olland Park School is to be transferred to the United Learning (UL) trust after it was issued with a termination notice and downgrade by Ofsted earlier this month, the Office of the Regional Commissioner for Schools says. It comes after a bitter row erupted earlier this year between some parents and staff and the school’s governing body, who wanted the school to join the polyacademy. The school was forced to close in May after teachers walked out in protest against the plans. The district commissioner of schools for North West London and South Central, Dame Kate Dethridge, informed parents on Friday that UL had been recognized as the approved trust to run the school in the future, “because of its strong track record of improvement and operation school with schools in difficult conditions”. The UL is being recommended to the Regional Schools Commissioner’s Advisory Committee for discussion before advice is sent to the Minister for Schools, Baroness Barran, who will make the final decision.
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The board will provide independent advice and challenge on key decisions about academies, including transfers between trusts, a letter to parents said. It said: “Parents and the wider school community have the opportunity to express views on the preferred sponsor before the Advisory Committee meeting on July 21, and these views will be shared at that meeting.” The Commissioner’s Office received an Ofsted notice on June 7 confirming the school was found to be “inadequate and has a serious weakness”, said a warning notice sent to school members and administrators. “Any funding agreement of an academy may be terminated by the Secretary of State where special measures are required to be taken by the academy or the academy requires significant improvement and the Chief Inspector of Ofsted has given notice of this under section 13(3) (a) of Education Act 2005,” the statement said. Ofsted found that “leadership upheaval” had “destabilised” the school community and that most aspects of school life had “diminished significantly since the previous inspection”. The review said that despite an interim headteacher wanting to improve things for pupils, “the change needed was too slow”. “Leadership is bad and unfit for purpose. Too much responsibility falls on too few leaders,” the statement said. “Many remaining leaders are overstretched and overwhelmed. This means they are not doing enough to address weaknesses, particularly declining student behavior and attitudes.” Parents protest outside Holland Park School / Leaflet The notice said Ofsted found staff lacked training in managing pupil behaviour, which had led to an increase in “significant behavior around the school and in the neighbourhood”. Ofsted also criticized the school’s curriculum, claiming it was “too focused on pupils passing GCSE exams early”. “This means that students are not systematically acquiring deep and broad enough knowledge in some subjects,” he said. The district commissioner for schools for North West London and South Central, Dame Kate Dethridge, said she had to be satisfied that there would be “rapid and sustainable improvement” at the academy. If not, it would terminate the funding agreement in order to transfer the academy to an alternative trust academy, it said in the warning letter. Written statements in response to the termination notice were due by July 1. A group of parents have claimed the decision to rate the school as failing is “absurd”. They argued that the timing of the inspection – as the school is embroiled in a row over whether it should join a chain of academies – amounted to an abuse of power. The group, made up of members of the Holland Park School Parents Association, wrote to Ofsted saying they could launch a judicial review of the report.
