MP Steve Barclay hits out over failures at March Neale-Wade

The North East Cambridgeshire MP has sent a three-page letter to Jonathan Duff, the DfE’s regional director for the East of England, setting out a string of concerns about the school, which has now received three inadequate Ofsted reports in a row.

He said he only learned from social media that a Termination Warning Notice had been served on the Active Learning Trust before later receiving a copy of the letter sent by the trust to parents.

As reported by the Cambs Times, the trust has been warned it is at risk of losing the school after officials issued a formal notice to terminate its funding agreement. In his letter, Mr Duff told the trust he is not satisfied it can deliver the “rapid and sustainable improvement” Neale-Wade needs.

MP Steve Barclay has written a strongly worded letter to the Department for Education over the Neale-Wade Academy. (Image: Steve Barclay)

A Termination Warning Notice is the formal first step in removing a school from its current academy sponsor and transferring it to a different trust.

Mr Duff said the move followed an Ofsted notification on 13 March confirming Neale-Wade “was judged to require significant improvement” – the third consecutive report to find the school inadequate.

Mr Barclay points out this is not the first time the Active Learning Trust has run into trouble in his constituency, having already lost Burrowmoor Primary School in March and Littleport and East Cambridgeshire Academy because of poor performance.

“Given two schools within my constituency have already been removed from the Active Learning Trust, there is a clear pattern of behaviour of inadequate Ofsted inspections by this Trust, in addition to the three inadequate inspections in a row at Neale-Wade Academy,” he said.

(Image: Steve Barclay MP)

He accuses the trust of trying to gloss over the seriousness of the situation in its letter to parents about the Termination Warning Notice.

The trust described “positive news” and claimed Neale-Wade’s improvement plans were “on the right track”, he said, but “glossed over the fact this is the third Ofsted inspection in a row with an unsatisfactory outcome” and made no mention of “very low performance metrics that consistently place Neale-Wade Academy amongst the worst performing schools in the country”.

Mr Barclay highlights particularly low outcomes in English and maths, with only 23.7 per cent of pupils achieving Grade 5 or above, compared with a national average of 45.5 per cent and a Cambridgeshire average of 49.6 per cent.

Instead of improvement, he says, results have deteriorated over the past two years.

However, the trust has hit back with a spokesperson stating: "We feel it’s important to be clear with families and the wider community that good progress is being made, which was also recognised by Ofsted."

A spokesperson for the trust said: "ALT fully recognises the scale of the improvement journey Neale-Wade is on.

“In the most recent Ofsted inspection – under the new framework, Neale-Wade secured three expected standards in attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and our sixth form.  

"More attention is needed on curriculum and teaching, inclusion, leadership and governance. We also agree that urgent attention is needed on achievement."

Mr Barclay has also challenged the trust’s claim in its letter to parents that Termination Warning Notices are issued on a “regular basis”.

Citing his research, he says they remain “relatively rare” and that the number of schools placed in Ofsted categories of concern is low. Analysis from the House of Commons Library for 2024/25 shows just 57 inspections out of 3,269 – 1.7 per cent – resulted in a school being placed in one of these categories, he said.

“Yet this is the third inspection in a row that Neale-Wade Academy has been classified in a way that applies in less than 2% of inspections,” he said.

Mr Barclay notes that Neale-Wade has not been left without support, receiving £477,300 a year in targeted disadvantage funding through the pupil premium. He argues the trust’s record at the school should not be seen in isolation, given what has happened at Burrowmoor and Littleport.

He says that when he raised concerns about Neale-Wade a year ago, he was told an improvement plan was in place.

“Yet over a year later, you have now written to the Active Learning Trust asking for another plan, after yet another inadequate Ofsted rating,” he tells Mr Duff.

“The Active Learning Trust’s response is deeply concerning,” he adds. “Their lack of urgency despite the extent of issues highlighted in past Ofsted inspections, the concerns raised by myself repeatedly last year, their misrepresentation that this termination warning notice is a regular event, the sustained poor performance on key Department metrics, and their inadequate Ofsted ratings at Littleport and Burrowmoor within the same constituency, gives me concern that the interests of students at Neale-Wade Academy are not being sufficiently prioritised.

"They should not be penalised because of the repeated failures of the Active Learning Trust.”

Mr Barclay also questions why, despite previous warnings, there is still not a “really clear plan” in place.

He concludes by asking what criteria will be used to judge the trust’s new improvement plan and, if it is not deemed adequate, what the timeline will be for moving Neale-Wade to a new trust.

The Active Learning Trust spokesperson pointed out that under the new Ofsted ratings system, schools are no longer rated as "inadequate", but that five categories of judgement are used instead.

She added that the trust was not complacent, but said the latest Ofsted report did show clear improvement on the 2023 inspection, which showed “requires improvement” across the board.

 She concluded: “We believe it is important to recognise that the school has made significant improvements, with further improvements in train.”