Ex-governor issues scathing critique of high-profile academy trust’s approach to behaviour, governing body dissent and staff management

A former governor of a controversy-dogged secondary academy has delivered an extraordinary critique of its “draconian” behaviour policies, which she says are “dictatorial, archaic and unhelpful,” and disproportionately affecting vulnerable children.

Dawn Milne, who resigned last November from the local governance committee of Longsands Academy in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, posted a detailed commentary on developments at the school under the South Yorkshire-based Astrea Academy Trust.

This also took in critical comments about its leadership, about an Ofsted process which this year rated the school “good” despite an exodus of staff and seemingly low parental approval ratings, and about the absence of choice in the town, whose other secondary is also run by Astrea. Ms Milne also said the governing body on which she sat was not informed about important policy changes in advance, with school-level governors having no power within the multi-academy trust structure.

The 26-school Astrea Academy Trust has been approached for comment.

The background

Education Uncovered has been writing about developments within Astrea’s secondary schools for 18 months now, mainly in relation to the impact of its approaches to teaching and behaviour management, which are centralised under the leadership of its director of secondary education, Richard Tutt.