The third largest multi-academy trust has guaranteed parents a place on school-level governing bodies – after previously sidelining them and saying that many were “playground bully parents”.
Rebecca Boomer-Clark, the chief executive of Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), said it was “too easy for school trusts to become distant and disconnected from communities” in her report in the trust’s annual accounts, published this week.
The report shows “academy councils” have been rolled out across its 57 schools this year, overhauling the previous local governing bodies (LGBs).
AET claims the change puts “localism front and centre of what we do”, with councils tasked with “helping us connect with communities by forging deep and lasting good relationships”.
