a “hostile takeover bid” being improperly backed by the Government.’
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6061746
While Harris were pushing Kelsey Park to become an academy they were also involved in initiating a ‘free’ school in the area, which would have competed for Kelsey Park pupils, further pressuring Kelsey Park.
http://www.bromleytimes.co.uk/news/beckenham_free_school_given_green_light_1_786833
Eventually the Kelsey Park governors voted to join the Harris Federation.
At the same time Cator Park girls school was invited to join the Harris Federation. The proposed ‘free’ school would also have impacted on Cator Park.
Cator Park also voted to join Harris.
After Harris had brought both schools into its Federation the ‘free’ school proposal was then withdrawn.
The Anti Academies Alliance is very concerned that the growth of academies means more and more of our schools are being taken over and run by chains like the Harris Federation. These chains look more like businesses than schools, and many are proud of this similarity. Is this how we want to see our schools run in the 21st Century?
The Harris Federation and the Tory Party
“For a long time Lord Harris has been a great supporter and a great friend to me.” David Cameron
Chair Lord Phillip Harris of Peckham is a Conservative Peer and has donated a little over £2 million to the Tory party through his personal and business interests. This includes £50,000 to Boris Johnson, £120,000 to George Osborne, £145,000 to David Cameron to assist his Tory leadership election campaign.
Lord Harris gave David Cameron silver goblets for Xmas as well as a £3,500 hamper. Lord Harris is understood to be Cameron’s most influential backer and to have persuaded him to stand for leader of the Tory Party. At one point Harris was considered a possible treasurer of the Tory Party.
Chief Executive Officer Daniel Moynihan spoke at the Tory conference in 2010 and was asked to sit on a ministerial advisory group on the role of local authorities in education.
Sir Cyril Taylor is a non-executive director. Sir Cyril served on the Greater London Council from 1977 until 1986 and was elected deputy leader of the Conservative group from 1983. In 1994, the Conservative government, at the urging of Sir Cyril Taylor, designated 35 schools as Technology Colleges, the fore-runners to academies. He then reputedly persuaded Tony Blair to set up the academies programme on a train journey to York!
john Hobson said:
One aspect which isn’t being picked up is the staff turnover figures. Staff are effectively bulled and constantly monitored, burnt out and leave. They are enticed by inflated job titles and generally don’t have the experience for the jobs but as Harris a system they don’t care.
A few weeks back Harris advertised for 13 staff and is wasn’t even easter. I’d expect turnover is running at close to 100% over 3 years.
23 March 2012 at 1:02pmLynne Faulkes said:
just how much are these “sppnsors” putting into schools’ education?
23 March 2012 at 4:02pmJohn Bolt said:
Excellent analysis of how these people work. There is an National College for School Leadership report out on academy chains which shows very clearly how school autonomy is a thing of the past in these chains …. and chillingly NCSL buys into the chain’s way of seeing things quite uncritically. There is a review of this report on the Socialist Educational Association blog at http://educevery.wordpress.com/
24 March 2012 at 8:52amRodger Williams said:
It worth submitting a FOI request to all the boroughs that have an Harris academy to see if the ability profile of each Harris academy matches the one that applied to the academy.
24 March 2012 at 1:35pmRyszard Konietzka said:
Check out Harris’s ‘close to the mark’ admissions policies as well. ALL children are tested and allocated to one of 9 ability bands. The school then apparently admits children in proportion. What they don’t tell you is the fact that they
i) select the top of each ability band, rather than a random sample
ii) if a child is otherwise admitted outside the above policy, they then take children from the top of the bands.
So, in effect, a quasi-grammar school, together with ‘equivalent’ qualifcations to make up the rest.
28 March 2012 at 2:29pmRodger Williams said:
We aren’t going to send our children to an academy say the parents of Sevenoaks:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/grammar-school-expansion-kent-town
1 April 2012 at 9:31amcornelius@ofstedwatch said:
‘The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier’.
11 April 2012 at 7:23am- George Bernard Shaw
ross kingsley said:
There are going to be two Harris Acadamies in Merton as of September 2012 as Bishopsford Arts College has been forced to join the federation. That school has a hugely challenging and complex intake and had been making progress.
