Education’s new firefighter: the many roles of Angela Barry

Need someone to sort out schools in the wake of the collapse of a multi-academy trust? Well, when the Department for Education finds itself in this position, as has been known, one person seems to be emerging as its choice for the crucial role of firefighter-in-chief.

Angela Barry, a former school leader who has also served on one of England’s Headteacher Boards, has been parachuted in to manage the winding down of three beleaguered trusts over recent years, Education Uncovered has learned, as well as being involved in the governance of other chains.

But, while Barry’s work was described as “outstanding” by the most high-profile trust with which she is now working, her positions also seem to invite questions.

Barry has been in the news in recent weeks after taking over, during the summer, as interim chief executive of the Bright Tribe and Adventure Learning trusts, the troubled outfits which are handing over all their schools after years of controversy including a recent Panorama documentary.

One of her first public acts, indeed, was to write to parents announcing the departure of her predecessor in that role while offering a pre-emptive response to Panorama’s probing, to the extent that “both trusts [were] moving forward positively”.

But Education Uncovered has also learned that the 56-year-old former headteacher has been fulfilling the same role at another stricken trust: Schools Company, amid some controversy on the ground. Indeed, she is currently interim chief executive at both Bright Tribe/Adventure Learning Academy Trust (ALAT) and Schools Company.

This may be seen as quite a feat, given the geographical spread of schools involved: Bright Tribe itself has run schools in Cumbria, Sunderland, Oldham and East Anglia and ALAT operates in Cornwall, while Schools Company has run a secondary school in Kent and three pupil referral units in Devon.

Schools Company is closing down with deficits “in the region of £8 million,” Schools Week has reported. This website understands that its pupil referral units are being transferred to another trust, called Wave, as of October 31^st – ie this Wednesday - with its secondary school also having moved chain.

I was intrigued as to how Barry could be performing both the role of interim chief executive of Schools Company and that at Bright Tribe/ALAT, given that the latter is still in existence and Schools Company has been continuing to operate institutions until at least this Wednesday.

I therefore asked Bright Tribe’s spokespeople when Barry’s time as interim chief executive at Schools Company would be finishing.

Its press office responded: “For accounting officer purposes, there is a need for the role to remain filled beyond October 31^st, eg for the final accounts and annual report.”

Accounts are usually signed off in December. So this suggests a substantial period of overlap between these two seemingly demanding roles, with Barry’s work for Bright Tribe/ALAT having started over the summer.

Searching on Barry’s name on the governors section of the DfE’s “Get Information about Schools” database brings up positions with two other trusts. She is listed as the chair of trustees at the Argent Trust, based in Gillingham, in Kent, which until April was running a special school, Danecourt but has now passed it to another trust; and a member of the eight-school Stour Academy Trust, based in Canterbury in Kent.

Education Uncovered asked Bright Tribe how Barry found the time for all these roles – although academy trust “member” positions are not usually too onerous in terms of time - and where she is based.

A spokesperson replied: “Angela’s outstanding work is helping ensure that the schools within the [Bright Tribe] trust are found new sponsors as swiftly as possible, securing a strong future for the academies’ students. This mirrors her successful work as interim CEO of Schools Company Trust, which has meant that strong sponsors have been found for all four of its schools. The short cross-over period has been only after these sponsors were agreed and already working in the schools.

“Angela has devoted her entire career to helping ensure that children and young people receive the best education possible. Angela's voluntary work has included previously chairing a special school trust and she is also currently a member of a mainstream primary academy trust. Angela lives in the South East and travels as required.”

Barry’s LinkedIn profile lists her as based in Dartford, in Kent, which would indeed be a serious trek from Bright Tribe’s most high-profile and troubled school: the run-down Whitehaven Academy in Cumbria. A community source there said it appeared Barry had yet to visit that school, although the chief operating officer, Lee Miller, who arrived at the trust on an interim basis with her, was more likely to be on-site.

The LinkedIn profile also says that Barry had been “elected chair of an interim board of trustees set up to stabilise Danecourt School’s governance and to ensure compliance. The interim board worked closely with the…RSC’s office to oversee the ending of Argent Trust.” This role had ended in March 2018.

Eyebrows were raised recently when a Freedom of Information request about spending at Bright Tribe was answered by a barrister, Russell Holland, from the legal firm Michelmores. Education Uncovered understands that the firm has also been supporting Barry’s work with Schools Company.

A source close to Schools Company institutions said: “Russell Holland and Michelmores have supported Angela throughout the Schools Company process, too. It would be very interesting to see the bill from Michelmores, to understand who pays the bill and also to examine how much intervention from Michelmores was necessary.”

Barry, who at the time was executive headteacher of the Woodland Trust academy chain, was also brought in, in 2016, deal with the fall-out from the collapse of Lilac Sky, a trust operating in the South-East. That appointment, again as interim CEO, had been at the instigation of the Regional Schools Commissioner, Dominic Herrington, on whose Headteacher Board Barry was serving. Lilac Sky’s last published accounts, for 2015-16, list its Company Secretary as Michelmores Secretaries Ltd.

Asked about Michelmores, a spokesperson for Bright Tribe added: “Michelmores is a law firm and was engaged after full tender processes to provide legal support.” 

Barry has also worked closely with Nikki King, who like her was appointed to Herrington’s South East England and South London Headteacher Board in 2014 (King remains on the board). King joined Bright Tribe as a trustee on the same day in July as did Barry. King was also appointed as a trustee at Schools Company in November 2017, a position which Barry would also fill from February this year, with her position as interim CEO coinciding with this.

Sources close to Schools Company institutions say that Barry’s tenure there has been controversial, with some staff suspended, decisions to stop certain services taken very quickly with a consequent impact on students and the pupil referral units closing down to new referrals. In any case, Barry’s seems like a career to watch.

The edu-reformers went into the Ark

This month’s appointment of Sir David Carter, who until this summer was the government’s National Schools Commissioner, to a senior role at Ambition School Leadership marks the arrival of yet another leading figure within the ambit of the charity Ark.

Carter now luxuriates in the title of “Executive Director of System Leadership” at this relatively young, largely government-funded, body, which runs school leadership courses.

Ambition is currently listed on the website of Ark as one of 12 “ventures” supported by the charity. Ark stands for “Absolute Return for Kids,” was set up by a group of City financiers and includes an academy chain, Ark Schools, as one of its most prominent elements.

Ambition, which recently merged with another Ark “venture” – the Institute for Teaching – publishes separate accounts from Ark itself. But it is clearly very closely linked: it shares the same address of 65, Kingsway, WC2B 6TD with Ark itself, for example.

Carter joins Sam Freedman, former special adviser to Michael Gove during his time as Education Secretary, and John Blake, recently head of education at the Goveite think-tank Policy Exchange, within Ark’s ambit.

Amanda Spielman, the current chief inspector of schools, and her predecessor, Sir Michael Wilshaw, both had senior roles at Ark Schools.

Now Teach, the organisation aiming to bring older professionals into teaching which is fronted by the former Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway, is also an Ark “venture”.

Ark Schools’ chair is Sir Paul Marshall, who also chairs the Education Policy Institute think tank as well as having served as lead non-executive director at the DfE for three years to 2016.

It is, then, an extraordinarily well-networked organisation. Carter has thus now added another very senior link in that chain of connections. It is possible to wonder whether Ark is now operating some kind of alternative bureaucracy to the one the former headteacher was until recently experiencing at the DfE’s home, across town at Sanctuary Buildings in Westminster.