Bosses at a Salford school have said they are committed to ‘rapid improvement’ after receiving a termination notice following a damning Ofsted report.
Arbour Academy, located on Eccles New Road, has been contacted by the Department for Education after being judged as requiring ‘significant improvement’.
This means that Kings Academy Trust, which has been running the school since April 2023, may have its funding cut by the Secretary of State for Education if significant improvement is not demonstrated.
The school, which teaches 11-16-year-olds, was put into special measures following an Ofsted inspection in June of this year and has now been warned of the possible consequences if steps are not taken to improve.
In a response to the letter, Kings Academy Trust Chairman said: “We received a termination notice as part of the due process from the Department for Education following Arbour Academy’s OFSTED inspection in the Summer. We are committed to implementing the rapid school improvement needed at Arbour Acadamy as a new converter into the Kings Academy Trust.”
The school is known for specialising in supporting disabled pupils and is one of the only schools of its kind in Salford.
One of the issues that has been highlighted by the Ofsted report was the lack of provision for reading at the school saying that “there is no coherent programme to support those pupils at the earliest stages of learning to read”.
The warning also said that in order for the Kings Academy trust to continue to run the school they must provide Ofsted with “details of current governance and leadership at trust level”.
The school only has 13 pupils currently enrolled according to the government website, despite having the capacity to teach 65 pupils. This school have said this is because of the fact that the majority of students are dual registered with mainstream schools in Salford and that the actual number of students attending the school is 54.
The letter also highlighted concerns about the standard of education at the school saying “until more recently, the school had not acted quickly enough to address the decline in pupils’ quality of education.”
“This means that pupils do not build a secure body of knowledge that helps them to be well prepared for the next steps in their lives.”
In correspondence with Salford Now, bosses at Kings Academy Trust explained that there are issues that stem back to the Covid pandemic, which saw a ‘decline in attendance and increase of anxiety’ among students.
The statement added: “We welcomed the Ofsted inspection in June as it brought to light historic issues that were having a detrimental impact on the school. A failure to recover from the Covid pandemic has resulted in a steep decline in standards since its last inspection.
“Rapid action has already been taken and a new Governing Body is in place along with a new Senior Leadership Team.
“The Trust will be working with HMI, the Local Authority and the DfE to rapidly turn this school around. We look forward to working with pupils, parents and the community in achieving this.”
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