Fresh questions likely over AET’s record after three of its schools fail inspections

England’s second-largest academy chain has seen three of its schools placed in special measures in the past month, Education Uncovered can reveal.

Nearly one in 10 schools sponsored by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) is now Ofsted-rated inadequate, my analysis after these inspection verdicts concludes, in findings which seem likely to raise the pressure on its leadership, led by £290,000-a-year chief executive, Julian Drinkall.

The trust has said that the verdicts in the recent inspections “highlight the extent of the turnaround that the new leadership team at AET has taken on,” it previously having been a “failing organisation”.

The news comes only weeks after AET’s annual accounts stated that “a significant corner has been turned” in the chain’s schools, under what it calls a “turnaround strategy” implemented in the past two years.

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