0370 270 6000

Search

Search Mobile

collapse

already registered?

Please sign in with your existing account details.

Email address

Password

Sign in with LinkedIn

need to register?

Register to access exclusive content, sign up to receive our updates and personalise your experience on brownejacobson.com.

Privacy statement - Terms and conditions

Register with LinkedIn

Forgotten your password?

collapseSign

Browne Jacobson home

Home

Insights

Blogs

'For profit' failure or unfair focus?

'for profit' failure or unfair focus?

3 March 2014

IES Breckland in Suffolk has placed the issue of 'for profit' organisations operating within the education sector firmly in the spotlight. The free school, established and governed by parents via the Sabres Educational Trust contracted with Internationella Engelska Skolan, a Swedish educational firm, to run the school.

Following the resignation of the principal, IES launched an investigation into performance at the school, which coincided with an Ofsted visit. Following the publication of the review IES has started to make improvements to “strengthen leadership and teaching staff” which they hope will address the concerns raised by Ofsted.

Take away the 'for profit' headline and is this story so unusual? A school identifies failings in the service provided by a contractor and the contractor puts in place an improved service; concerns about the performance of the staff are raised by internal and external reviews and an improvement plan is put in place. I doubt the story would have been so high profile had the school been an LA-maintained community school.

related opinions

Security in schools – new guidance from the Department for Education

Following a consultation last year on a draft form, the Department for Education (DfE) has now published extensive guidance for schools and colleges in relation to security.

General election 2019 - implications for schools

Parliament has announced that a general election will take place in the UK on Thursday 12 December 2019. Schools are popular places for polling stations and whilst some larger schools are able to continue to operate on election day, many smaller schools are forced to close.

Admission policies may confuse disadvantaged families

In the run up to the deadline for completing the application form for secondary admissions for September 2020 entry, the Good Schools Guide has reported that some admission policies for state funded schools may confuse parents who are less affluent, work at weekends or have English as an additional language.

SEND Reforms necessary but flawed

The House of Commons’ Education Committee has published a review of the SEND reforms which were implemented from 2014 onwards.

View all blogs

Vicki Hair

Associate

mailing list sign up

Select which mailings you would like to receive from us.

Sign up