Problem academy was fast-tracked

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By Sarah Campbell Education correspondent, BBC News A former college is the site for two combined establishments

The government's continuing drive to convert England's most challenging schools into academies has come under fire following a damning verdict by Ofsted inspectors on a new academy in Carlisle.

The Richard Rose Central Academy opened its doors only in September, as a merger of two existing establishments.

But parents have been told that the chief executive and the head teacher have been replaced and the school put into "special measures".

One obvious clue to what has gone wrong is the double height row of temporary classrooms on the site, which pupils say are cold and do not have working toilets.

A site designed for 900 pupils has to accommodate 600 more than that.

The site depends on large numbers of temporary classroomsIt was only last April that the decision was taken to move all the pupils from St Aidan's, in central Carlisle, to the site of the North Cumbria Technology College.

Since the combined schools opened as the new academy there have been reports of students' fighting and otherwise misbehaving, staff sickness and safety concerns due to the building issues.

The situation got so bad the parents got together in December and used new powers to call for the emergency Ofsted inspection.

Parents are concerned particularly about children in Years 10 and 11 who are taking their GCSEs and equivalent qualifications.

Parents' views

After the meeting with the school authorities on Wednesday evening they had mixed feelings.

"It's been horrendous"One mother said: "My daughter's grades have dropped and she has lost all interest in school.

"And she's got quite cheeky sometimes at home as well, which she wasn't before - and I suppose she's getting that way at school as well."

Another said: "The new head master hasn't made any promises that he can't keep.

"And they've listened. They're saying the right words, let's just hope the action's in place."

Another said her son's schooling was being disrupted by the excessive use of temporary or "supply" teachers.

"Too many supply teachers""He never knows from one day to the next what teacher he's going to have but you've got to give them a chance, it's not going to be easy bringing almost 2,000 children together like this."

One of the pupils said he had been bullied and intimidated and threatened with expulsion.

His father said the situation had been "diabolical".

"It seems to be a lot of things being blamed on the students all not getting on and that wouldn't appear to be the case.

"They are all working together, getting on as best they can, but there's lots of situations in terms of supply teachers, teachers' morale being down."

Among problems highlighted in the inspection report:

<ul class="bulletList"><li>students were found sitting on floors in corridors to eat their lunch because the dining room was not big enough</li><li>pupils did not all feel safe ... significant numbers were disaffected as shown by unsatisfactory attitudes, behaviour and attendance</li><li>the quality of teaching was deemed inadequate overall</li><li>supply teachers were used to teach subjects of which they had little or no experience</li><li>the size and complexity of the site meant dealing with truancy and misbehaviour was difficult</li></ul>

And one aspect raised more than once is the fact that, in the inspectors' words: "the Academy was brought forward by 12 months in November 2007 as part of the Department for Children, Schools and Families fast track programme".

Brian Scowcroft has invested half a million pounds in the AcademyThe department wants to have 200 academies either open or in the pipeline by 2010.

Currently there are 133.

Bringing forward Central Academy had a detrimental effect, as one of its sponsors, local businessman Brian Scowcroft, acknowledged.

"It's true to say that we were accelerated, which didn't give us as much time to plan as would have been ideal. But this is all with hindsight," he said.

This had not been his choice.

"As a sponsor I was very keen to get up and running. At the time I saw the acceleration as a positive thing but perhaps that was a mistake."

Education unions in particular have been vocal against academies generally, and this one in particular.

Mike Gibbons says he has the community's interests at heartThey are accountable not to the local authority but to their sponsors, governors - largely appointed by the sponsors - and ultimately to central government.

The new chief executive in Carlisle, Mike Gibbons, is a former head teacher and head of the government's Innovations Unit.

He said that in two years' time the state-of-the-art building planned for this academy - which does not even have planning permission yet - would be up and running.

"We're seeing investment in education in this country at a level we've never seen in your or my lifetime," he said.

"I understand the ambition and impatience of ministers to get there. However, you have got to make sure you take your local communities with you.

"What we are trying to do now is ensure that our local community - and by that I mean the children, our parents, our staff, people who have got an interest in these schools - are now working together so it becomes their plan not someone else's."

<i>Additional reporting by Alison Smith</i>