A major multi-academy trust has moved to a centralised approach to its teaching after admitting that the majority of its secondary schools’ Progress 8 scores were disappointing.
The trustees of David Ross Education Trust (DRET) have raised concerns about the secondary school performance and said that “significant incremental investment” is needed to improve them.
In the multi-academy trust’s latest annual accounts, the board of trustees say that improvement plans are now in place to develop a trust-wide approach to teaching and behaviour management.
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The annual accounts published for the year ending August 2019 also show that the trust, which runs 34 schools - 10 secondaries, 22 primaries, one special and one all-through school - faced a deficit of £1 million, an improvement on the previous year’s £1.4 million.
Academy trust targets Progress 8 improvement
Tes revealed in December last year that the trust’s chief executive, Rowena Hackwood, has resigned and is to step down at the end of this academic year.
And the trust is also looking to recruit a replacement principal for its all-through school in East London.
The trust’s accounts show a mixed picture in terms of school performance with some success at primary but concerns over secondary.
On secondaries, the accounts say: “The board of trustees is disappointed to report that although a few of the trust’s academies continue to perform in line or above national average in terms of Progress 8 measure, most of the trust’s academies continue to perform below national average and the overall Progress 8 measure of -0.27 is slightly adverse to the prior year (-0.12).
“The trustees recognise that significant incremental investment is needed to improve outcomes both in terms of absolute results and the Progress 8 measure.”
The report says that improvements are already underway with a central team of trust-wide subject specialists being recruited to improve curriculum and “significant investment”in CPD training for teachers to “establish a trust-wide approach to teaching and learning and pupil behaviour management, drawing on Rosenshine’s principles of instruction”.
American academic Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction provide teachers with 10 instructions, based on research into both teaching and cognitive science, which can be applied in the classroom.
The trust’s accounts say that it achieved a combined average score at key stage 2 of 68 per cent - “a 5 per cent increase” on the year before.
Last year the trust was given a pre-termination warning notice by the Department for Education for Lodge Park Academy, a secondary school in Corby, Northamptonshire, which was placed in special measures in January.
The trust has also faced high-profile financial challenges in recent times.
In 2018 a financial management and governance review published by the DfE said that the trust was in a vulnerable financial position with a forecast deficit of £4.9 million. The review was carried out in May of 2017, but was only published by the department more than a year later.
Since 2017 the trust has been GAG pooling - moving all of the school’s funding to the centre and then distributing it back to schools. By the end of 2017-18, its deficit had been cut to £1.4 million, and to £1 million the following year.