15 June 2012 at 8:43pmMrs A Simpson said:
Harris Academies appear to be on a mission to purge out teachers who are over 50, female and black in addition to fuelling a ridiculously high level of turnover of staff in general. There are staff with outstanding grievances and at least one case going to Tribunal for racial discrimination this autumn. Currently Harris Bermondsey has 27 staff who are leaving at the end of this year and several other staff who have left during this academic year, plus casualties who are off sick despite years of exemplary service, excellent attendance records and high GCSE results. Why are we accepting their heinous aggressive management policies which create an atmosphere of fear and stress at work inevitably affecting the delivery of education to the students who are often left with an army of supply teachers covering in many subjects?
20 June 2012 at 10:03pmMrs A Simpson said:
Harris Academies are relentless in their inventiveness of removing staff who are not slavishly following the party line. Their most recent initiative is to hire in a private firm of ‘inspectors’ prior to an HMI inspection and use this as a vehicle to find teachers with previously Outstanding lesson observations as now ‘Inadequate’ without these ‘inspectors’ looking at vital documents such as SEFs and seemingly blind to other evidence of exemplary or good practise. Next comes bullying from the Head to attend an ‘informal capability meeting’ ..- does this even exist??? and hey presto, in staff files appears an ‘Inadequate’ report just in time for the change in the law regarding capability & weak teachers in September. Harris staff also have to sign a confidentiality agreement which prevents them from speaking out about what is going on. Needless to say, I am not one of the staff. Can friends of people who work in these horrible places PLEASE start to tell the truth??!!
20 June 2012 at 10:13pmMike G said:
I completely agree with your first paragraph here and would love you to have a similar look into how the David Ross Education Trust is performing.
The expansion of these academy chains seems to be more about who you are than how qualified you are to guide the education of the children of the nation. They’re businesses masquerading as charities, in it for the benefits of such status – would the same people be stepping up to the plate if they couldn’t be run as charities?
Whilst David Ross is well renowned for his rise to fame as co-founder of Carphone Warehouse his performance since he was forced to resign from there has been a little less impressive.
He was forced to resign from a number of his directorships and the one he kept (he’s Chairman of Cosalt plc) has been driven from a company with a turnover above £100M to one that he tried to buyout recently for £400,000 and has been suspended by the UKLA for the last 3 months for failing to produce it’s accounts for 2011. Shareholders have been calling for his head for more than 6 months. http://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=CSLT
He’s in a honeymoon period with his academies, his trust is funded to the hilt with the transfer in of former public assets and government funding. He puts his name to it as though he’s the one who’s financing it when it’s primarily funded by others.
On the face of it all seems well but when the rapid expansion slows and the fresh funding has to come from within or from donations is the model he’s pushing sustainable? He is well equipped for running cash rich enterprises, not so sure about when he’s faced with having to balance the books on a tight budget. Can we have the spotlight on the David Ross Education Trust please.
12 July 2012 at 8:53amA said:
At interviews over the last 2 years I have met two teachers who had actually resigned from a Harris Academy without a job to go to, because they hated working there so much. I have also met another 2 teachers who were working there on a supply basis who had no desire whatsoever to stay on a permanent basis even if asked. They warned me not to go there as “everyone’s stressed, unhappy and wants to leave.” One of the supply teachers told me just 2 weeks ago that, on her first day, she arrived very early as she has a relatively long journey, and getting there around 7a.m. found the car park so full she had trouble finding a place and that the car park was still full at 7 pm. She also said she was teaching IB languages but, after trying IB this year, they are dropping it next as the students are so used to being spoon fed they cannot cope with an exam that actually requires them to think. Needless to say she will not be returning in September even if asked. As for me, after 2 years on supply I would love to have a permanent job again, but will not apply to a Harris Academy even though there is one within walking distance of my flat. In the past before meeting these people I naively did apply, but being 53 and on pay scale UPS2 they would not have me anyway. (The difficulty of people of my experience and age getting a permanent teaching job in the present climate is another topic I could go on about for ages). As a language teacher who has experience of both the experience of the past in this country and abroad,it seems to me that we have gone mad. Other countries have higher standards and much less of this nonsense. When will people in this country realise we are going along the wrong path?
14 July 2012 at 11:31pmdavid smith said:
I would like to know what salary is paid to the boss of the Barnfield Trust in Luton?
