Setting

Ofsted is proud to use recycled paper 28 January 2016

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Mr Ian Comfort Chief Executive Officer Academies Enterprise Trust Kilnfield House Station Approach Hockley SS5 4HS

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Focused inspection of AET academies

Following the focused inspections of seven of the schools in the Academies Enterprise Trust (‘AET’ or ‘the Trust’) in November 2015, and the subsequent follow- up visit by Her Majesty’s Inspectors, I am writing on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the findings.

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Focused inspection of AET academies

Thank you for your cooperation during the visit by Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) John Daniell, Stephen McMullan and Paul Tomkow on 24 and 25 November 2015. We particularly appreciate the time taken to prepare the visit programme. Please pass on my thanks to your staff and other stakeholders who kindly gave up their time to meet our inspectors.

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Focused inspection of AET academies

A focused inspection of a sample of the Trust’s academies was last carried out in June 2014.

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Focused inspection of AET academies

The findings from the latest sample of focused inspections and a wider consideration of the Trust’s overall performance are set out below.

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Summary of main findings

 After operating for nearly eight years, the Trust is failing too many pupils. Almost 40% of the pupils attend AET primary academies that do not provide a good standard of education. It is even worse in secondary, where 47% of pupils attend academies that are less than good.

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Summary of main findings

 Children from poor backgrounds do particularly badly in this Trust. The attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils, in both the primary and secondary academies, still lags behind that of other pupils, and gaps in performance are not narrowing quickly enough. Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 Textphone 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T: Direct F: MAT@ofsted.gov.uk  The performance of AET’s secondary academies is mediocre and has not improved enough since the previous focused inspections in June 2014. Only 41% of AET secondary academies are good or better and the Trust’s impact on raising standards at Key Stage 4 has not been effective.

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Summary of main findings

 Standards are rising at Key Stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics. Of the 32 primary academies, 19 improved their Key Stage 2 attainment between 2014 and 2015. At 69%, the proportion of good or better primary academies is also increasing, although it is still well below the national average.

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Summary of main findings

 Pupils’ attendance across the AET academies overall is unacceptably low.

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Summary of main findings

 The Trust’s work to tackle weak leadership in secondary academies has had limited impact in improving academy performance.

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Summary of main findings

 Changes to the Trust’s organisation and working practices have not sufficiently improved the Trust’s performance.

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Summary of main findings

 The Trust’s approach to improvement planning on a national basis means that there is insufficient focus on local issues.

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Summary of main findings

 The Trust does not publish adequate information about the scheme of delegation for governance.

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Summary of main findings

 The outcomes of the focused inspections failed to demonstrate that the Trust is consistently improving its academies.

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Evidence

Focused inspections of seven academies were carried out between 17 and 19 November 2015. Four of these inspections were carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended). Three inspections were carried out as monitoring visits under section 8 of the Act.

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Evidence

The outcomes of the section 5 focused inspections were (all academies were judged to require improvement at their previous inspection):

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Evidence

 one academy had improved and was judged to be good  two academies continued to require improvement  one academy declined and was judged to require special measures.

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Evidence

The outcomes of the section 8 focused monitoring inspections were:

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Evidence

 one academy was assessed to be taking effective action to be judged good at its next section 5 inspection  one academy was judged to be taking effective action to remove the serious weaknesses found at its previous section 5 inspection  one academy was judged not to be taking effective action to remove the serious weaknesses found at its previous section 5 inspection.

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Evidence

HMI held telephone discussions with the principals of 18 other AET academies between 18 and 20 November 2015. During the follow-up visit, HMI held discussions with senior and operational staff, principals, trustees and governors, strategic partners and other stakeholders. Inspectors also scrutinised a range of relevant documentation including information on pupils’ achievement, policies and minutes of meetings.

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Context

AET was set up in 2008. It is the largest multi-academy trust in the country, with 67 academies. It comprises 30 secondary academies, 32 primary academies and five special academies.

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Context

Around 73% of AET’s current academies or their predecessor schools were judged to be less than good on or prior to joining the Trust. The academies are spread across England, and many are located in areas with a high level of social deprivation.

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Context

You took up the post of Chief Executive Officer of the Trust in October 2013. Four regional directors oversee academy improvement. The Board of Trustees carries out the statutory functions of governance for all academies within the Trust, while each academy has a local governing board or management board to provide challenge and support to the principals. The Chair of the Board of Trustees stepped down recently and a new chair appointed.

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Context

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) issued the Trust with a financial notice to improve in October 2014. This notice necessitated a review of governance and is still operative.

