Community rejecting Astrea academies’ behaviour policies as “too strict” seems significant to national debate

The "Astrea Ascent" behaviour poster

It was a striking finding, contained within what was, as a whole, a remarkable set of survey results.

Asked by a Conservative MP what they thought of an academy trust’s behaviour policies, 79 per cent of respondents said they were “too strict”, with only three per cent viewing them as “too lenient,” and nine per cent “about right”.

The findings were within a survey of local parental opinion by the South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne, who is standing in the forthcoming general election in a seat covering the town of St Neots, where for the past year the Astrea Academy Trust has been generating huge controversy over its running of the only two local secondary schools.

Mr Browne had been contacted by members of the community concerned about goings-on in the schools under the leadership of the Sheffield-based trust, and sought to gauge local opinion in detail.