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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I quote from File on 4, as well as the book, in this piece.

Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Stories of these pupils’ experiences, in Athena, seem to echo those reported over the summer by the BBC File on 4 and Panorama documentaries.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

These stories are contained in a single chapter in the book “Childhood Ltd” by the journalist Cherry Casey, which is published today.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

New: new book lifts lid on children’s “strict school” experiences educationuncovered.co.uk/news/new-boo... Interviews set out alleged impact of behaviour management policies at Athena Learning Trust and the Ted Wragg trust.

educationuncovered.co.uk

Education Uncovered | News| New book lifts lid on children’s “strict school” experiences

Interviews set out alleged impact of behaviour management policies at Athena Learning Trust and the Ted Wragg trust.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Quite some goings-on re education in Northern Ireland. Belfast Telegraph story below follows this recent one: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politic...

bbc.co.uk

Paul Givan calls for boycott of meeting due to MLA behaviour

Departmental officials due to be questioned about integrated education on Wednesday will now not appear.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The fact that this is not, structurally, a public-facing policy sits oddly with Andy Burnham’s vision of devolution and “local democratic control”.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It lacks the decision-making-in-public which I once witnessed in relation to a school re-organisation, with decisions of crucial importance to local people now taken by a single civil servant, sitting in private.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The academies policy’s relationship with community/service user rights is certainly something to continue to think about, especially with this government under Andy Burnham talking about making public service decision-making less remote, more devolved. Athena, of course, is now winding down.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Athena parents are also calling for families to be consulted before decision taken on academy transfers – and for more regulation of school behaviour policies.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Great spot from the parents, too, that DfE under the Conservatives in 2022 was seeking to equalise complaints-handling rules in academies to put them on same footing as in LA school sector, but this foundered when that year’s schools bill fell.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Families should have access to independent consideration of substance of their concerns, with DfE having confirmed, say the parents, that the only organisations which do so within the academies sector are the trusts themselves.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

And tentative new signs of DfE doing a bit more listening on children’s mental health?

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Plus in this diary column: Catholic academy conversions continue to prop up academisation numbers, with news that resistance on the South coast to one of them appears to have folded.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership has had the trusts to which its 24 schools are being transferred announced by the DfE. But this seems an entirely top-down process.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Some seem to be of the view that the academies policy’s Wild West days are behind it. (And perhaps we should all move on, by not calling them academy trusts at all, but just “school trusts,” instead). Covering this case and many others, I do wonder about that.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Academy trust members also appear to have been involved in discussions over operational matters, which again is unusual.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

One of those was a high-profile figure, now overseeing the entire academies policy for the DfE.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

DfE and trust have been invited to comment. This case also features quite a few governance curiosities, not least how a board negotiating a turbulent period was able to operate itself and sub-committees at times with only three trustees.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is based on board papers marked “confidential,” but nevertheless released under Freedom of Information.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

New: Academy trust board minutes appear to raise conflict of interest questions around participation of chief executive educationuncovered.co.uk/news/academy... Interim chief executive of one trust appeared to take part in board discussions about joining another, where she is permanent CEO.

educationuncovered.co.uk

Education Uncovered | News| Academy trust board minutes appear to raise conflict of interest questions around participation of chief executive

Interim chief executive of one trust appeared to take part in board discussions about joining another, where she is permanent CEO.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Looking at accounts etc of a small MAT, running three schools, which until recently operated with just three trustees. How is this possible, I wonder?

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I also still think the DfE could go further on academy executive pay transparency, to align it with what we see in local authorities, as set out in this piece.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The requirements for academy trusts to set out their justification for executive pay rises in excess of that of teachers seems to me to have more immediate ramifications than the £174k-without-permission cap when advertising for new execs.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Will be interesting to see if and how this initiative continues.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Lengthy quotes from the presentation in this piece.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This perspective can seem very different from that which has steered education policymaking in recent years. And yet a host of stats, including pupil severe absence and data on growing disaffection in our schools vs other countries, suggest taking it seriously.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

“What we see in our clinical work is that when you try to improve attendance without addressing barriers to attendance, or raise standards w/o addressing conditions for learning, or reduce exclusions w/o addressing what is driving behaviour that leads to exclusion, you don’t get outcomes you want.”

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Clinical psychologists Hayley Smith and Natasha Holden said that civil servants listened intently as they talked about how improving young people’s mental health was not just about treating symptoms, but looking at “systemic” factors, including the way schools operate.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Department for Education officials listen as psychologists tell them that English schooling suffers from “design failure” educationuncovered.co.uk/news/departm... Presentation on behalf of Association of Clinical Psychologists comes following petition with nearly 3,500 psychologists' signatures.

educationuncovered.co.uk

Education Uncovered | News| Department for Education officials listen as psychologists tell them that English schooling suffers from “design failure”

90-minute meeting with civil servants comes after nearly 3,500 psychologists sign petition and open letter calling on DfE to carry out “urgent education reform to protect children’s mental health”.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

National Education Union members have been on strike about the plans. The school has been approached for comment.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

On Friday, Education Uncovered revealed how guidance to schools from the Archdiocese appeared to tell them to consult on academisation – and then start the conversion process, whatever the community’s reaction.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

It’s actually unclear whether the governing body has taken the initial decision to academise or not, as no governing body minutes, or even dates of meetings at which academisation was taken, have been released. There was a parent on the governing body until early June.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is out of line with the requirements of current regulations (www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/10...) which apply to all local authority maintained schools in England.

legislation.gov.uk

The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

New: Is governing body of school, at heart of controversy over Catholic diocese’s academisation drive, constituted in line with the law? educationuncovered.co.uk/news/is-gove... St Anthony of Padua primary, in Liverpool, has only one elected parent on its governing body.

educationuncovered.co.uk

Education Uncovered | News| Is governing body of school, at heart of controversy over Catholic diocese’s academisation drive, constituted in line with the law?

St Anthony of Padua primary, in Liverpool, has only one parent governor.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Oh, and a quick analysis setting out the formal primacy of decision-making by each school’s governing body on whether or not to initiate an academy conversion is also included in this piece.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Both the school and the Archdiocese have been approached for comment.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

All in all, then, this seems another revealing tale from the ongoing debate about what place – if any- local, community-facing democracy is now felt to have in relation to England’s state-funded schools.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I was also quite staggered to hear from parents that the school has yet to reveal the dates on which the governing body met to discuss the plans, let alone any minutes or voting records from any such meetings.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The local Labour MP, Paula Barker, has written to the Archdiocese stating: “It may be the will of the bishop to expand Multi Academy Trusts, but the will of the school community should not be sidelined, and the current employer should act in line with its statutory obligations.”

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“Parents, carers and pupils are not an outside interest to be managed through this process. We are part of this Catholic community and this Church,” they also wrote.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“As St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it’...We want this consultation to be a conversation between partners in the same body."

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Some 117 parents – at this school with 216 pupils – have written to the school urging the academisation be paused, including Biblical quotation.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The NEU, whose members are in the middle of six days of strike action, question how this can be in line with TUPE legal duties around “meaningful consultation”.

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Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It states that, once the consultation has concluded, a “governor meeting” should be held to: table the consultation report, review feedback and then “confirm the intention to proceed with the application to convert”.

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