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Context

Following the focused inspection of a sample of the Trust’s academies in June 2014, eight academies that had been part of the trust moved to other trusts.

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Main findings

Currently, the inspection outcomes for AET academies, including the most recent focused inspections, are as follows:

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Main findings

 four are outstanding  35 are good  20 require improvement  seven are inadequate  one is yet to be inspected. Therefore, 59% of those academies inspected to date are good or better. At the time of the previous focused inspection in June 2014, around 50% of AET’s academies were at least good. While this represents some overall improvement, it is worrying that this is mostly from the Trust’s primary academies and that eight academies have declined in their effectiveness since they joined the Trust.

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Main findings

Since June 2014, in nearly a quarter of the monitoring inspections of secondary academies, inspectors judged that the academy was not improving fast enough. That is why only 41% of AET secondary academies are good or better and far too many pupils continue to suffer a sub-standard education. It compares poorly with the national average of 75% good or better secondary schools.

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Main findings

Inspection has identified that the common weaknesses across secondary AET academies that are less than good are:

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Main findings

 poor monitoring of performance by academy senior leaders  ineffective middle leadership  inconsistencies in the quality of teaching  underachievement of some groups, including more able and disadvantaged pupils.

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Main findings

The Trust has had more success in ensuring that pupils in primary and special academies receive a good quality education. Of the Trust’s academies that have been inspected, 69% of the primary academies are now good or better. While this is still well below the national average of 85%, it represents reasonable improvement when compared with the Trust’s position at the time of the previous focused inspections, when only 60% of its primary academies were at least good.

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Main findings

This improvement in inspection outcomes for the primary academies is reflected in Key Stage 2 outcomes, where there has been an upward trend across the Trust over the last three years. In 2015, there was a seven percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils attaining at least the expected Level 4 in reading, writing and mathematics from the previous year. Half of the primary academies achieved in line with, or above the national level of 80%. The proportion of pupils making expected progress in mathematics, reading and writing was above average at 91%, 92% and 95% respectively. However, while it is encouraging to see these improvements in overall rates of progress, disadvantaged pupils still achieve less well than their peers in most of AET’s primary academies. The gaps in attainment have narrowed in some academies, but widened in others.

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Main findings

Standards are not high enough, or rising quickly enough at Key Stage 4. Across the secondary academies, the proportion of pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and mathematics has remained static for the last two years and, at around 43%, is well below the national level. In 2015, in only four of the academies was this proportion in line with, or above the national level. Progress is also inconsistent. Last year, twice as many secondary academies saw an improvement in the rates of pupils making expected progress in mathematics than in English. In too many academies, rates of progress remain below the national level in both subjects.

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Main findings

Furthermore, the attainment of disadvantaged pupils continues to give cause for concern. In those academies where the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers was relatively small, too often this reflected weaker attainment by non-disadvantaged pupils. In 2015, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils making expected progress by the end of Key Stage 4 in English fell in 19 AET academies and in mathematics it fell in 12 academies. This is a serious concern.

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Main findings

A few secondary academies can point to marked improvements in pupils’ rates of progress and improved attainment. In others, however, attainment has dropped significantly. This calls into question the effectiveness and impact of the Trust’s improvement strategies.

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Main findings

Teachers across the Trust’s secondary academies were assessing pupils’ attainment and progress inaccurately. This resulted in inflated forecasts for their achievement. More recently, the Trust has revised its system and regional directors now check assessment information regularly to secure accurate forecasts for the end of Key Stage 4. However, this new system has yet to have any proven impact.

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Main findings

Pupils’ low attendance is due to high levels of unauthorised and persistent absence. Recent monitoring inspection reports of those academies in special measures comment favourably on the academies’ plans to improve attendance, although the widespread impact is yet to be seen.

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Main findings

The Trust’s vision and core values are reflected in its three-year corporate plan and known by all stakeholders. Academy principals are overwhelmingly positive about the role of the AET regional directors. This was not the case at the time of the previous focused inspections in June 2014.

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Main findings

The four regional directors are now holding the academies’ senior leaders to account and encourage open, honest and evaluative discussions as to why some academies are not improving at a fast enough rate. The Trust has taken action to address weak leadership in its academies. Additional support has been provided and, in some cases, changes have been made to leadership teams. However, the impact of this work in the primary academies is much more evident than in the secondaries, where pupils’ outcomes have remained static and below national rates.

