Academy Trust to have two schools removed

The Greenwood Academies Trust is set to lose two of its schools following criticism from Ofsted.

According to Schools Week, the Trust, which runs 31 schools across the East of England and the East Midlands, will have the schools taken away after Ofsted questioned its ability to drive improvement without a “balanced portfolio” of academies.

As a result, Greenwood Academies has been told by the government to rebroker the City of Derby Academy and Skegness Academy.

It is the latest trust to be criticised for not driving improvement at its most challenging schools.

In December, the Trust was told by Ofsted that it had “let down pupils over a number of years” following an inspection of six of its schools.

In November last year, City of Derby Academy was rated inadequate by Ofsted after an inspection of the trust.

Inspectors said trustees had “not held leaders to account for continued poor performance, nor kept sound oversight of the school’s improvement and school finances”.

It also found Greenwood, set up in 2009, had not done enough to identify the “weaknesses and needs” of its academies.

But Ofsted said the trust had improved overall effectiveness in 20 schools.

The trust said at the time that it accepted the majority of the watchdog’s findings, but was disappointed with the claim that it had let down pupils.