[2] Lift Schools' Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Rebecca Boomer-Clark, who took up the position in April 2021 with the intention of pushing the trust ‘from turnaround into high performance’.
[5] In September 2022, the trust launched Project H, an insights series using data and expertise from its schools to drive improvement across the education sector.
[13] Between 2011 and 2012 AET more than doubled in size, leading to criticism that the academy chain was growing too fast and was therefore unable to ensure appropriate standards in its schools.
In May 2019, AET faced a threatened vote of no confidence from staff with concerns being raised over workload, pay progression and the salary of Executives.
[19] In 2020, Sir David Carter, former commissioner for schools in England, called AET ‘one of the best examples of a turnaround trust in the country’.
[22] In 2015 Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of OFSTED wrote to the Secretary of State in England complaining about standards in the largest multi-academy trusts, including AET.
[25] During the academic year of 2022/2023 AET schools reported improved outcomes across headline measures including phonics, reading and GCSE results.
[26] Improvements extended to KS4 results, where the trust reported 60% of pupils achieving grade 4+ (standard pass) in both English and maths GCSE.
In KS5, 64% of students achieved grades A*-C, bucking the trend for an average drop in outcomes across the country in 2023 and performing 4 percentage points higher than the trust did in 2019.
[34] In a later submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee, Ian Comfort, the CEO of AET queried the ability of the Education Funding Agency to continue working as it does, unless something changed.
The DfE (and Dame Rachel de Souza, CEO of the Inspiration Trust) robustly rejected his criticisms, saying that the EFA systems were efficient and suitable.
[38] In the September 2015 AET Board meeting, the CEO Ian Comfort was cited explaining the situation by saying that he had not even been aware of the crucial deadline for reporting to the Education Funding Agency, and that was why the paperwork was not submitted that would have enabled the Financial Notice to Improve, to be lifted.
[40] The Financial Notice to Improve was lifted in summer 2017, following the radical Turnaround Plan developed and implemented by the current CEO, Julian Drinkall.
It risks eroding the high trust in which the teaching profession is held because it shields decisions and payments from proper scrutiny.
In 2013 the press reported that the number of staff paid six-figure salaries in AET had risen almost fivefold in a two-year period.
[48] Jon Richards, the Education officer of the union UNISON said "The explosion in senior pay across many academy trusts over the past few years is completely disproportionate...
"[53] In 2014 AET announced a plan for a joint venture with a commercial partner (reported as Price Waterhouse Coopers[54]) which would have seen up to £400m of support services outsourced.
Although unable to go ahead with the full joint venture, in 2015 AET put out to tender some aspects of the central services which would have fallen within its scope.
[55] An article in The Guardian Newspaper looking into diversity and equal opportunities amongst Academy chains found that AET's board listed 8 trustees in Spring 2016, all of whom were white and male.