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For those of you who follow me for health reporting, bear with me as I have a thread that's not on my usual topics. My daughter goes to King Edward VII School (KES) in Sheffield. It's an historic school, the last local authority secondary in the city and a true comprehensive.
It's a large school on two sites, diverse catchment. Academically it does well particularly at A level. But its ethos is all achievement is celebrated, it has a broad curriculum and a wide range of extra curricular activities and trips. It has no uniform.
Recently it was part of a winning national multi-million pound funding bid with UCL for language learning for the work it does across Sheffield in supporting kids to get a GSCE in a home language. Just one of its many projects. theguardian.com/education/2023…
In Sept it had a 1.5 day Ofsted inspection which found it to be good in most areas but inadequate on safeguarding and leadership. Overall the rating was inadequate (previously good). The school appealed numerous times. Parents were told in Jan when version 4 was published.
The Ofsted report makes little sense but it triggers forced academisation. Parents quickly join forces to try to fight the decision and collect and share views with the local authority. At every stage we have had to battle get information. kesthefuture.org
Over Easter a vigilant parent spotted a new draft agenda published ahead of a regional DfE board meeting next week. This listed a proposed academy trust to take over KES. The school had not been told. We had three days to get in touch with the board to make our views known.
The proposed trust (Brigantia) has five schools (two are primary and one a sixth form college). Two of five are graded as requires improvement and have been for years. Taking over KES would dramatically increase its number of students (it has around 4,000, KES has 1800 alone).
There is no evidence that the trust has the capacity, experience or track record to support KES with any changes that might be needed. Previous staff members have reached out to us to warn of bad management, poor staff morale and retention. It is a terrible fit for KES.
Ofsted did find "most pupils are happy", "there is a respectful atmosphere", "relationships between pupils and staff are positive", "pupil behaviour is a strength of the school" and "pupils enjoy their lessons because they are taught by passionate, engaging and expert teachers"
Parents have deep deep concerns that academisation will risk damaging all that is good about the school for little gain. The school should be supported to make any necessary changes. This is not a failing school. We are protesting on Saturday and we are gaining media interest.
Given the national conversation about Ofsted single-word judgements this is not just a local story. It is about parent choice and having a say in your children's education. They have already had so much disruption due to Covid and they are now facing another massive upheaval.
@_OliviaBlake and @PaulBlomfieldMP share our concerns as do local councillors. It's hard to express the strength of feeling among 100s of parents who have joined forces on this. But believe us when we say we are not going away quietly. @SheffieldStar @BBCLookNorth @yorkshirepost 
If you feel strongly about this too please sign our petition which already has more than 1300 signatures. change.org/p/stop-the-for…
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