Academisation has failed to improve standards in the North of England, Sir Michael Wilshaw has told a Northern Powerhouse Conference on education and skills.

The former Ofsted chief inspector also called on new education secretary Damian Hinds to “set up shop in the North” - and from now on to only make speeches in northern schools with disadvantaged white British pupils.

Speaking in Leeds on Friday, Sir Michael said: “Academisation doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference in the North and the Midlands. Doncaster, where every secondary school is an academy, has a miserable attainment score and progress scores.” 

He said the situation regarding disadvantaged children was particularly bad, asking: “How on earth, with all the structural changes and initiatives that have taken place over the last few years, is it that not one child on free school meals in the whole of the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside regions went to Oxbridge after leaving school in 2015?”

He added that: “Practically all the worst performing academy trusts preside in the North and in the Midlands, with a dozen or so so bad that they have effectively been closed down, with their constituent schools handed to other trusts.”

‘Show that the DfE cares’

And he called for successful academy trusts in the south to take up the challenge of improving education in the North.

“They should ensure that the best academy trusts, with well-paid chief executives - and very well paid chief executives - come to the North of England, and not confine themselves to where it is easiest to get the best results.”

Sir Michael used his speech to call for the new education secretary to take his ministers to the North and the Midlands at least two or three times a month, saying: “I appeal to Damian Hinds to set up shop in the North and show that the Department for Education care as much about what happens in Hartlepool as it does in Hackney.”

He added: “Whenever the secretary of state and his ministers give a speech, it should from now on be in a school in the North of England, with a large intake of white British children from low-income backgrounds, and not in the well-trodden multi-ethnic paths of the usual favourites in London.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said 450,000 children were studying in sponsored academies that have been rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ but were typically previously underperforming.

She added: “More than £45 million has been awarded to successful multi-academy trusts to help tackle underperformance and improve schools in areas that lack capacity - over £30 million of which will be targeted to around 300 academy trusts in areas facing the greatest challenges across England.

“And through our Opportunity Areas programme we are investing £72 million in twelve disadvantaged areas of the country - including five in the North - which, alongside our Social Mobility Action Plan, aims to ensure every child can make the most of their lives, no matter where they live.”

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