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Main findings

The ‘Quad’ system of regular school-to-school reviews in groups of four enables academy leaders to identify and share good practice. AET academies are actively encouraged to engage with other schools outside the Trust. Principals also make good use of the Trust’s online communities to seek advice and share best practice, aimed to encourage meaningful discourse on a range of approaches to teaching and learning. Nevertheless, there is no recognisable impact of these initiatives on Key Stage 4 outcomes.

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Main findings

Improvement planning at the national level aims to identify issues that are pertinent to specific regions within the Trust. However, inspectors found some of the local priorities to be too generic in nature, for example ‘improving the quality of teaching’ or ‘developing middle leadership’.

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Main findings

Members of the Executive Board and academy leaders are acutely aware of the need to strengthen the quality of teaching in order to secure more good and outstanding provision. Leaders cite shortages of teachers in specific subjects and recruitment of teachers to coastal academies as two of the key challenges.

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Main findings

In order to address the shortages of teachers, the Trust draws on expertise from its National Teaching Schools Alliance, made up of academies and schools from within and outside the Trust. To improve their teaching, teachers with clear areas for development visit effective academies and are given sufficient time to put into practice what they have learnt.

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Main findings

The Trust is now focusing more on longer-term development of teachers’ skills and succession planning for the future, rather than short-term intervention programmes. However, these approaches have not yet secured consistently strong improvement across all of the Trust’s academies.

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Main findings

The Board of Trustees has seen some turbulence in recent months. Following the resignation of the Chair, a new Interim Chair has been appointed and new members are currently being sought with a view to increasing the range of expertise on the Board. Minutes of the Board’s meetings are detailed and evaluative. Governance arrangements at academy level are kept under constant review. The Trust has intervened on a number of occasions and replaced an ineffective local governing board with a management board.

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Main findings

Insufficient detail is given on the Trust’s website about the way in which the Trust is governed. There is no published scheme of delegation. The distinction between the roles and responsibilities of the board members and the trustees is not set out clearly. Levels of accountability and responsibility are not explained. The Trust does not identify which functions of governance are delegated to local governing boards. This lack of detail is replicated on academy websites which include a standardised, brief and general overview of AET governance. Academy websites provide lists of governors with attached duties, but do not give information about the delegation of responsibilities to the local governing board from the Trust. Some academy websites, but not all, link to the Trust’s master funding agreement.

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Safeguarding

AET academies adapt the Trust’s safeguarding policy to reflect the different nature of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards across the regions. Principals report that they feel well supported by AET in responding to any safeguarding concerns.

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Recommendations

 ensure that all academies that are inadequate or require improvement are taking effective action to remove identified weaknesses  as a matter of urgency, improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils across primary and secondary academies  ensure that pupils achieve better outcomes in English and mathematics by accelerating the progress they make over time, particularly in secondary academies  improve attendance by reducing the proportion of unauthorised and persistent absence across all academies  ensure that the Trust’s regional priorities are more pertinent to each region’s particular local challenges and needs.

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2015

Beacon Academy East Midlands Leicestershire 12/2012 requires improvement (2013) Millbrook Academy South West Gloucestershire 01/2012 requires improvement (2013) Shafton Primary Academy North East Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley 12/2012 requires improvement (2013)

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2015

St Helen’s Primary Academy North East Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley 12/2012 requires improvement (2012)

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June 2015

Kingswood Academy North East Yorkshire and Humber Hull 07/2013 4 (serious weaknesses) (2015) Taking effective action Ryde Academy South West Isle of Wight 09/2011 3 (2014) Taking effective action Swallow Hill Community College North East Yorkshire and Humber Leeds 07/2013 4 (serious weaknesses) (2015) Not taking effective action

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grade

Anglesey Primary Academy West Midlands Staffordshire 01/12/2012 12/12/2013 4 Ashingdon Primary Academy East of England Essex 01/09/2011 28/02/2013 2 Aylward Academy London Enfield 01/09/2010 07/11/2012 2 Barton Hill Academy South West Torbay 01/09/2012 25/04/2014 2 Bexleyheath London Bexley 01/09/2011 19/09/2013 2 Academy Broadlands Academy South West Bath and North East Somerset 01/12/2012 18/06/2014 3 Brockworth Primary Academy South West Gloucestershire 01/09/2012 25/04/2014 2

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grade

Caldicotes Primary Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Middlesbrough 01/04/2013 19/06/2012 2 Charles Warren Academy South East Milton Keynes 01/09/2012 18/06/2014 2 Clacton Coastal Academy East of England Essex 01/09/2009 19/11/2014 2 Columbus School and College East of England Essex 01/05/2012 03/07/2014 1 Cordeaux Academy East Midlands Lincolnshire 01/01/2013 10/12/2014 3

