Teachers express concerns about multi-academy trust, after parental “vote of no confidence” at one of its schools

A union has released a survey of staff, working at an academy trust, showing very high levels of dissatisfaction among those who completed it. It also stated that some 30 per cent of teachers at one of the trust’s primary schools, Ash Grove, are leaving today.

The National Education Union released data from a questionnaire filled out by some of its members at the Inspire Partnership Multi Academy Trust (IPMAT). This nine-school chain operates in Wakefield, West Yorkshire – scene of one of the academies sector’s most notorious failures.

Concerns raised by the NEU via these questionnaire results come after another union, the NASUWT, reportedly voiced unhappiness at IPMAT during a public meeting organised last week by some parents at Ash Grove.

The trust told Education Uncovered that it “did not recognise” the union’s figures, that they “could only have been completed by a maximum of just 17 per cent of our staff,” and that IPMAT placed “a premium on the health and wellbeing of our colleagues”.

The NEU survey was relatively small-scale, at only 31 members, although the trust’s schools – all primaries – are all also not large, having 265 pupils each, on average. This still means, nevertheless, that only a relatively small minority of teachers across the trust were included in the survey data.