The Labour government cannot afford to be “agnostic” about the future of “orphan” primary schools, academy trust leaders have warned.
The caution comes after former education recovery tsar Sir Kevan Collins - who was appointed schools standards adviser by the government this week - said at a Tes event that he is “agnostic” about school structures.
Trust leaders have told Tes that they fear this approach will leave thousands of smaller primary schools to languish amid falling pupil rolls, squeezed budgets and local authority cuts.
While some say the new government has a “moral imperative” to help communities by supporting smaller primary schools, they also warn that it must look urgently at funding structures for primaries and the financial support available for trusts wanting to take them on.
Some 82 per cent of secondary schools are now academies but the figure for primaries is almost half that - 44 per cent.
Calls for government action on small schools
Tes analysis shows that, of the 9,600 primaries that are still maintained by local authorities, 15 per cent (1,394) have fewer than 100 pupils. Many of these are seen as being in a “financially perilous” position.
Research by FFT Education Datalab suggests that, at the current rate of academisation, all schools will not be part of a multi-academy trust until around 2041.
While work is ongoing in the sector to help small schools find compatible trusts - including the formation of a national group by eight MAT chief executives - leaders are calling for more central action from the Department for Education.
Nick Cross, the chief executive of King’s Group Academies, a MAT with five secondaries, seven primaries, one special school and one all-through school in the South East, said he would like to see government guidance on how trusts can incorporate smaller schools into their structures.
For example, he said this could include merging some Year 6 provision into secondary schools or schools looking at becoming all-through schools.
Mr Cross said this is something the new government needs to look at “urgently”, arguing that “as more schools academise, local authorities will have less ability to cater for smaller schools”.
“As the number of local-authority maintained schools reduce due to increased academisation, the funding these organisations receive from the DfE is likely to decrease” he added.
There is a risk that smaller schools will be left without any form of support, Mr Cross said.
Demand for annual top-up grants
One trust leader, speaking anonymously, said they wanted to see a “minimum annual funding guarantee” for trusts that take on smaller primary schools.
“Otherwise you’ll just have these orphan schools around,” they added, referring to schools that appear unattractive to potential MAT sponsors because of their circumstances.
The leader said they will no longer consider taking on a school that is less than two-form entry and has a turnover of less than about £2 million, adding that “no one in their right mind” would look at this either.
They would like to see decisions over the funding allocated being made by regional directors, taking local context into account.
However, there are questions over the future of regional directors, with newly appointed education secretary Bridget Phillipson having previously called for more transparency and accountability in this “layer” of the system.
Falling pupil rolls ‘a wake-up call’
Adrian Ball, CEO of the Diocese of Ely Multi Academy Trust, which runs 40 primary schools across East Anglia, highlighted the “much” lower per-pupil funding rate for primary, despite the fact that you can make “much better efficiencies at secondaries”.
Minimum per-pupil funding for primary schools is at least £4,610, compared with £5,995 for secondaries.
Mr Ball’s concern was echoed by Tom Campbell, chief executive of E-ACT, which has 12 secondaries, 16 primaries and one all-through school. He described the issue of falling pupil rolls for primary schools as “a wake-up call that the government needs to look at funding differently”, and suggested that longer funding terms could be the answer.
Without this, school closures, classes being taught by unqualified teachers or children being in mixed year group classes would “become the norm”, he warned.
Samantha Jones, CEO of The Rainbow Multi Academy Trust, which has 11 primary schools in Cornwall, said that while the trust board is “really keen to support those smaller schools”, there “will have to come a time where they weigh up their own risk” around what that could mean for other schools in the trust.
But Ms Jones added that she did not know what would happen to those smaller primary schools if trusts don’t take them on.
And she said that there needed to be “a bigger weighting in per-pupil funding for smaller schools”.
More capital funding support
Adrian Rogers, CEO of Chiltern Learning Trust which has 11 secondary schools and five primaries in the East of England, said he wants the government to help with costs for building works before trusts take on smaller primaries.
This is “a real stumbling block at the moment that becomes a huge financial burden”, he added.
Smaller trusts can currently apply to the Condition Improvement Fund, but not all of those that bid are successful.
Mr Ball agreed that support with capital investment would help, given the number of small primaries housed in “old Victorian buildings”.
The DfE’s Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) is aimed at incentivising trusts to take on challenging schools. But Mr Ball would like to see new TCaF categories, focused on smaller schools.
Tough decisions on ‘unviable’ schools
However, joining a trust will not always be enough to save a struggling school, Sir Jon Coles, CEO of the biggest MAT, United Learning, warned last week.
Speaking at the Festival of Education, Sir Jon - whose trust has 90 schools across the country - said “there needs to be some thinking by local authorities and the Church of England” around which schools they want to maintain, as well as how that can be afforded.
Mr Ball agreed, telling Tes: “Incentivising trusts to take on schools that are unviable is the wrong approach because you’re essentially kicking a can down the road.”
It is about “drawing that line between small schools and those that are unviable”, he added.
Rob Haring, CEO of Westcountry Schools Trust, which has eight secondaries and 23 primary schools in the South West, said it is clear that “the funding envelope for small, rural schools is totally insufficient”.
His trust is “essentially subsidising the operating model of some of our small primary schools because we believe in them, but that’s not sustainable long-term”.
To keep those schools operating, his trust is having to reduce some provision. “We’re looking at every budget line to try to make savings to keep the school open and viable,” he said.
Julie Kelly, vice-chair of the National Association of Small Schools, told Tes that there needs to be a “whole national conversation” around the protection of smaller primary schools, as well as a reference group to look at these settings.
And while Ms Kelly said that the general MAT model is not supportive of smaller schools, she added that there are some MATs and federations that provide “very good networks” across the country.
However, she rebutted some claims made by trusts about smaller primaries, saying that some MATs will not fund these settings because they have “prejudice against the smaller schools”.
Ms Kelly also said that there were “some misconceptions” about smaller primary schools’ viability, adding that the benefits that the settings can bring in terms of enrichment and support are often dismissed.
Cluster smaller schools into hubs
Despite the “significant barriers” that trusts face in supporting smaller primary schools, Dan Morrow CEO of Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, which has 15 primary schools, one special school and three secondaries in the South West, said his trust has had success by adopting a “hub” model, with clusters of schools working closely together.
But Mr Morrow argued that “more thought needs to go into the intentional design of trust hubs” to make sure that this becomes commonplace, adding that it would be helpful for the government to ensure that trusts have the “necessary support” for development.
Liz West, CEO of Initio Learning Trust, which has six secondaries and 11 primaries in Dorset, agreed that “clustering small schools together in groups” could make it “more feasible for MATs to bring them on board”.
Seamus Murphy, CEO of Turner Schools, which has three primaries and three secondary schools in Kent, said there needs to be a “structured solution” to support trusts taking on smaller schools; for example, shared leadership and services, joint key roles and the opportunity to move year groups between buildings.
‘Agnosticism won’t work’
Nigel Genders, the Church of England’s chief education officer, said that now there is a chance for the state to think about the country’s education system “strategically”.
Reflecting on Sir Kevan’s “agnosticism” about the structure of the school system, Mr Genders argued that some local authorities have “such a small number of maintained schools” that they cannot support them.
“I don’t think you can be agnostic about those structures,” he said.
Mr Genders is concerned that by “leaving it all to market forces”, the school system will be “shaped on the basis of money and finance” rather than what is right for the pupils.
“If we don’t do that we’ll end up leaving our successors in a bit of a pickle,” he said.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
The Local Government Association declined to comment.
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