Improving school joins Co-operative trust

Phill Quirk

FAILSWORTH School is to be run by a trust sponsored by the Co-op to improve standards and make it among the very best.

A new head teacher has also been appointed by the Brierley Avenue secondary which will join the Co-operative Academies Trust.

Failsworth announced it was to become an academy after Ofsted found that it was failing to provide an acceptable standard of education and placed it in special measures in 2014.

The governing body was replaced with an Interim Executive Board (IEB) made up of experts, and educational leadership consultant Neil Hutchinson was appointed interim head teacher.

Failsworth was taken out of special measures after its most recent Ofsted inspection in May when it was judged to be improving, though it was still not classed as good.

The school's former deputy head Phill Quirk has now been appointed the permanent head teacher and it has announced that it will become part of the Co-operative Academies Trust early next year.

The trust already runs eight schools including the Co-operative Academy of Manchester (CAM) in Higher Blackley and Manchester Creative and Media Academy (MCMA), both in Blackley.

It says they have made rapid progress since joining the trust, with CAM now the best performing school in North Manchester and MCMA the most improved in the city.

Trust director Frank Norris said: "I am very proud of what all the academies within the trust are doing and how they are delivering the highest standards of education based on co-operative values and principles. We have recently had an incredible set of GCSE results against a national backdrop of decline."

"We feel privileged that Failsworth School is joining us because I know that, like us, the staff and governors are committed to creating an outstanding learning community where all students can achieve their maximum potential."

David Heyes, chairman of Failsworth's IEB, said: "This will bring a different form of leadership.

"The school is going through a period of rapid change. It's already out of special measures and is improving.

"It is for the Co-op to grab the reins and get the school back up to where it should be which is the very best.

"There's a great spirit of optimism in the school and a great determination to rid itself of this unfortunate label of under performance. That goes right across the school; the governors, parents, all the staff and in particular the children."

The former Ashton MP said the school had a long tradition of co-operative values, adding: "The parents and parent groups I have spoken to are comfortable with the idea of the Co-op becoming the academy sponsor.

"They might have had a problem if it was someone less congruent with the school."

Mr Quirk said: "I am convinced that with the support of the Co-operative Academies Trust we can complete the transformation journey which we have already begun. This is an exciting opportunity for the school to join a successful trust."