Department for Education sends funding withdrawal warning to Reading-based Anthem Trust unless The Deepings School improves

Education chiefs have threatened to withdraw funding from the trust which runs The Deepings School over its failure to meet improvement targets.

The Department for Education (DfE) told the Anthem Trust last November that the Deeping St James secondary school was ‘not making necessary improvements’ and was asked what steps it would take.

Regional directors for the East Midlands, Kate Copley and Carol Gray, were not convinced by its suggestions and last month sent the Reading-based trust a termination warning notice.

It warns the DfE’s funding agreement with the Anthem Trust to run The Deepings School may be withdrawn and the school transferred to a different trust if it did not respond by Thursday (March 7), or then failed to comply with subsequent measures to improve.

“As a regional director I must be confident, based on the information available and evidence provided, that the trust can deliver rapid and sustained improvements at the academy,” she said.

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“Currently, I am not satisfied this is the case.”

The Deepings School was rated outstanding in 2013, a year after joining the Anthem Trust, but has received overall ratings of ‘requires improvement’ in all subsequent Ofsted reports – in June 2017, January 2020 and last September.

The director noted positive findings in last year’s Ofsted inspection report, such as that pupils felt safe, and that sixth-form provision was judged good.

But she was ‘concerned’ that the need for improvement remained ‘across a range of elements’, including curriculum, quality of teaching, and provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

An Ofsted monitoring inspection in June 2021 found improvements were being made in leadership and quality of education, but both had since declined again from good to requires improvement, while key stage four results last year remained below local and national averages.

The trust brought in an interim headteacher in the summer of 2022 to help steer the school towards a good rating, but his strict code of behaviour met with protest from some parents.

The director concluded: “Given the long-standing history of under-performance, and lack of evidence of improvement over the last six years, I am not confident that progress will be embedded or sustained, nor that measures being taken will have the significant impact on pupil outcomes that is required.”

The warning notice sets out a series of steps and deadlines that the trust must meet to avoid the withdrawal of its funding, starting with the adoption of a school improvement partner, proposed by the regional director, to work with the school within six weeks of the February 15 letter.

They must then come up with a revised improvement plan, to be agreed by the director, by May 24 to address the issues raised by the most recent Ofsted inspection and ‘drive rapid improvement in pupil outcomes’.

The trust will then have to provide regular updates on the plan’s progress, with the first due on July 19 and then the last day of each school term.

It must also commission an external audit by October to look into its governance plans for the next academic year.

The findings and subsequent action plan from that must then be shared with the regional director by February 14 next year, followed by termly progress reports from April 4, 2025.

“I can confirm that we have responded to the DfE’s deadline of March 7 and fully intend to adhere to the specified actions’ deadlines we have been asked to meet,” said Kirstie Johnson, headteacher at The Deepings School.

“Anthem Schools Trust is committed to all their schools being exceptional and the school and trust are glad that Ofsted noted that The Deepings School has high expectations of what students can achieve.

“Everyone at the school and the trust welcomes the increased scrutiny from the Department for Education so that we can all work together to ensure The Deepings School is one the whole community can be proud of.”