The bosses of big trusts told academy commissioners that they would only take large schools and ignore small ones at the height of the Conservatives’ MAT drive, a regional director has said.
But Andrew Warren, regional director for the West Midlands, said he decided to “push back” against obstinate CEOs to ensure that smaller schools were “looked after and viable”.
The senior Department for Education official made the admission at the Schools and Academies Show this week, as he revealed he has also lobbied diocese chiefs to share staff between village schools to keep them afloat.
“Some years ago, when the government strategy was for academy growth at pace, some of the [larger] trust leaders would say, ‘I’ll only take a big school… I’m not going to take a small school’,” Warren recalled.
“And [my regional team] heard those messages for a couple of months before as a team we decided that we were absolutely going to push back.”
Warren noted there were about “2,800 small schools” in England, of which 2,000 are primaries and 1,000 are church-affiliated. They represent about a “seventh” of the estate.
Discussions with dioceses
His region’s area plan is “to ensure all of our schools are looked after and viable for the future, whether they are big schools or small”.
He added: “You cannot suddenly say, ‘I’m going to ignore a seventh of the school estate, they are less important and can fend for themselves’.
“We’ve been really challenging and… said, ‘actually, there are financial impediments, there are some challenges, but we want you to take that on board’.”
Warren also stated that he has had “many discussions” with dioceses once vacancies have opened at the top of smaller primaries to say: “Does [it] need a head and a deputy… is there a way in which there is an executive head who can oversee two or three schools?’
His team is “quite proactive” with this, having held “some pretty lively meetings” with governing bodies over the issue. During one, attended by “a dozen chairs”, Warren was called “rude names” as he urged them to abandon the “status quo”.
“What is more important, keeping the structure or keeping the school?” he continued.
“I still see quite a lot of resistance, often where it’s most vulnerable and I think: ‘For goodness’ sake, the school cannot go on having three in reception’.”
Warren’s “bottom-line advice” to small school leaders is that it is “more dangerous to be on your own, and I would caution against that for anybody”.
