THE Harris Federation has pulled out of a takeover of Gable Hall school because it will cost too much to bring facilities at the Corringham school to standard.

The news was confirmed this morning when Harris Federation chief Executive Sir Dan Moynihan said that while he was confident the academy group could take on and win the challenge of raising teaching standards – the millions it would need to pump into the school to refurbish it were beyond its means.

It was in January this year that the Department for Education announced it had asked Harris to step in and take over the running of Gable Hall because it did not believe the existing academy structure through the Ortu Federation was robust enough to meet the challenges ahead.

Ortu was blamed for failed management practices which led to Gable Hall – once the jewel in Thurrock's education crown – being rated inadequate by Ofsted.

Ortu also runs Hassenbrook Academy secondary and Corringham primary school whose futures also remains uncertain after the government rejected plans by the borough-based Gateway Learning Community to take them over.

Sir Dan's statement says: "The Harris Federation has been working closely with the Gable Hall School community over the past few months with the expectation that the school would joing with us at some point in the next academic year.

"This was dependent on the completion of a comprehensive due diligence exercise to determine whether or not we can meet the needs of the school and support it as it moves forward.

"While we remain confident that we could provide the necessary expertise and teaching support required to raise the standard of education currently offered by the school, our due diligence, however, has revealed that the school requires significant investment in its facilities to bring them to the standard we believe is required.

"The school also needs support with running costs next year.

"Unfortunately, the level of investment required goes well beyond what the Federation can provide.

"After much deliberation, we have therefore taken the difficult decision not to move forward with Gable Hall's transfer to the Harris Federation. We are deeply disappointed as we believe we had much to offer.

"We have informed the Department of Education of our decision and we very much hope they can identify an academy trust which is able to meet the school needs and deliver a bright future for the school."

In a letter to parents, chair of the Ortu Trustees, Mrs Georgina Clark, said: "It is our understanding that the Regional Director for East of England education will continue the re-brokering process with another Trust to be announced in the near future.

"In the meantime, I would remind you that the reason Gable Hall went into special measures has now been resolved with safeguarding judged by Ofsted to be 'effective'.

"Head Gary Lewis and his team are making great strides in moving the school forward.

"Colleagues from Harris commented that the school is rapidly returning to good.

"Gable Hall is fully staffed for next year, offering an exciting curriculum to ensure that every student receives the high quality education they deserve.

"As you can imagine, it has been extremely difficult for the school to be able to communicate as we would have liked to during this transition period.

"I confirm that the headteacher will ensure that the communication channels improve going forward, in particular uniform, timetable and calendar information.

"Until we receive further DfE guidance, the school remains an Ortu Federation School. Staff and trustees will work to ensure that the process of re-brokering the school continue in the background ensuring that the day-to-day work of the school is unaffected.

"Thank you as always for your support as we continue to wait for this process to be completed."

COMMENT:

In our story in April about the rejection of the Gateway Learning Community's takeover of Hassenbrook Academy and Corringham primary we posed the question: "Is big business once more having too big a say in the education of our children?"

We feared it did and today's news does little to assuage that concern.

It seems the fundamental issue at Gable Hall is not about raising standards and giving local children the best opportunity – it's about how much cash is involved for an academy to make a deal.

Of course academy trusts are not supposed to be profit-makers.

But when an academy trust, packed by high earners including Sir Dan Moynihan who nets close to half a million a year and founded by Baron Harris of Peckham who regularly features in the UK Rich List, rejects a deal on a monetary basis and pulls out because it doesn't want to stump up the cash to refurbish its new asset, you have to wonder!

The staff, pupils and families caught up the Ortu and Gable Hall debacle deserve better.

Academies are supposed to be all about the education – but in the real world it's all about the money and it's shameful.