News

Troubled Athena academy trust handed DfE Notice to Improve over its exclusion and suspension policies

22 October 2026

Development comes after the nine-school chain’s behaviour management policies were the subject of two BBC documentaries over the summer.

Democratise governance of multi-academy trusts, Labour MP to urge in House of Commons today

21 October 2026

All MATs would be required to have places for parents and staff on their boards, Dave Robertson to propose in backbench bill, as well as toughened-up rules on financial transparency and governor training. “Trusts need to listen to parents,” he added.

Government “in listening mode” over calls for abolition of fines for struggling pupils’ non-attendance at school

21 October 2026

Views come as 300,000-signature petition presented in Downing Street

Revealed: how DfE evaded answering questions on the impact of “no excuses” behaviour policies at East London academy

20 October 2026

Department for Education has failed to give any answers on how it has followed up on high-profile safeguarding investigation at school within the Mossbourne Federation, in a development Hackney council commission described as a “critical failure of accountability” on academies.

School engaged in “retaliatory action” against teacher because of her union activities, employment judge finds

16 October 2026

Judgment in case of Kate Williams is latest development in long-running dispute at school linked to world-famous children’s hospital.

Revealed: £100,000 pay premium for leaders of England’s largest academy chains

12 October 2026

Direct comparison of salaries of CEOs of largest chains against those of local authority children’s services directors, overseeing similar numbers of pupils, shows six-figure disparity.

New book lifts lid on children’s “strict school” experiences

8 October 2026

Interviews set out alleged impact of behaviour management policies at Athena Learning Trust and the Ted Wragg trust.

Athena parents call for complaints against academies to be put on same footing as those in local authority schools

5 October 2026

Families should have access to independent consideration of their concerns, with DfE having “confirmed” that the only organisations which do so within the academies sector are the trusts themselves.

Academy trust board minutes appear to raise conflict of interest questions around participation of chief executive

2 October 2026

Interim chief executive of one trust appeared to take part in board discussions about joining another, where she is permanent CEO.

Department for Education officials listen as psychologists tell them that English schooling suffers from “design failure”

25 September 2026

90-minute meeting with civil servants comes after nearly 3,500 psychologists sign petition and open letter calling on DfE to carry out “urgent education reform to protect children’s mental health”.

Is governing body of school, at heart of controversy over Catholic diocese’s academisation drive, constituted in line with the law?

22 September 2026

St Anthony of Padua primary, in Liverpool, has only one parent governor.

Consult your communities on academisation – and then go ahead with it anyway, Catholic diocese appears to tell its schools

18 September 2026

Archdiocese of Liverpool faces opposition from many parents, staff and seemingly the local Labour MP against the conversion of one school, which has been proposed as academisation of more than 200 looms.

“Unauthorised Absence” film to feature BAFTA award-winning actors, in kickstart to debate over parental fines

16 September 2026

“There is a huge disconnect between government policy…and what’s actually happening in thousands of homes up and down the country,” warns the film’s writer, who says families are being pushed towards home education by the policy.

Revealed: employee of controversial Catholic MAT saw their pay and pensions soar to £240,000 – but salary was not properly disclosed in its accounts

8 September 2026

The Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust appears to have failed to follow DfE accounting directions by stating only that it had one person paid “£150,001+”.

Academy chain of four primaries, which proposed classroom job cuts, spent more than £1 million on central services

4 September 2026

Accounts show its central spend near quadrupling in 2024-25 – while a teacher source said they were told there was no money to spend on exercise books or paint for pupils.

Number of academy trusts in England shrinks again today – as controversial takeovers see demise of some smaller chains

1 September 2026

Ark Schools is big gainer among England’s largest chains, today officially taking on nine new schools to become the fifth largest.

Catholic dioceses face accusations of refusing to appoint governors who fail to back their academisation plans

23 July 2026

Controversies building in dioceses of Westminster and Lancaster, where many schools have still not converted, years after bishops’ academisation plans were first set out.

