King Edward VII: Sheffield parents have their say on trust they would rather be 'forced' to join

King Edward VII School (KES) is still reeling from the shock Ofsted report in January that dropped it from a rating of ‘good’ down to ‘inadequate’. It led to the Department of Education ordering the school to join an academy trust, leading to accusations by parents that they are being ‘forced’ into it.

Now, a school meeting has shared results from a survey after around 400 parents were polled on what they want to see survive at KES, which trust they would rather join – and which ones they wouldn’t.

Minutes from the meeting on March 8, published on the ‘kesthefuture.org’ blog on March 12, read: “Minerva Learning Trust – the MAT whose secondary schools include Ecclesfield, Handsworth Grange, High Storrs, and Stocksbridge – was the preferred candidate.

“KES had previously been in discussions to join this MAT a few years ago before it fell through over the private finance debt associated with the lower school building.

“Chorus and Tapton were the next two most popular MAT choices. Mercia Trust was another option that seemed to polarise parents, the meeting heard with 80 in favour but 217 who said they would not want the MAT to be the sponsor.”

However, it was noted that out of some 400 responses, 86 per cent wanted the academisation process delayed anyway. It comes as a petition titled “stop the forced academisation of King Edward VII School” has reached 1,200 signatures.

One parent wrote: “This is a political move by Ofsted to force academisation. King Edward VII is nowhere near an inadequate school, this judgement is a farce. If academisation is a political decision then it should be admitted as such and the leadership team should be given agency in choosing which academy to join.”

Meanwhile, the survey of parents found that if King Edward’s future lay as an academy then they want the ‘no school uniform’ policy to survive. They also asked for “experienced and knowledgeable staff” and counted “having a wide curriculum” as important.