A council has sparked a row with a multi-academy trust after it wrote to education secretary Damian Hinds warning that its local community is fearful of what it describes as the “tough love” and “unreasonable” approach taken by the MAT.  

A Dorset Council director has urged the education secretary to halt the academisation of a secondary school because of concerns about the chosen sponsor, Aspirations Academies Trust, and questions about whether the consultation process was carried out properly.

However, Aspirations Academies Trust has responded by saying that it is taking legal advice about the council letter, which it described as “ill-advised and extremely misinformed.” 

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Budmouth College, a maintained 11-18 school in Weymouth, which was rated “inadequate” by Ofsted last year and is facing a deficit of more than £2 million, is set to become part of the trust.

However, Dorset Council wants the Department for Education to suspend the process. 

A letter to Mr Hinds from Sarah Parker, the council’s executive director for children, raises questions about the way Aspirations runs Atlantic Academy, a school on the Isle of Portland, near to Weymouth.

She writes: “Many parents and local community members have a negative view of Aspirations Academy Trust because they have experienced it as it runs a local school already. It is a known quantity and its practices have been talked about and criticised.

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“Given what they have learned about the Atlantic Academy on Portland, the local community is very critical, even fearful of the ‘tough love’ and ‘unreasonable’ approach with young people that is widely reported across Weymouth.”

Ms Parker told the education secretary that there is a belief that many children “choose to leave or are forced to leave Portland to go to school”.

Her letter also quotes figures which Aspirations has dismissed as “incorrect”. Ms Parker says that numbers attending Atlantic Academy fell by 20 per cent from October 2016 to October 2018.

The letter also claims that the “no excuses” approach taken by Atlantic Academy has resulted in many pupils leaving through permanent exclusions.

Ms Parker said the figure was 0.72 per cent of pupil enrolments in 2016-17 compared with a national average of 0.1 per cent.

However, Aspirations Academies Trust has said that it did not run the academy until September 2017.

It said that in 2017-18 there was a net increase in pupils of 31 at Atlantic Academy.

The letter, which has appeared on a local news website, says the council is also concerned about the size of the school deficit, which it says could rise to £2.9 million, which the authority will have to take on when Budmouth College becomes an academy. 

Steve Kenning, Aspirations Academies chief executive officer, said: “We are aware of the letter, which is ill-advised and extremely misinformed.

“Also we are taking legal advice regarding the matter.”

He added that the council letter “in no way reflects the work we have done with Budmouth College, or the wider work of the trust, and we have written to all staff to set the record straight.

“The leadership team and the staff at Budmouth have done a brilliant job since we started supporting the school, bringing stability and improvements.

“We hope that we will continue our work with Budmouth College to ensure that its students receive an excellent education.”

Aspirations Academies also runs the “outstanding”-rated Magna Academy in Poole. which has also been described as taking a “tough love” approach to school discipline. 

It emerged this year that the school had raised the number of penalty points pupils need to trigger detentions or internal exclusions following concerns in the school about how quickly pupils were moving through a system of sanctions.

In a statement sent to Tes, Ms Parker said: “We have written to the secretary of state and asked the government to suspend the academisation of Budmouth College and take time to explore alternative options.

“We have 100 per cent confidence in the new headteacher, David Herbert, and believe we can work with him to turn the school around. 

“We share the concerns of parents, pupils and the local community and want these to be addressed before this process goes any further.

“Although we’ve not had a reply yet, we are having ongoing conversations with Aspirations, Budmouth and the regional schools commissioners about the best way forward.”

Her letter to Mr Hinds also said that the council believes the consultation on the choice of sponsor did not meet the requirement of the Academies Act because the interim executive board, which now runs the school, was not adequately consulted.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Budmouth College dropped from an outstanding school to an inadequate school when it was maintained under the local authority. 

“Aspirations Multi Academy Trust has shown significant improvement in the schools it has taken on and we fully expect this will be the case for Budmouth when it joins the Trust.

“We have received the local authority’s letter and will work with the council and the trust, where necessary, to resolve any issues and ensure the smooth transfer so that Budmouth continues to reflect the needs of its community.”