Following the article published online in the Dorset Echo regarding Budmouth College and its upcoming transfer to Aspirations Academies Trust on May 17 2019, I would like to reassure readers as to the strength of the trust both financially and academically.

In the article, a spokesperson for the school protest group is quoted speaking about the trust’s finances and one of our schools, Atlantic Academy. Far from running with insufficient reserves, Aspirations Academies Trust is a financially stable and very well-run education charity, with very healthy reserves, as set out in our publicly available accounts.

Meanwhile, since joining our Trust in September 2017, Atlantic Academy has been hugely successful – and we are absolutely not closing the school.

When it joined our trust, it was rated inadequate by Ofsted, but under our leadership it is improving rapidly. Last year the proportion of 11-year-olds achieving at least the expected standard for reading, writing and maths was well above the national average, while in GCSEs it was the 13th most improved secondary school in the country for progress.

We look forward to supporting Budmouth College and its students by delivering a similarly first-class education there.

Steve Kenning,

Co-founder,

Aspirations Academies Trust