Lorna Fitzjohn HMI Regional Director- West Midlands Ofsted 5 St Philips Place Birmingham B3 2PW Friday 14th March 2014
Dear Lorna, Thank you for your letter of 11 March 2014. I acknowledge the overall findings outlined in your letter. I recognise that standards have not improved quickly enough in some of our academies and standards overall are not where they need to be. This is why, at the time of the inspections, the organisation had already started to make significant changes. It is a matter of regret that the summary of findings recorded in your letter does not reflect the context and core mission of E-ACT, which works with some of the most challenging communities in England. It also does not recognise that E-ACT has good and outstanding academies and practice across the Multi-Academy Trust. Scrutiny of the detailed evidence cited in the individual 16 Ofsted reports demonstrates a lack of balance in your conclusion about the effectiveness of E-ACT. Significant omissions are shown in the table on page 11-13 of the attached report. It is especially disappointing that existing and emerging good practice in the Trust is not reflected in your letter. The paragraph at the bottom of page 3 cites: “that E-ACT had deducted a proportion of the pupil premium funding from each school” This is inaccurate, as is evident in your report on Shenley Academy. On the 16 October 2013, the Chair of the Board, Dr Ann Limb wrote to all Academy Principals and Academy Chairs of Local Governing Bodies and stated: “The budget is based on a 4.9% topslice, which is a reduction from last year and does not include any top slicing of the Pupil Premium funding.” I have attached a copy of this email for your information.
3rd Floor, 10 Whitfield St. London W1T 2RE
T +44 (0) 203 176 3882 F +44 (0) 203 176 3880
CEO: David Moran Registered Office: E-ACT, 2-6 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6YH Company No. 652 6376 E-ACT is a charitable company limited by guarantee
E info@E-ACT.org.uk W www.E-ACT.org.uk
I recognise that overall improvement in the quality of teaching and learning is not consistently good enough. E-ACT has put in place school to school support to focus sharply on this area. Improving teaching in English and mathematics is a particular area of concern. E-ACT has already implemented strategies to raise attainment and our evidence base shows that they are having an impact. In some of our academies inspected as part of this programme teaching in English and/ or maths was judged to be nothing less than ‘Good’. These key improvements and strengths in a number of our academies are not reflected in your letter. Whilst the rate of improvement has not been consistent across all academies, the individual reports indicate that not all academies have the same weaknesses. The paragraph on page 3 of your letter beginning, ‘The inspections highlighted key weakness across the 16 academies’ suggests that all academies have the same weaknesses. This is not factually correct. Five of the sixteen academies inspected had teaching that was rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. Ten out of the 16 academies inspected did not indentify governance as weak. Indeed, several academies were praised for their governance. I have received feedback from Principals regarding the telephone interviews which were held. The overwhelmingly positive comments which were fed back to me are also absent from your letter. It is not clear from your letter how many telephone interviews were conducted, what the feedback from these was and how this informed your overall judgement. As this was an integral part of the intensive inspection programme, I believe that this is a substantial omission from your letter. Finally, it is not made clear in your letter that the leadership (both at Trustee and management level) of E-ACT has seen significant changes over the last year. This action has resulted in the changes which have been evidenced by your inspections, the Education Funding Agency and the Department for Education. I have referenced this in page 7 of the attached report. Ofsted has made a judgement about the effectiveness of E-ACT. It would be helpful to see the criteria on which you have based your judgement. Bearing in mind the significant changes I have identified, I would request that the letter is re-drafted before publication. Kindest regards
David Moran E-ACT Chief Executive Officer 3rd Floor, 10 Whitfield St. London W1T 2RE
T +44 (0) 203 176 3882 F +44 (0) 203 176 3880
CEO: David Moran Registered Office: E-ACT, 2-6 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6YH Company No. 652 6376 E-ACT is a charitable company limited by guarantee
E info@E-ACT.org.uk W www.E-ACT.org.uk