Forced academisation and school interventions

Advising Yew Tree Primary School in a landmark judicial review case against the Secretary of State for Education, arguing that the Secretary of State’s decision not to revoke the school’s academy order was unlawful.

Advising a single academy trust on a judicial review case against the Secretary of State for Education challenging decision-making relating to the proposed re-brokerage and the chosen ‘sponsor’. During the course of proceedings, the Secretary of State agreed to revoke the termination notice.

Following an Ofsted judgement of special measures, we supported a school to resist forced academisation. When they came to us for support we prepared a robust and well-timed letter to the DfE to demonstrate how, in light of the improvement made by the school during this period, forced academisation would be irrational to the point of being unlawful. Subsequently, the school was re-inspected and judged to be ‘good’ by Ofsted, meaning it was no longer eligible for intervention and safe from forced academisation.

Advising a primary school on responding to a warning notice issued by their local authority on the grounds that there had been a breakdown in governance at the school. We identified a number of ways in which the warning notice was flawed and Ofsted accepted our submissions and overturned the warning notice. The school did not become ‘eligible for intervention’ and did not become vulnerable to further school intervention measures, such as the imposition of an IEB or an academy order.

Supporting an academy with a complaint to Ofsted following a section 5 inspection. We drafted a letter of complaint which focused on the discrepancy between the feedback and provisional gradings provided by the lead inspector and the contents of the final report following moderation, with no clear reason provided for these changes. Ofsted agreed to reinstate their original judgement and adjusted the gradings for both Teaching & Learning and Leadership & Management, leaving the academy satisfied of a fair outcome.