A PRIMARY academy has become the second Bradford school run by the same academy chain to be placed in special measures in the past month.

Southmere Primary in Great Horton, run by the Northern Education Trust, was visited by Ofsted in November, and their newly released report they deem the school to be inadequate.

It comes just a few weeks after Ryecroft Primary Academy, run by the same trust, was placed into special measures after being judged inadequate.

The Department for Education says it is “closely monitoring” the progress of the trust’s schools.

In the last inspection before it became an academy, Southmere was judged to be good.

The latest report says the school is “inadequate” when it comes to leadership and management, and that it requires improvement in every other category.

The report says: “School improvement planning is weak.

“As a result, improvements are taking place too slowly.

"Leaders have not established clearly defined roles, responsibilities and lines of accountability between the academy trust, the executive headteacher and the senior leaders in school. This means there is not a clearly understood strategic view of the school.

"The curriculum does not meet the needs of pupils. Opportunities to develop basic skills, knowledge and understanding in subjects other than English and mathematics are very limited so pupils do not learn as quickly as they could.”

However, it does add: “The head of school has a determination to improve teaching and learning.

"Pupils demonstrate kindness, care and respect for others."

A spokesman for the trust said: “Whilst the Ofsted judgement is disappointing at this stage, inspectors recognised that the head has a determination to improve teaching and learning.

"We have also appointed Lesley Colthart an experienced executive principal and National Leader of Education, to further enhance the leadership capacity to oversee more rapid improvement.

“I should like to reassure parents, carers and pupils that we are redoubling our efforts to bring about the necessary improvements at Southmere Primary Academy.

“One of the huge challenges for the Trust is attracting high calibre teachers. We are tackling this by working in partnership with others who are experiencing similar challenges in Bradford.”

Executive principal Lesley Colthart said: “We believe that the report is a fair reflection of the academy’s progress to date.

"The inspectors identified a number of areas for improvement to which the Northern Education Trust, governors and the leadership team are actively addressing.

“More information will be shared with parents regarding the actions being taken and how they can be involved with the developments planned."

A DfE spokesperson said: “We are working with Northern Education Trust to improve Southmere Primary School and other schools across the trust. We will be closely monitoring its progress and if we are not satisfied with these improvements then further action will be taken.”

The Northern Education Trust also runs Merlin Top Primary Academy in Keighley, which was judged to require improvement by Ofsted last month.

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