Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the threshold for the number of coasting academies in an academy chain above which her Department plans to take action.

Edward Timpson

An academy will be considered coasting where data shows that over a three year period it has failed to ensure that pupils reach their potential. An academy will only be coasting if performance data falls below the coasting bar in all three previous years. Therefore, no academy will be identified as coasting until after the 2016 performance data is published and there is 3 years of data available for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Regional Schools Commissioners will take action when any academy falls within the coasting definition and cannot demonstrate that it has a sufficient plan to improve rapidly without additional support.