PARENTS, staff and pupils will rightly be concerned about six of the eight schools run by the Academy Trust of Melksham (ATOM) receiving poor Ofsted reports, and that both St George’s in Semington and The Manor will go into special measures.
We must recognise the dedication and professionalism of staff, but must also address the fact that these Ofsted reports show both a failure of leadership and a system of school governance that is flawed.
Even before these recent inspections, there were 3,287 children being taught in Wiltshire schools rated by Ofsted as less than good. 
I am a trade union branch secretary with GMB, and I regularly deal with school support staff working for ATOM. 
The difficulty is that schools’ management are dealing with extremely challenging financial and other practical constraints, and those run by multi-academy trusts, like ATOM, are outside the supervision of the local authority. 
The current model of school governance has no local oversight of performance or financial management. Low standards are not being targeted soon enough.
But we do need to look at a wider context as well. Wiltshire will see a drop of funding per pupil of £364 by 2019, due to Conservative cuts, amounting to nearly £22 million across the county. 
Even the best run schools will struggle to deal with cuts of that magnitude, and it undoubtedly puts an unfair strain on school managers, headteachers and school governors. Labour will ensure a fair funding formula for schools, levelling up budget per pupil so that no school loses out. We will restore local authority supervision, and ensure that all schools are adequately funded.
Andy Newman
Chippenham Constituency Labour Party spokesperson
Elm Hayes
Corsham