Trust change for secondary school rated inadequate

A secondary school that was rated as inadequate by Ofsted last year is moving to the management of a new trust.

Manor School in Raunds, Northamptonshire, will leave the Nene Education Trust and join the Cambridgeshire-based Meridian Trust.

The school's previous head teacher was in post for less than a year.

Matt Coleman, deputy chief executive of the Nene Education Trust, said Manor School was a "perfect fit" for the Meridian Trust.

Manor is a 1,000-pupil secondary school based in Mountbatten Way in Raunds.

Soon after Adam Crawte was brought in as interim principal last year, inspectors visited and rated it as inadequate.

It was one of the last in the area to be given a one-word inspection verdict.

These types of gradings were scrapped six weeks later following the suicide of a head teacher whose school was rated as inadequate.

Inspectors said said expectations at Manor School were low, teaching was inconsistent and pupils with special educational needs did not get the support they needed.

The school has been under the management of the Northamptonshire-based Nene Education Trust since 2011.

Mr Coleman told parents that the Department for Education approached Meridian Trust.

"Of their 30 academies, 14 are secondaries and they have a successful track record of supporting schools," he said.

"It is our opinion that they are a perfect fit for Manor and the school will thrive whilst in their care."

The timescale for the transfer is as yet unclear although parents have been told the school hopes it will be complete by the new year.

The transfer will leave Nene Education Trust with no secondary school and seven primaries.

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