Governors resign en masse with 27-point list of woes aimed at academy trust, expressing regret that school cannot return to local authority sector

A “local” governing body has resigned en masse, with perhaps the most detailed broadside yet aimed at an academy trust in terms of governors’ alleged lack of involvement in key school decision-making.

Most of the governors at Bignold primary school and nursery in Norwich issued an open resignation letter on Friday. This contained, by my calculations, 27 separate complaints about recent goings-on in relation to their work.

Since 2019, the school has been controlled by the Norwich-based Evolution Academy Trust (EAT), although the letter bemoans the fact that there is no mechanism for returning it to the local authority maintained sector under Norfolk County Council.

The trust has been subject to what seems an increasing level of centralised control this year, with several trust employees, including at Bignold, now chairing governing bodies – contrary to what the resignation letter states is good governance practice - and with the trust now saying that it plans that all of local board chairs are to be paid.

Among a near-never-ending list of complaints about developments mainly in the past six months, the departing governors stated: