Academy “sponsors” Ross and Nash make total of �325,000 in pre-election donations to the Conservative Party

Two high-profile academy “sponsors” donated a total of �325,000 to the Conservative Party during the run-up to today’s general election.

David Ross, who oversees a chain of 34 academies which are named after him, gave £250,000 to the party on November 22^nd, data from the Electoral Commission reveal.

The donation is the largest of any of the previous gifts to the party by Ross, who co-founded Carphone Warehouse and founded a charity which controls the academy chain. His previous donations to the Conservatives, which started in 2006, totalled £166,000.

Meanwhile, Lord Nash, the Tory peer and former academies minister who presides over the seven-school Future Academies chain with his wife Lady Caroline, gave £75,000 to the party on November 18^th, the Electoral Commission data show.  

Two figures who until recently were “sponsoring” academies are also linked to donations during the pre-election period, in both cases, again, to the Conservative Party.

IM Group Ltd is listed as having given £250,000 to the Conservatives on November 6^th. IM Group Ltd was founded by, and is still chaired by Lord (Robert) Edmiston, a Conservative peer.

Lord Edmiston was one of the early sponsors of academies, from the New Labour era, with his first institution, Grace Academy Solihull, having opened in 2006 and two further schools having followed. However, the academies have recently been handed to another trust, called Tove Learning.

Meanwhile, the former sponsor Sir Roger de Haan and his wife Lady Alison donated £250,000 between them to the Tories, in separate £125,000 contributions received on November 29^th, the data show.

Sir Roger had been sponsoring Folkestone Academy in Kent, but pulled out last year in what has been a locally controversial takeover of the school by the Turner Schools chain.

Ironically, perhaps, the chief executive and driving force behind Turner Schools, Jo Saxton, used to work for Lord Nash, as chief executive of Future Academies.

There is no suggestion that there was anything untoward about these donations, which have been declared and are a legal part of how politics works in the UK. But they are interesting nevertheless, not least in underlining political loyalties during what for many has been a polarising election campaign.

How major academy chain went into damage-limitation mode following CEO’s grammar school comments

A rare insight into how an organisation dealt with comments by its chief executive, which appear to have plunged it into a minor media storm, are provided in a set of minutes available on the website of England’s third-largest academy chain, which not so long ago was the biggest.

Back in early 2017, the leadership of the Academies Enterprise Trust had just been passed to Julian Drinkall,  a former BBC executive who joined the trust having led the Alpha Plus Group of private schools, which coincidentally was once owned by Sovereign Capital, which had been co-founded by Lord Nash.

Drinkall agreed to an interview with the TES. This duly then carried a profile in its magazine – plus a much more hard-hitting news exclusive on its website, headlined: “New boss at England’s biggest academy chain to consider converting schools to grammars.”

Drinkall’s statement appeared to be a response to the government’s policy at the time, under Theresa May, proposing new grammar schools. Drinkall was quoted saying: “I think that as we look at each of those schools in the particular markets and catchment areas in which they exist, there might be arguments for selection in certain places.”

The TES had also highlighted, in the website piece’s strapline, what to many will have sounded a controversial use of the word “markets” – given that these are taxpayer-funded schools operating in what is supposed to be a public service - in the above quotation.

But it appears that the interview had not gone down well, with minutes of a board meeting talking about “negative press”; a promise from Drinkall himself of further explanation of his comments needed to AET heads; a proposal of an approach to the TES’s rival, Schools Week, for a counter-balancing interview; and a warning that future interview “pronouncements” would need to be cleared with trustees in advance.

This is set out in minutes of a board meeting on 30^th January, 2017.

These state: “With regard to TES article, and subsequent press regarding grammar schools, JD [Drinkall] explained that our headteachers have been sent an email for clarification of his views.

“JC [Jude Chin] suggested going to Schools Week for another article to redress the negative press with regard to the grammar school comments. JB [Jack Boyer, the trust’s then-chair] stated that we must manage expectations for any interviews that take place in the future.

“It was AGREED that in future any internal or external pronouncements with regard to AET policy would be cleared by trustees in advance.”

The minutes add: “Following the visioning exercise that has previously been conducted at our headteachers’ conferences, JD [Drinkall] advised that we have to articulate our education vision and ethos; inclusiveness, importance of every child and young person.”

Drinkall continues, however, to be no stranger to controversy, with an article in the Times this September seeing the CEO quoted under the headline “Playground bully parents banned from school governing board”. This then prompted a response from Emma Knights of the National Governance Governance Association in Schools Week, saying AET’s approach on governance, no longer allowing parents to sit on governing bodies, was an “own goal”.

The minutes emerged after we asked for all recent board minutes and papers under freedom of information, only to be told that, unusually for a large trust, they are available on its website. It has to be said, though, that recent years’ minutes seem fairly anodyne, especially given the controversies which this chain has faced in the past 12 months, not least the £16 million “deficit funding” provided to the trust by the DfE.

Long-awaited Ofsted for controversial Harris secondary

Finally, Education Uncovered has been told that a long-awaited Ofsted inspection for the second-oldest academy within the Harris chain finally happened this week.

Harris Academy Peckham had a visit from the inspectorate, we understand. This represents a lengthy period between visits for the troubled secondary, which was rated “good” more than four years ago, now, back in September 2015.

It will be interesting to see what inspectors conclude, given that the school appeared to be in turmoil as of last year, when students protested about sudden changes to subject options – including the removal of vocational courses – and the closure of the school’s sixth form. There was extensive, heated discussion of this on a London and coverage in the local press as well as on this website. 

Education Uncovered also understands there has been a high turnover not just of classroom staff at this school, but of leaders: the federation was recently advertising for a principal for the school, which would be at least its third in the past two years.

Harris Peckham was also identified, in minutes of a meeting of the Harris board in April, as having been one four of the chain’s academies to have contributed to an in-year deficit at the chain, in the case of it and one other school “due to staffing and recruitment overspend”.

As I say, it will be interesting to see the contents of this inspection report when it comes.