Academy trust which ran into trouble after spending “millions” on iPads for pupils and staff now under fire over plans to close school sixth form

Arthur Terry Learning Partnership has told parents that the sixth form had had “very low numbers for a number of years”. Yet its roll had been beyond that set out in its funding agreement with the DfE.

A local Labour MP has been challenging the decision by an academy trust to close his old school sixth form – after the chain’s finances were plunged into crisis following it running up a seven-figure bill on the purchase of iPads for all pupils and teachers.

The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP), which runs 24 schools in the West Midlands, has seen its reserves collapse in the past two years, to the extent that it needed a £1.5m loan last year from the Department for Education, after deciding to spend on the iPads from 2022.

Now the trust is bidding to close the sixth form of one of its six secondary schools, Nether Stowe in Lichfield, citing it as not being financially sustainable and not having enough students to run a broad curriculum.