Northern Education Trust failed to secure urgent school improvements, Ofsted says

A multi-academy trust in the North of England has failed to secure “urgent and necessary improvements in too many of its schools”, an Ofsted inspection has revealed.

The Northern Education Trust was selected for a focused review because of Ofsted’s concerns about the performance of a number of its 20 schools.

The watchdog found that trustees are a “considerable way from fulfilling their published aim for all schools to be good or be better within three years of joining the Trust”.

In addition to this, key performance indicators were found to be “unrealistic and unachievable in the planned timescale, given the current outcomes in many of the schools”.

Only half of the schools that have joined the trust have improved at their most recent Ofsted inspection and the rest have remained the same or declined.

Of the 18 schools that have been inspected since they joined the NET family, one is outstanding, five are good, eight require improvement and four are inadequate.

Ofsted stated that “too few pupils attend a good or better school within this Trust”.

The inspectorate also criticised the trust for the “especially poor” achievement of disadvantaged pupils. It found that teacher assessment information was “inaccurate” in many of the schools and that a “lack of direction” from trust leaders had “stymied progress”.

Despite this, the report stated that the Trust was “supported well” by its finance and HR systems, and relationships with academy leaders were positive.

Ofsted has recommended “as a matter of urgency” that the Trust should establish an effective strategy to bring about sustainable improvement.