Anglican academy trust broke own asbestos management plan and exposed pupils and staff to the substance, parents allege in official complaint

21 July 2026

The Bay Learning Trust is at the centre of controversy surrounding asbestos removal works at Lancashire’s biggest school.

“We can’t release the public cost of our inquiry, because whistleblowers would be blamed,” Catholic academy trust argues in response to FOI

6 July 2026

Nicholas Postgate Catholic Multi-Academy Trust also says its board did not have sight of report of what seems a substantive investigation, while also disclosing nearly £150,000 of settlements featuring Non-Disclosure Agreements over four years.

A property developer or an educationist? Influential academy trust chief executive and chair answers questions over related companies

2 July 2026

Helen Stevenson, who co-founded a company which recruits academy chief executives and other senior leaders, is now leading one trust herself as CEO and another as chair. Education Uncovered investigated the links between her companies, including one which has bought up properties in Liverpool to fund her and her husband’s pension.

Academy trust with 10 per cent-plus topslice bids to close town’s only sixth form

19 June 2026

Unity Schools Partnership, which until last September was headed by the man now overseeing academies for the DfE, is proposing to close Felixstowe School’s sixth form for new entrants in September.

Roman Catholic priest, working for diocese running three MATs, pens scorching critique of trust system

19 June 2026

Academy chains should not be spending “eye-watering sums” on executives and offices, but rather on the poor of England’s education system: its teaching assistants, suggests Father David Cain.

Collision of DfE vision of “local” academy trusts with their geographically-spread reality exposed in new analysis

11 June 2026

Five academy chains are each spread across more than half of England’s 10 regions, with the largest having schools in 38 local authorities, Education Uncovered’s probe reveals.

Nuffield-funded research paper on England’s school accountability system appears riddled with errors

9 June 2026

Analysis by this website reveals multiple apparent mistakes, references which appear not to support the claims made and sentences which seem lacking in clarity, in a paper which may be a case study in the dangers of over-relying on AI. However, UCL, under whose banner it was jointly published, has defended it.

Academy trust facing strike action over “fire and rehire” move against lowly-paid teaching assistants – while questions emerge over its accounts

5 June 2026

The Compass Learning Partnership seems to be calculating the reserves it holds in an unusual way, with perhaps big implications for those on the front line.

Chief executive of England’s most indebted academy chain said to have moved to Scotland, and offered his services as a drummer to a band

5 June 2026

Latest twist in saga of St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi Academy Trust comes with two of its school chairs of governors having gone public with emails expressing no confidence in the leadership, with nine Labour MPs also raising concerns.

Academy chain seeks executive on almost Prime Ministerial salary – though they will not be leading the organisation

3 June 2026

The Co-op Academies Trust is advertising for a new regional director on a salary of up to £169,000.

Academy trust offers teachers choice: either accept possibility of large class sizes, or lose chance of nine-day working fortnight

22 May 2026

News of development at two schools within Dixons Academies Trust, which launched innovative nine-day fortnight 18 months ago, comes after the trust denied that there was a link between the policy and larger classes.

Academy trust that brought in the nine-day fortnight “needs classes of 120 to allow it to continue”

21 May 2026

Dixons Academies Trust policies under the spotlight as it consults on redundancies.

“What is undeniable is that the number of distressed children we are seeing clearly demonstrates that something is going wrong.” Council debates academy behaviour policy investigation

20 May 2026

Debate at Cornwall County Council sees most councillors resolving to listen to the detail of young people’s experiences in schools, as these detailed extracts underline.

“We have a moral duty to act”: county council launches inquiry into effects of school behaviour policies on children’s mental health

20 May 2026

Today’s children will not be able to look back on their school years with fondness, warns councillor as Cornwall instigates investigation into strict policies said to include sanctions for looking out of the window, or pupils’ pens running out.

Debt-stricken multi-academy trust admits it is failing to pay bills on time – while seeking new “Director of People” on a six-figure salary

14 May 2026

St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi-Academy Trust appears in dire financial straits, despite having been under close DfE supervision since 2023

Academy trust’s central charges doubled in two years? There’s nothing we can do, says Department for Education

13 May 2026

Parent’s letter raising concerns about Initio Learning Trust drew a blank from DfE regional director’s office, leaving him wondering if there was anyone to turn to.

