An academy sponsor with £100million a year turnover, earned in part by a contract to run Ofsted inspections and an “award winning” school improvement service, has admitted it can’t run its own schools.
Prospects Academy Trust has today announced it is folding and is ‘handing back’ its six academies. Prospects Academies Trust said it had been a “very difficult” year for supporting its academies. It has three schools in Paignton, Devon but the others are hundreds of miles away in Bexhill, Gloucester and the Forest of Dean while the trust’s HQ is in Bromley, Kent.
A DfE spokesman said: “Two of these schools are in special measures and it is disappointing that the pupils are not getting the education they deserve.” He said the schools would all be “re-brokered with excellent sponsors”.
The DfE spokesman fails to mention that it is just six weeks since the DfE handed Dean Academy in Lydney to Prospects; no doubt telling parents, students and staff that Prospects was an “excellent sponsor”.
Meanwhile the DfE continues to peddle misleading statistics about sponsored academies http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/05/07/exclusive-sponsored-primary-academy-test-results-improving-slower-than-in-non-academies.aspx with bullying brokers travelling up and down the country forcing academy conversions.
Enough is enough!
We call on politicians of all parties to ask Ofsted why it has employed this questionable company and we call for an urgent review of legislation so that schools may be allowed to return to their democratically elected and accountable local authorities.
read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27428966
