DfE faces criticism of hypocrisy as it proposes to give local authority comprehensive to trust with chequered Ofsted record –while stripping maintained schools of their status

The government appears to be leaving itself vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy and failing to address a perceived conflict of interest, after lining up the transfer of a large secondary school to a multi-academy trust with a controversial recent record.

The Department for Education’s regional advisory board for South Yorkshire and South Humberside is being advised, at a meeting next week, to transfer King Edward VII school – the last remaining non-academy secondary in Sheffield – to an academy trust called Brigantia.

Yet Brigantia, which runs only five schools none of which matches the age profile of King Edward VII (KES), has two of them in Ofsted’s “requires improvement” category, one of them having had this verdict in two recent full inspections.

Concord Junior Academy, also in Sheffield, has been an academy under Brigantia* for nine years, having academised in March 2014. It was rated Requires Improvement by Ofsted following an inspection in January 2017, and then received the same judgement in another full inspection in June 2019. Two subsequent monitoring visits have not changed the verdict.

This makes Brigantia’s proposed takeover of KES, which has provoked a substantial local campaign in opposition, extra controversial. Since last year, the DfE has been proposing to academise local authority schools which have two requires improvement judgements on their records.