The Blackpool Gazette reports on  the recent OFSTED inspection of an Academy School sponsored by Bright Futures Academy Chain.

In a damning report, Ofsted rated South Shore Academy in St Annes Road, South Shore, as one of the most underperforming schools on the Fylde coast.

The May inspection called leadership and management, behaviour and safety of pupils, quality of teaching and achievement of pupils as inadequate – the worst grading.

Worries were raised about teaching, safety and the poor behaviour of pupils – with one inspector adding the academy’s current curriculum does not prepare them properly for modern life in Britain.

The school, led by principal Jane Bailey, is now set to be put into special measures after the schools leaders, managers and governors failed to secure improvements.In an eight page report, Ofsted inspectors raised concerns about ineffective leadership, inadequate teaching, low attendance in Year 11, disruption in lessons and the academy building not being fit for purpose.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden (Labour Party) added: “I am very concerned, both for the families with students at the school and students themselves at this particularly strong Ofsted report which at the time of the inspection judged the academy as being inadequate in most of its categories.

“This should be a wake-up call to central government to make sure the model going forward is one of collaboration and working closely with the local community and not being dictated to by Whitehall. 

The Conservative government’s policy of  Academisation isolates schools from specialised support services, and increases competition between schools rather than advocating co-oeration and shared professionalism among educationalists.

Isolation increases the difficulties caused by social deprivation and cuts to public services.  Pitching school against school, and child against child can only exacerbate issues of concern. Schools need to work together in LEAS or teacher-led consortia for mutual benefit. There is increasing evidence that the Academisation programme does not improve learning and is another screen for privatisation of public services.  

Clive Lewis , Labour MP from Norwich South  criticises Academy chain Inspiration Trust and proposed  forced takeovers in his maiden speech in Parliament.

“Not content with taking over our schools and giving parents no say in their children’s education, they crave ever more power and wealth,” he told the Commons.

“Now they want to take from the people of Norwich, the Hewett local authority school and the £60m pounds of land it sits on – land that belongs to the people of our city.

Our schools are not businesses, our children are not commodities, our future is not to be traded. The Academisation programme must stop now, and Labour’s policy must oppose it and offer an alternative and inclusive education policy. Education is not about individuals, it is about everyone and for our mutual benefit.

• OFSTED Report, May 2015, Blackpool South Shore Academy
• Blackpool Gazette: Blackpool Secondary School blasted as inadequate by OFSTED
• Press release of Coalition Government : Academy Chains driving School improvement
• Academisation and the Demolition of our Education System
• Clive Lewis , Labour MP, Norwich South Maiden Speech