An academy trust boss has warned that ministers “need to understand the limits” of metrics when using them to assess chains that have taken on troubled schools.
The boss of The Thinking Schools Academy Trust, Stuart Gardner, urged caution when using “quantitative measures” to compare chains during a session at this year’s Festival of Education on Thursday.
This came after new commissioning data published on the same day revealed how multi-academy trust (MAT) expansion bids will be decided by regional directors using “in-depth data” on school improvement and inclusivity.
But Gardner pointed to how his chain’s decision to take on several schools meant “the debt we’ve taken on over the last 10 years is close to £2 million, of which we paid back £1 million”.