8 December 2012 at 11:03amJane said:
Approximate information like this can be obtained from Companies House at a cost of £1 per document. Since the Academies Act 2010 the academy trusts have become exempt charities, so their accounts are no longer available via the Charity Commission.
The accounts for Barnfield to August 2011 show that the highest paid person earned between £110k and £120k. 3 staff are paid between £60k and £70k. In 2010 no-one was in this salary range. According to the 2009 salaries, 1 person was paid between £100k and £110k and one was paid between £70k and £80k.
19 December 2012 at 12:42pmJon said:
Roke Primary School in Kenley, Surrey is now being forced into academy status with the Harris Federation, against the wishes of the governors and parents.
http://insidecroydon.com/2013/01/08/roke-primary-to-be-handed-over-to-a-carpet-salesman/
8 January 2013 at 9:58pmNigel said:
Exempt charities are required to provide a copy of their most recent accounts to anyone who requests them, notwithstanding that they are not registered with the Charity Commission. Check out s.172 of the Charities Act 2011.
BTW I will be at the Roke Primary School meeting this evening. Seems it’s been decided not to bother with consultation as mentioned at s.5 of the Academies Act 2010.
10 January 2013 at 3:05pmNeil Moffatt said:
With a school in Croydon as the latest in this chain of forced conversions, with no legal grounds at all (a minor sub-standard inspection report was caused by computer failure to supply the figures in time for an otherwise excellent school), are there not now legal grounds for contesting the process? Can they break their own rules and act entirely on the interests of Harris, their ‘friend’ in a transparently old-pals act?
14 January 2013 at 9:14pmconcerned mum said:
Could someone please clarify how exactly do Harris Academy and other Academies make their money? With figures of over £100m pounds the mind boggles! They say they don’t make a profit so where does it go? Is it all used to pay salaries and overheads?
17 January 2013 at 2:03pmJBDINGLEY said:
They are a charitable foundation who want to improve the, until recently, dire schooling this country has to offer, there isn’t some evil plot here contrary to what this website would have you believe!!! Lol
17 January 2013 at 8:29pmPauline Allies said:
Lord Harris has until recently run@ Carpetright, as I understand it. He is stepping down as the company is in trouble. Of course he is very well qualified as a Tory to suggest a right wing privatistion philosophy to run educational establishments. He is probably as well qualified as the intelligent, caring man who, in my opinion, is the vile Michael Gove.
25 January 2013 at 8:29pmJBDingley said:
Pauline, what a stupid comment, check your facts, Lord Harris runs a charitable foundation dedicated to improving educational opportunities for children in the West Midlands, he’s not privatising anything.
And regarding your comments re right wing philosophies, well look what your left wing ideology has done since the abolitionif grammar schools, well bloody done!!
30 January 2013 at 10:28pmlerxst said:
Academy Trust accounts are published on the DfE website so no need to write to the Trust. Just download the latest version. I expect 2012 accounts will be available soon.
2 February 2013 at 12:09pmCaptain Swing said:
JBDingley, the Tories closed more Grammar Schools in the early 1970′s that Labour did in the 60′s so there’s your theory blown out of the water…But businessmen taking over schools? Why? Because they’re nice people? No (they’re not). Because they know lots about education? No, my cats know more than Lord Harris. To get their snouts in the trough? (Ohhhh yessssss! Churchill (the dog)).
5 February 2013 at 5:07pmDesi Boy said:
My son and daughter will not be going to a school who’s first priority is profit not education. Thanks but, no thanks.
15 February 2013 at 2:56pmJohn Smith said:
Information needed on David Ross Academies please, as well as schools who have withdrawn from their possible involvement.
15 February 2013 at 7:42pmBob Warren said:
In taking over a school on the premise of improving standards then the key point is the current students.
2 April 2013 at 5:50amIf the organisation keeps all current students in the new ‘academy’ it has a sound basis for doing so. If it rejects ANY of the present students then it needs to be condemned most vehemently. Charter schools in Canada and many private (non government) schools in Australia have adopted this model. They then trumpet their success which is achieved on the back of students who are less gifted, able, or economically disadvantaged.
The problem that this engenders is that surrounding schools are forced to pick up these students, usually with no extra resourcing and they in turn suffer in attempting to maintain/raise standards – it becomes a quick road to the lowest common denominator and the entrenched 2 or 3 tier education structure. Where’s the equity it that?