Struggling academy warned it could face takeover

A FAILING academy has been told by Ministers to deliver urgent improvements or face being given a warning notice and possibly being taken over.
Sheffield Springs Academy head Russell Heritage.Sheffield Springs Academy head Russell Heritage.
Sheffield Springs Academy head Russell Heritage.

Sheffield Springs is one of seven academies across the country to be singled out for criticism by the Department for Education (DfE) over its “disappointing performance”.

However, the school’s sponsor, the United Learning Trust, told the Yorkshire Post that new leadership within the trust and the school would deliver significant improvements.

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The academy, which opened in 2006, was placed in special measures late last year after a damning Ofsted report rated the school’s teaching and leadership and pupils’ achievement and behaviour as inadequate.

The report warned that students do not make good progress because too much teaching has been inadequate.

It also found that attendance was low and not improving and that several changes to senior leadership had had a “negative outcome on the quality of provision”.

League tables published last month show 31 per cent of pupils achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths in 2012. The minimum standard expected is 40 per cent.

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The Government has warned that it will take action to tackle underperformance in any state school.

Education Secretary Michael Gove can issue a warning notice to academy sponsors but must first send a pre-warning letter. The DfE confirmed yesterday that it sent seven of these letters to “weak” academies, including Sheffield Springs, before Christmas.

If academies fail to deliver improvements the Government can appoint new people onto the governing body or new directors to the academy trust. A DfE spokesman warned it could also take academies out of a sponsor’s control.

He said: “The majority of sponsored academies are thriving under great leadership. Their GCSE results are improving at five times the rate of other state-funded schools.

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“Sponsored academies took over schools that were consistently under-performing which can take time to reverse. But results in a minority of sponsored academies remain stubbornly low.

“We will not tolerate long-term under-performance in any school – including in an academy. As with maintained schools, if these academies do not make the progress we expect, we will take further action. This may result in a change to the sponsorship arrangements.”

A spokesperson for the United Learning Trust said: “We have acknowledged that there have been mistakes in the past and that despite improvement there has been historic underachievement in the academy which culminated in this pre-warning notice last year.

“However, the new leadership both across our organisation and within the academy has been tackling these issues with urgency and we are confident that permanent, significant improvement is under way.”

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Headteacher Russell Heritage was among 26 new members of staff who started at the school in September last year.

The United Learning Trust sponsor four academies in South Yorkshire.

Sheffield Park Academy, which also opened in 2006, became the first academy in the region to be placed in special measures in 2009. It was subsequently brought out of this category and is now rated as satisfactory.