A team that has “revolutionised” a failing school system in Northumberland could be under threat after its funding was cut.
Council chiefs have been urged to find new cash to keep the county's highly-respected School Improvement Team going strong, after the government announced that it would be axing grant money. Northumberland’s school improvement service was overhauled after a damning Ofsted inspection in 2013, which concluded that there was a “significant and worrying decline” in school standards in the county and an “urgent and pressing need for significant action to establish and embed a clear vision for sustained improvement”.
Councillors were told on Thursday that the seven-strong team had “really taken the bull by the horns” and helped lead a massive turnaround in schools’ fortunes. The number of Northumberland schools rated as inadequate or requiring improvement has dropped from 40 in 2017 to 19 today – a decreasing rate that now makes Northumberland better than the national average, when it had been significantly worse just a few years ago.
