Academy trust, hit by rash of pupil departures following takeover of former Steiner schools, hands out advice on home education

Home education numbers are said to have increased following the transfer of three former Steiner free schools. Stock photo from iStock/Getty Images.

An academy trust is handing out detailed advice to parents on home education if they say they intend to take their children out of school, amid claims that scores of families are leaving three recently-taken-over free schools.

The Avanti Schools Trust is providing leaflets entitled “Home Education” to parents at at least one of the three former Steiner free schools which it controversially took control of last year.

As Education Uncovered reported last month, pupil numbers at the three schools appear to have slumped in the year to January 2020 – the last point at which official census figures are currently available, which was two months after the schools joined Avanti.

Indications are that departures are continuing, among parents who had opted for the schools on the basis of their alternative Steiner ethos, including a lack of Sats testing in primary, which the new trust has now ditched.