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grade

Cottingley Primary Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Leeds 01/12/2012 28/11/2014 3 Everest Community Academy South East Hampshire 01/09/2011 18/06/2015 3 Felixstowe Academy East of England Suffolk 01/09/2011 03/06/2015 3

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grade

Feversham Primary Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Bradford 01/11/2012 26/09/2014 2

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grade

Firth Park Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Sheffield 01/08/2013 17/06/2015 2 Four Dwellings Academy West Midlands Birmingham 01/03/2013 30/01/2015 3 Four Dwellings Primary Academy West Midlands Birmingham 01/01/2013 20/11/2014 3 Greensward Academy East of England Essex 01/09/2008 11/06/2014 2 Greenwood Academy West Midlands Birmingham 01/01/2013 13/11/2014 2

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grade

Hall Road Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Kingston upon Hull City of 01/09/2012 19/06/2014 2 Hamford Primary Academy East of England Essex 01/04/2012 26/03/2014 2 Hazelwood Academy South West Swindon 01/06/2013 26/02/2015 2

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grade

Hillsview Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Redcar and Cleveland 01/09/2014 NULL NULL Kingsley Academy London Hounslow 01/04/2013 08/05/2015 3 Langer Primary Academy East of England Suffolk 01/05/2012 30/01/2014 3 Lea Forest Primary Academy West Midlands Birmingham 01/12/2012 12/11/2014 3 Maltings Academy East of England Essex 01/09/2008 05/03/2015 1

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grade

Meadstead Primary Academy North East Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley 01/06/2013 26/02/2015 2 Montgomery Primary Academy West Midlands Birmingham 01/10/2012 25/09/2014 2 New Rickstones Academy East of England Essex 01/09/2008 14/01/2015 2

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grade

Newington Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Kingston upon Hull City of 01/09/2012 12/06/2014 2 Newlands Academy London Southwark 01/09/2013 29/11/2012 2 Nightingale Academy London Enfield 01/09/2010 12/06/2014 3 Noel Park Primary School London Haringey 01/09/2012 27/06/2014 2

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grade

North Ormesby Primary Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Middlesbrough 01/10/2012 20/05/2015 1 North Thoresby Primary Academy East Midlands Lincolnshire 01/07/2013 29/11/2012 2 Offa's Mead Academy South West Gloucestershire 01/09/2012 27/06/2014 2 Percy Shurmer Academy West Midlands Birmingham 01/09/2012 19/06/2014 3 Plumberow Primary School East of England Essex 01/09/2011 06/03/2014 2 Richmond Park Academy London Richmond upon Thames 01/09/2010 25/10/2012 2 Sandown Bay Academy South East Isle of Wight 01/09/2011 16/10/2014 3 Severn View Academy South West Gloucestershire 01/09/2012 18/06/2014 2 Sir Herbert Leon Academy South East Milton Keynes 01/09/2012 03/07/2014 3 St James the Great Academy South East Kent 01/04/2012 21/03/2014 2 Tamworth Enterprise College and AET Academy West Midlands Staffordshire 01/09/2012 18/06/2014 3 Tendring Enterprise Studio School East of England Essex 31/08/2012 19/03/2014 3 Tendring

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grade

Technology College East of England Essex 01/08/2011 27/09/2013 1

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grade

The Green Way Academy North East, Yorkshire and Humber Kingston upon Hull City of 01/09/2012 16/07/2014 4 The New Forest Academy South East Hampshire 01/09/2012 12/12/2013 4 The Pioneer School East of England Essex 01/06/2012 20/06/2014 2 The Rawlett School (An AET Academy) West Midlands Staffordshire 01/09/2012 27/02/2013 2 The Ridge Academy South West Gloucestershire 01/09/2012 03/07/2013 2 The Utterby Primary School East Midlands Lincolnshire 01/07/2013 29/11/2012 2 Trinity Primary Academy London Haringey 01/09/2012 05/06/2014 3 Westerings Primary East of England Essex 01/09/2011 27/04/2012 2 Academy Winton Community Academy South East Hampshire 01/11/2012 04/12/2013 4

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grade

Unity City Academy 1 North East, Yorkshire and Humber Middlesbrough 01/09/2002 15/03/2013 2 Wishmore Cross Academy South East Surrey 01/09/2012 16/07/2014 2

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grade

1 Unity City Academy became an AET sponsored academy in January 2012.

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