• Home
  • Contact Us!
  • Privacy Policy

Radio Metta

  • Home
  • Business
  • Education
  • Health
  • Home Deco
  • News
  • Real Estate
  • Technology
  • Contact Us!
  • Privacy Policy
Home» Education»Few multi-academy trusts good enough to improve schools, says Wilshaw

Few multi-academy trusts good enough to improve schools, says Wilshaw

Saheli 22 Jun 2016 Education Comments Off on Few multi-academy trusts good enough to improve schools, says Wilshaw 23 Views

Sir Michael Wilshaw

Only a handful of multi-academy trusts are up to the job of improving England’s schools, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has told MPs, before accusing the Department for Education of being too slow to intervene in struggling schools.

Speaking to the education select committee, the outgoing chief inspector of schools criticised the government’s flagship school improvement programme, which involves multi-academy trusts (Mats) taking over schools formerly maintained by local authorities.

Wilshaw claimed the government had allowed too many schools to be taken over by Mats with weak or uneven records and which lacked the capacity to improve the schools under their control.

“We undertook a survey of good Mats and we were really struggling to find them. We have established that there are about half a dozen, but there are a lot of mediocre trusts out there,” Wilshaw said.Wilshaw and Sir David Carter, who was appointed to the post of national schools commissioner by education secretary Nicky Morgan in February, were giving evidence to the education committee on the growth of multi-academy trusts, with 973 now running schools in England and an estimated 1,000 more required if all schools become academies.

At one point, Wilshaw compared Mats to the US supermarket chain Walmart, accusing them of being more interested in rapid expansion than quality.

“Some multi-academy trusts have been allowed to grow too quickly,” Wilshaw said. “Executive head teachers wanted to show how many schools they had rather than how good they were.”

Wilshaw said Ofsted had identified seven multi-academy chains that were too concerned with expanding: “When we looked at these seven failing ones, they had what I called a Walmart philosophy: pile ’em high and sell ’em cheap. It was empire-building rather than having the capacity to improve schools.”

But Carter assured MPs that poorly performing Mats would not be given approval to take over schools in the future and that a “health check” was being developed to assess a Mat’s track record.

“I do think there is evidence Mats are working, but this is an evolution: they are the new beasts on the block,” Carter said, claiming that the best Mats, such as the Ark academy chain, did some of the best work in improving the education of disadvantaged pupils.

Carter is a former chief executive of a multi-academy trust, the Cabot Learning Federation, and was one of the DfE’s first regional schools commissioners, the middle layer of management created to oversee academies and trusts.

When Wilshaw steps down at the end of the year, his replacement, announced by the DfE last week, is to be Amanda Spielman, one of the founders of the Ark chain.
Wilshaw criticised the network of regional schools commissioners for failing to intervene promptly when schools were identified as requiring improvement. “The big concern I have about regional schools commissioners is, are they being pro-active enough?”

Questioned about the benefits of autonomy offered to those running academies, Wilshaw said he had just as much freedom running maintained secondary schools in 1992. “I was master of my own destiny. When I became head of an academy, my life didn’t really change,” he said.

Wilshaw said local authorities were failing to tackle unregistered schools “operating in the shadows” in their areas, leaving children in danger of exposure to extremism – although he admitted under questioning from MPs that no children had been found to be directly radicalised.

enough few good improve multi-academy says schools to trusts Wilshaw 2016-06-22
Tags enough few good improve multi-academy says schools to trusts Wilshaw
Facebook Twitter Stumble linkedin Pinterest More

Authors

Posted by : Saheli
Previous Article :

Report: half of teaching assistants faced physical violence in past year

Next Article :

30-hour free childcare pledge in jeopardy, say MPs

Related Articles

GESS Proudly Supports and Sponsors UAE Based Team in Global STEM Challenge

Loknath Das 28 Jul 2022

USF faculty, students to present at 2022 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting

Loknath Das 22 Jul 2022

Dimensity 8100 and 8000 announced, first smartphones coming in March

Loknath Das 08 Mar 2022

Latest Post

News

Your SEO Budget Is Determining Your Success

admin 03 Sep 2022
News

WAN Connection Method – Frame Relay

admin 26 Aug 2022
Education

GESS Proudly Supports and Sponsors UAE Based Team in Global STEM Challenge

Loknath Das 28 Jul 2022
Technology

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 gets FCC certification

Loknath Das 22 Jul 2022
Education

USF faculty, students to present at 2022 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting

Loknath Das 22 Jul 2022
Technology

“Critical” We Understand Digital Money’s Impact: US Policymaker

Loknath Das 07 Jun 2022
Health

Firefly Health Taps Oshi Health to Add Whole-Person Digestive Care to Its Virtual Specialty Network

Loknath Das 06 Jun 2022
September 2023
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Sep    
  • Home
  • Contact Us!
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright 2016, All Rights Reserved
Magazine Blog News WordPress Theme