Harris Federation wants its schools to follow Ofsted’s lead and ditch two-year Key Stage 3 –but only where “budget restraints” allow

Harris Academy Peckham, whose sixth form's closure was said to have been triggered by cutbacks last year

England’s second-largest academy chain has advised its schools to ditch their two-year curriculum for key stage 3 because this appears to be Ofsted’s favoured approach, but only where “budget restraints” allow.

The news from the Harris Federation, which is revealed in minutes of a board meeting disclosed under freedom of information, may surprise some in its talk of budget pressures, given that the 47-school chain has far and away England’s highest overall spend on central senior management.

Ofsted has reportedly played down suggestions that it has a rigid stance on schools running two-year key stage 3 programmes, rather than the conventional three years. It has been reported that more than half of secondaries were using just years seven and eight for Key Stage 3, with the pressures on them to improve pupils’ GCSE results likely to be the key factor.

In the minutes of a Harris board meeting of on July 10^th this year – chaired by the chain’s “principal sponsor, Lord Harris of Peckham – its chief executive, Sir Dan Moynihan, is minuted as saying: