Oliver’s Ofsted move halted Outwood Grange growth

Outwood Grange Academies Trust says it took a ‘strategic decision’ not to expand when its leader left to become chief inspector
29th January 2025, 6:07pm

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Oliver’s Ofsted move halted Outwood Grange growth

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/outwood-grange-academies-sir-martyn-oliver-ofsted-exit-slowed-growth-annual-accounts
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Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) says it opted not to grow last year as it brought in a new leader and spent reserves cash on capital projects.

The trust, which runs 40 state schools - 13 primaries and 27 secondaries - across Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, lost its CEO, Sir Martyn Oliver, in November 2023, ahead of him becoming Ofsted chief inspector.

Lee Wilson was officially appointed as Sir Martyn’s successor as CEO in April 2024.

The trust’s annual accounts for 2023-24, published last week, show that it started to see the impact of falling birth rates in its primary schools, and continued to tackle the impact of the pandemic on issues like attendance.

Leadership transition at Outwood Grange

Sir Martyn earned between £40,000 and £45,000 for his time at OGAT between September and 14 November 2023. His full-time salary the previous year had been £190,000 to £195,000.

Mr Wilson initially took over as interim CEO, before taking the role full-time after a recruitment process. He earned between £70,000 and £75,000 after he became CEO last April, up to 31 August 2024.

In the accounts, the trust says it made the “strategic decision” to keep its number of schools the same during 2023-24 to prioritise ensuring a “seamless transition” of leadership and to work on strengthening its cross-phase provision.

£3m deficit

The trust reported an income of £4.6 million more than its expenditure for 2023-24.

However, once this was adjusted to exclude capital movements and pension adjustments and to reflect £3.3 million of restricted reserves spent on capital projects, the trust reported a deficit of £3 million.

In the previous year OGAT had a surplus of £3.1 million.


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The trust’s unrestricted reserves fell to £16.7 million, from £18.7 million in 2023.

OGAT pools its schools’ reserves. Its accounts state that it has adopted Department for Education guidance and aims to hold contingency reserves of between £11.1 million and £14.8 million.

Relative to trust size, this is a “lean” position of £300,000 to £400,000 per school, with all excess reserves allocated to revenue or capital projects, the accounts say.

When restricted reserves are added in, the trust had £40.1 million at the end of the year, down from £43.2 million in 2022-23 - which was just over 20 per cent of its income that year. This proportion reduced to around 16 per cent in 2023-24.

The trust told Tes last year that reserves held in excess of guidance were committed to capital projects to address a “legacy of underinvestment” prior to schools coming into the trust.

“We continue to be a very well-run, financially efficient organisation that ensures that every penny of funding we receive is best spent so that every child and young person we support is part of a thriving school community where they feel safe, happy and fulfilled,” an OGAT spokesperson said.

Primary growth ‘slowing’

During 2023-24 OGAT saw student numbers grow by 465 at secondary. However, it says primary growth is now showing signs of slowing, with primary pupil numbers reducing by six over the year.

The trust will monitor pupil growth and is planning in advance, a spokesperson said.

OGAT saw attendance at both primary and secondary increase relative to the previous year.

However, at secondary it remained below the national average of 90.9 per cent for attendance - at 89.01 per cent. Persistent absence was 31.1 per cent at secondary during the year.

The trust said attendance remains a “significant priority”.

OGAT outlined a renewed three-year strategy at the end of 2023-24 that set out how it would deliver on priorities such as improving attendance and reducing suspension rates. A spokesperson said the trust is “already making good progress” against these.

Tackling poor behaviour

“Many schools in our trust had been under-performing for years when they joined us. Part of transforming schools like these involves tackling the poor behaviour and low attendance that characterises them, so that all students attending them are safe, happy and can learn in lessons that are not constantly disrupted,” the trust spokesperson added.

“Improving these schools takes time. The pandemic slowed our work, and progress is not uniform. But we are pleased that the approaches we are taking are seeing improvements across the trust, and we are working hard at achieving this in all our schools.”

The trust spent three-quarters of its income in 2023-24 on staffing - 47 per cent on teachers and 28 per cent on support staff.

In total, its staffing costs were just over £172 million across 4,577 members of staff.

For 2023-24 the trust had a teaching staff contact ratio of 0.74 - meaning teachers spent an average of 74 per cent of their time in the classroom.

The accounts refer to “increases in capacity and staffing models, which were implemented to mitigate against the impact of the pandemic”.

Over the current academic year, the trust is focusing on returning to pre-pandemic staff contact ratios.

Subsidiary company

OGAT received income of £140,000 during 2023-24 from its subsidiary company, Outwood Grange Services Limited.

This company provides educational support services to other trusts and schools. OGAT said “every penny” is invested back into “the high-quality education and care of children and young people”.

The trust said it now has only four schools that were rated at lower than “good” by Ofsted before the watchdog removed headline inspection judgements. Some 30 of the trust’s schools were rated at below “good” before joining.

Of the 13 inspections that trust schools had during 2023-24, three were ungraded, eight were “good” and one was “outstanding”.

Outwood Academy Normanby was judged to have serious weaknesses, with an “inadequate” judgement for behaviour and attitudes. OGAT said the impact of the pandemic had slowed the school’s recovery. It joined the trust in 2019 and had previously been graded as needing special measures.

Find our interactive map of England’s multi-academy trusts by clicking here, where you will also find links to all our MAT Tracker content

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