A former headteacher of Northampton School for Boys (NSB) has announced his resignation from a £300,000 job as director of an academy chain.
Sir Bruce Liddington, who was knighted for his work at NSB, is to leave his post as Director General of E-ACT, which sponsors two schools in Daventry.
E-ACT is the second largest provider of academies, overseeing 31 schools educating 20,000 pupils, but the group was dealt a major blow last week after it emerged it was given an official warning by the Government over financial mismanagement.
It become the first academy sponsor to be issued with a “financial notice to improve” by the Education Funding Agency following a series of “weaknesses” in the way it handled its schools’ accounts.
Academies are funded directly from central Government and have complete freedom to alter the curriculum, staff pay and reshape the school day and academic year.
Accepting Sir Bruce’s resignation, Chair of the Board of Trustees of E-ACT, Dr Ann Limb said: “On behalf of the Board of E-ACT, and speaking for the governors, staff and students in all the schools who have benefitted from his unique energy and expertise, I give thanks to Sir Bruce for his work at E-ACT. I wholeheartedly wish him the very best in his future activities”.
Sir Bruce said he was thrilled with how the academies programme had grown and joked that he “had the word ACADEMY running through his body like a stick of Blackpool rock.”
Sir Bruce, who put forward a proposal to set up a free school in Northmapton two years ago, said: “The academy programme is one that children, parents and families all over the country welcome and celebrate”.
He will leave E-ACT at the end of his formal notice period on October 31 and until then he will be seconded to another post providing advice to the Government on developing academy sponsors.