A school with almost 1,000 pupils has been left without the support needed to help it get out of special measures in the months since the collapse of its sponsor, Ofsted has warned.

Balby Carr Community Academy, in Doncaster, was put into special measures following an inspection in April last year.

Its sponsor, Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT), announced in September that it was going to give up all 21 of its schools, saying it was unable to rapidly improve them.

Now, an Ofsted monitoring letter about Balby Carr, published today, says the lack of outside support since then has thwarted its efforts to bring about improvements.

In his letter to principal Tom Ashley, inspector Darren Stewart says: “The disbanding of the interim executive committee, compounded by a continual lack of strategic support from WCAT, has led to your not being given the adequate support and challenge necessary to improve standards as urgently as you were seeking at the first monitoring visit.”

‘Not getting necessary support’

He adds: “WCAT has removed all support from the school. As a consequence, you and other leaders are not receiving the support that is necessary to bring about rapid improvement.”

The DfE wants Astrea Academy Trust to take the school over, but the transfer has yet to be confirmed.

Today’s Ofsted letter says Astrea has completed its due diligence and offered support and guidance to Mr Ashley, and adds: “A senior leader has been seconded to the school for a short period to support the work of leaders responsible for behaviour and attendance.”

The inspector says Mr Ashley has “continued to work tirelessly to improve standards across the school” and “‘green shoots’ of improvement are now visible”, but says the principal recognises that some areas of the school are not improving quickly enough.

Ofsted says that while the school’s improvement plan is fit for purpose, WCAT’s statement for action is “not fit for purpose”, and the school’s leaders and managers “are not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have worked with all of Wakefield City Academies Trust’s schools to ensure they have the right support and resources they need to improve the outcomes for pupils as quickly as possible.

“This is the case with Balby Carr, which has received support from the preferred new trust - Astrea Academy Trust - in improving conditions at the school, including through providing senior level support, since they were announced as the preferred sponsor in October.”

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