Last year, Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) commissioned the Education Policy Institute (EPI) to research the trust’s performance. In both comparative and relative terms, the independent research from EPI evaluated AETs:
Key Stage 2 (KS2) results;
Key Stage 4 (KS4) results;
Attendance and permanent exclusions history;
Inclusion record, looking at pupil representation compared to local communities.
EPI benchmarked AET against four similar comparator trusts that shared similar characteristics (pupil numbers, school phase, school type, work across multiple regions, and free school meal eligibility). In addition, EPI assessed two regional comparison groups for areas where AET schools are clustered.
The research was completed in October 2021 using publicly available school-level data. EPI could not use national examination data for 2020 or 2021, due to the unavailability and incomparability of the data.
As part of Project H, AET has published the full report for the wider sector. The full report, which contains redactions to preserve the anonymity of comparator trusts and individual schools within AET, is available to view here.
In this blog, Rebecca Boomer-Clark, CEO of AET, reflects on the report's findings and what it means in the context of the trust's ambitions for network improvement.
Key findings
KS2 Results
Overall the findings on improvement in KS2 results are positive for AET. Between 2015/16 and 2018/19 there was a faster rate of improvement in comparison with similar trusts. By 2018/19 more AET schools ranked among the top quartile relative to all state-funded schools nationally across multiple measures, including for disadvantaged pupils, than in 2015/16.
Twelve schools started in the lowest quartile in 2015/16 compared to only six in 2018/19, for KS2 attainment measure of the percentage of pupils achieving the 'expected standard' in reading, writing and maths (RWM). In 2015/16, only four AET schools were in the top quartile, this improved to ten schools in 2018/19.
However, fewer than half of AET primary schools outperformed their local authority in attainment.
KS4 Results
Improvement among our secondary schools between 2015/16 and 2018/19 was not as strong as it was for primary schools. However, progress in KS4 outcomes was not particularly strong for comparator trusts in this period.
The decline in Attainment 8 scores for disadvantaged pupils in AET schools that started with the highest outcomes had not been as great as for schools in similar trusts with the same starting points. Just under half of AET secondary schools were in the top half of Progress 8 scores for disadvantaged pupils in 2018/19.
Attendance
Attendance has been a stubborn challenge for AET across all phases. Compared with similar trusts, AET schools typically had lower, and falling attendance for both primary and secondary phases between the autumn terms from 2016/17 to 2020/21.
The national average for primary attendance in Autumn 2020 was 96.3 per cent. Over two-thirds of AET primary schools were below this, although most schools were only slightly below.
The national average for secondary attendance in the autumn term of 2020 was 94.3 per cent. Less than 40 per cent of the trust's secondary schools met this benchmark.
Attendance at AET special schools was particularly low throughout the observed period.
Permanent exclusions
A handful of AET primary and secondary schools experienced periods of relatively high permanent exclusion rates.
Compared with similar trusts, AET primary schools had the highest rates of permanent exclusion. In contrast, AET secondary schools had lower rates.
Permanent exclusion rates in AET schools were declining at a seven-year low in 2019 for both primary and secondary schools.
Pupil characteristics and community representation
AET schools were broadly representative of pupils in the local authority districts they serve in relation to the proportion of ethnic minorities and pupils with special educational needs.
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