Do academy schools going in to special measures get additional funding?

[AalyaSecura]

My local school has just gone into special measures after a year on year drop in results and poor progress 8 scores. Full report not available yet. It's already in a small academy chain. I guess they need to decide whether it should stay with that chain or be taken on by another chain - but is there any additional financial support available or do the academy chains just need to fund improvements themselves? Finances are very tight, the school is only half full.

Trying to judge the likelihood of the school improving quickly. Thanks!

I was told no. Dds school in same boat.

Thanks Possum. Anyone else got some insight into this?

This happened to my school and no, we didn't get any extra funding. Have been out of special measures for a few years now & pupil numbers rising gradually but it is still very tight for money

No extra funding. The MAT should be looking very critically at why it has allowed this to happen. Getting a good SLT is not about paying even more. They will already be on a good whack. It is about the calibre of person and the expertise they bring. Money does not necessarily improve progress 8 or get more children into the school. This is why there is a huge shortfall of money - half full!

Can they amalgamate with another school? How do they plan to attract more pupils? Are houses being built? Parents generally walk away from dire schools so they need to improve very quickly to attract more pupils. Is it under threat of closure?

Dds school has pupils leaving. She was already leaving for a new sixth form and now others in her year who had been planning to stay are going. School have had an action plan approved but no idea what the details are.

The school is under subscribed for a few reasons - we used to get a lot of children commuting or relocating from a nearby area, as their secondaries were dire, but they've improved a lot so no longer a flow of secondary pupils into our area. It now seems to be happening in reverse. There are a lot of new houses being built - I've seen the pupil projections for the county and they estimate the school's full capacity will be needed in around 5-6 years. So there is an incentive to keep it open.

They've said the right kinds of things in the last couple of years, and done the obvious - like uniform and behaviour policy - but it hasn't translated into results. Not at all convinced by the MAT, seems like they're out of their depth.

It might get moved to another academy chain if there's a decent one that would take it on. If so, they would be given extra money to support the school.