Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
While schools across Lancashire battle joining a multi-academy trust, as covered in The Lancashire Lead today, one school in Blackpool absolutely needs the extra support it can offer.
Hawes Side Academy was inspected in April and two weeks later, months before the inspection report was published, it was confirmed it would join the Endeavour Learning Trust.
But now the report, analysed by The Blackpool Lead today, shows exactly what the shortcomings were in that inspection. Here’s hoping the move means better days ahead.
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Blackpool briefing
🏠 Blackpool Council’s Shareholder Committee will today (23 September) consider measures to help home owners in Revoe who feel they cannot sell their homes to the council because it will leave them financially worse off.
The report says that one focus is “on households where the main barrier to voluntary sale is financial circumstances, supported by evidence that selling their home to the Council for the market value would leave them unable to purchase a reasonable and comparable replacement property in a reasonable and comparable area – even when statutory compensation is applied.”
The Central Housing Regeneration Project is part of Blackpool’s wider ambition to improve housing quality and life chances for residents living in the town’s inner area. The project is supported by £90.4 million of funding secured through Homes England and aims to create high-quality homes and new public space.
It has been controversial from the start - with a number of residents comparing it to the displacement of a community.
↗️ A vital service in Blackpool offering support for people recovering from addictions has staged a special event to highlight the impact it has been having.
Blackpool Recovery Hub opened in May last year in premises at 258 Church Street, as a welcoming, non-judgemental space for people recovering from alcohol, drug and gambling addictions.
To mark National Recovery Month today it was also an opportunity to announce Blackpool as the first location in the North West to sign up to the Inclusive Recovery Cities Charter.
The Hub offers a wide range of holistic recovery services and community re-integration programmes to help build fulfilling futures.
The dedicated drop-in facility chose National Online Recovery Day (22 September), which occurs during the UK’s National Recovery Month, to help shine an important spotlight on the people, stories and support behind its pioneering service.
💩 A rugby club has hit out over dog fouling on its pitches and called on dog walkers to try and keep their pets off the playing areas.
Blackpool RUFC, which plays home matches at Mossom Lane, off Fleetwood Road in Norbreck, has put out a message on social media saying its players are having to contend with dog mess when they play matches.
There are concerns about serious infections associated with dog faeces which can have long-term health implications.
To make matters more complicated, some of the land where the club is based is also open to the public, and although the club stresses the pitches are on land owned by the club, the area is not within an enclosed sports ground.
Damning Ofsted inspection sets out exactly why Hawes Side Academy joined a trust
By Luke Beardsworth
A school that has been open in Blackpool for almost 90 years was told that it requires special measures in the same month it was confirmed that it would join a multi-academy trust.
Hawes Side Academy was told that it requires special measures because it was failing to provide an acceptable standard of education, and the senior staff did not have the capacity to improve performance.
The Ofsted inspection of the primary school, which opened in 1937 and was converted into an academy in 2012, happened on 14 April. It yielded damning results with the school told it needs urgent improvement in pupil achievement, the standard of teaching and leadership and governance. It was a marked decrease from the ‘Good’ standards the school achieved in all areas in the 2022 Ofsted inspection.
By 28 April, it was confirmed that Hawes Side Academy would be joining the Endeavour Learning Trust (ELT) - the first school in Blackpool to do so. The school formally joined the trust for the start of the 2026/27 academic year.
In announcing the move, the ELT said the school was known for its ambitious curriculum, strong pastoral care and deep roots in the school community. The school stresses there were positives in the inspection - and that joining the trust would help it progress further.
But the publication of the Ofsted inspection from April shows that the trust will need to implement dramatic improvements for those claims to be even partially true.