Revealed: DfE academies supervisor saw her own salary as a trust chief executive benchmarked against the highest-paid people in the sector

11 May 2026

Mulberry Schools Trust used newspaper list of 20 highest-paid CEOs in England as comparator for its own leader’s salary, which then became one of the fastest-rising in England.

Academy chief executive stands down amid huge controversy over its behaviour management policies

7 May 2026

Ben Parnell is to leave Athena Learning Trust after four years at the helm. No reason for the departure has been given.

Academy CEO’s social media post, welcoming local Reform politician’s appearance at a sixth form, appears to raise questions about political impartiality

6 May 2026

Michael Gosling, chief executive of Trinity multi-academy trust, courting contention again, following recent comment seeming to wish Labour politicians would be “washed away” at elections.

Academy chain nearly doubled its topslice to 12 per cent last year, while shelling out £190,000 on non-contractual pay-offs to staff

1 May 2026

London-based Anthem Schools Trust increased central charges at its schools by up to 173 per cent, latest accounts show.

Beleaguered academy trust moves to scale down its controversial “iPads for all” scheme, while hinting at an uncertain future

29 April 2026

Arthur Terry Learning Partnership has not denied rumours that its schools could be transferred to another chain or chains.

Academy chain whose schools have been facing job cuts nearly doubled its “topslice” in two years

29 April 2026

Analysis by this website shows the 19-school Initio Learning Trust increased its “topslice,” as a proportion of its schools’ core funding from 3.9 to 7.5 per cent between 2022-23 and 2024-25.

Ofqual will not be releasing evidence it submitted to the government’s curriculum and assessment review, exams regulator confirms

27 April 2026

Disclosing its advice to government, including its “analysis” on the feasibility of cutting the length of time students spend in the exam hall, would “undermine the safe space” for policy development, exams regulator says in second stage of my freedom of information request.

Academy trust faces questions over primary school’s behaviour policies, after mother tells of five-year-old with 30 suspensions in five months

22 April 2026

Parents say punishments at Future Academies’ Pimlico Primary disproportionately affecting SEND children, as councillor seeks answers from trust.

New government academy supervisor had one of the fastest-growing salaries of any trust executive in recent years, new analysis shows

17 April 2026

Vanessa Ogden, formerly of the Mulberry Schools Trust and now overseeing academisation across London, had package worth around £300,000 in 2024-25.

Salary of £250,000, but not required to work during the school holidays? Harris Federation faces questions about position of its super-well-remunerated education leaders

14 April 2026

Very senior education executives at England’s second-largest academy chain on contracts not requiring routine work outside of term-time, it has been claimed.

School linked to world-famous children’s hospital sacks union rep, as long-running dispute with staff becomes even more fraught

27 March 2026

National Education Union describes action by Great Ormond Street Hospital School in Camden, North London, as “shameless union busting,” with teachers said no longer to feel safe voicing concerns.

Catholic Church should “put its hand in its pocket” to help out schools which have slumped millions of pounds in the red on its watch, unions say

27 March 2026

Three unions warning about the situation at two academy trusts controlled by the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, one of which is nearly £10 million in the red, and where the government may also face questions about failures so far under its oversight.

Ofqual refuses to release its evidence to the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review

24 March 2026

To do so would be to “prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs,” says the exams regulator in response to a freedom of information request from Education Uncovered, prompted by what seemed a cautious statement by the review on cutting the exams burden for young people.

Rash of departures among Harris senior executives prompts the question: why would they leave such well-remunerated posts?

19 March 2026

Nearly half of Harris’s most senior managers left over a 15-month period, accounts disclose. Close analysis may raise questions about possibililty of a gap between salary packages of support service directors and those overseeing its education functions.

Academy trust, which employs chief executive’s son as its director of business and finance, says it has complied with all DfE requirements

18 March 2026

Disclosure record at Core Education Trust contrasts with that at another chain, where the wife of the chief executive is its director of primary.