Vote in favour of academisation in the next 15 minutes or your staff won’t get paid, trust chief executive told governor
Arundel Roman Catholic cathedral, within the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Pic: Alamy.
Case at Catholic primary school seems indicative of pressure which can be put on schools to convert.
An academy trust chief executive told a governor of a local authority maintained school that its teachers would not be paid if they did not vote in favour of academisation in the next 15 minutes, a WhatsApp message seen by this website shows.
In a sign of what critics have seen as extreme pressure placed on a Roman Catholic school to convert and join a trust set up by its diocese, the governor received the message in November 2023.
The vote did go through, however, and the school did academise, and is now part of the Xavier Catholic Education Trust. However, across England Education Uncovered is not aware of teachers ever not having been paid as a result of an academy conversion being delayed or not happening.
The conversion also saw the Department for Education appearing to brush aside concerns from another governor that its own guidance had not been followed during the academisation vote to which the WhatsApp message had referred, an email trail shows.
Both the Xavier Catholic Education Trust and the Department for Education have been approached for comment.
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By Warwick Mansell for EDUCATION UNCOVERED
Published: 23 July 2025
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The DfE’s complacency as A&B diocese strips school boards of their ability to choose again and again is astonishing. While the diocese gains land through forced academy conversions and Trust exec salaries rise, children and staff are left vulnerable. That one bishop can override a board’s decision to delay or refuse Trust entry removes a board’s ability to protect their school and the safeguarding implications of this are huge.