Ofsted rates another Astrea secondary as good – in teeth of worst parental ratings of any major trust last year
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Controversial trust racks up a hat-trick of "good" inspection results, despite parent responses in Ofsted surveys.
A controversial academy trust has racked up a hat-trick of “good” inspection results for its secondary schools in Cambridgeshire over the past 10 months – despite a majority of parents responding to Ofsted’s surveys saying they would not recommend the academies to others.
Ernulf Academy, in St Neots, was given the inspectorate’s second-best judgement across all four aspects inspected, following a visit by Ofsted in January. This was an upgrade on the inspectorate’s last visit, in 2023, which had rated it “requires improvement”.
Yet 55 per cent of the 310 parents responding this academic year said they would not recommend the school to others, compared to 45 per cent who said they would do so.
These figures are much worse than the average for schools nationwide, with just 16 per cent of those responding to Ofsted’s parent surveys last year saying they would not recommend the institution their child attended to others.
Meanwhile, Astrea’s other school in the town, Longsands Academy, has also been given a clean bill of health by Ofsted after the inspectorate carried out an “urgent inspection” last month. However, last year that school racked up the highest negative Ofsted parental reviews for any institution in a single calendar year, going back to 2017, Education Uncovered can reveal, while Astrea received more negative responses than any other academy trust.
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By Warwick Mansell for EDUCATION UNCOVERED
Published: 17 March 2025
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Ofsted says it takes notice of parents - but it obviously does not! You have to think that as this trust pushes a very particular ideology - one that the CHMI also pushed in his own academy and one supported very much by the "research" reports pushed out recently that Ofsted is still driven much more by an ideological approach.