Parents, teachers, students, and others in Sheffield are currently awaiting news determining the future of the historic King Edward VII School (KES).
Last month it was confirmed that the school will join a multi-academy trust following an Ofsted inspection held in January, which gave the school an inadequate rating regarding safeguarding and leadership.
The proposal is for the school to join the Brigantia Learning Trust. The Yorkshire and Humber Advisory Board met on Tuesday to discuss whether the Broomhill and Crosspool school would join the divisive trust.
This academisation and the choice of trust have all been highly contested in recent months. A group, KES The Future, held a protest last Saturday which saw more than 500 people attend.
The school, which has existed for over 100 years across two sites in Glossop Rd/Road and Darwin Ln/Lane, is the last secondary school controlled by the local authority in Sheffield.
The controversy follows a recent announcement by Ofsted that it would re-inspect schools given an inadequate rating in this area.
Emma Wilkinson, a freelance health journalist whose daughter is a KES student, said: “From the beginning, I had really deep concerns about how the whole thing has been handled.”
She said this judgement “clearly doesn’t reflect what everybody who goes to the school feels”.
Mark Boylon, a professor for Sheffield Hallam University who is also the parent of a KES student, spoke at the protest. He said: “It stinks what the government’s doing.
“Schools, forced academisation, gotcha Ofsted inspections where they come in and say schools are inadequate on little technicalities.”
The group also started a petition, which has gathered almost 3,000 signatures. They handed it to the Department for Education’s regional office on Monday.
Until the decision from the Advisory Board is made public, the future of KES remains unclear. Should the academisation not be reversed, the choice of trust is what protesters want to be altered.
Brigantia Learning Trust currently operates five academies across six sites in Sheffield. Two of these schools have been graded as requiring improvement. With a student body of 1,800 students, KES would account for around a third of students should it be under Brigantia, which currently has 4,000.
Protesters objecting to this believe the trust is ill-fitted for KES. Ms Wilkinson said it was a ‘terrible fit for KES’.
Teachers at the school and Labour councillors in Sheffield have also criticised the decision.
The future remains uncertain for now. Updates will arrive in the coming weeks to determine the school’s next steps.