Avanti Hall School

Started well when children joined the school but since then Avanti Schools Trust have decided to pull out of the school citing budgeting reasons. This seems questionable and is more likely the result of frivolous overspending on a hotel in the north of England which cost millions. Since the Trust’s decision to pull out of Avanti Hall, from a parent perspective, there appears to be low staff morale, high staff turnover, persistence to implement Avanti Trust procedures (despite them leaving and a new Trust to be taking over), disorganisation and a lack of ethos, direction and drive. The school is on an amazing site and there are some top class teachers, however, there needs to be more clarity amongst staff regarding rules and procedures as this can be inconsistent. Behaviour policies are in line with Avanti Trust and these are too corporate. Need to be more child friendly. Pockets of very bad behaviour and the school seems to attract many disaffected kids, creating disruption. Bad language is commonplace.
Communication from school to parents is unsatisfactory and parents are kept very much at arms length. Parents have very restricted access to school and it can feel unfriendly and unwelcoming at primary level. No school events that parents can attend such as Christmas carol services or Christmas shows, end of year 6 show. Parents do not go in to help in any way with trips or reading. Almost comes across as secretive.
Transition to secondary needs to be improved so that there is little or no step back in progress from year 6. This should be a big advantage of an all through school but it seems little opportunity is made of this to communicate between year 6 and secondary staff. Not all staff have high expectations of work from children and as a result some children are underperforming. Able children need much more extension. SEN provision severely lacking across the school. IEP’s need chasing up by parents.
The school used to timetable in a very brief parents’ evening after 1-2 weeks of starting the school year, to update parents on how their children had settled into class. This was a lovely touch and very welcome. This no longer happens. Parents’ evenings are very limited in secondary and not in line with other secondaries.
Office staff are plentiful. Too many staff in office to encourage a family feel. Never the same person and not clear who does what. School dinners are lovely but only vegetarian option.
Sadly, it seems Avanti Trust has little experience or understanding of running a non denominational school. Their prescriptive approach and lack of autonomy for staff has resulted in a school that is floundering in the aftermath of their iron control and desire to pull out.
This school has all the right ingredients to be one of the best schools in the south west or even the country, but it seems like it doesn’t have the will to be. There are great, hard working staff, great leaders and an amazing school site. They need to get out and have a look at the work of excellent schools in the area and learn from those.They need to all sit down and rewrite their ethos and aims and stick to those passionately.
I think this is what the school needs- a vision and a passion to be the best. Sadly, these are very much lacking. It is time for the leadership to pull their socks up and get organised and show the parents and children that they know what they are doing. Avanti Trust needs to let them get on with the job whilst transferring to Reach South Trust.

Looks like a beautiful private school on first impression but
the facilities both indoors and outdoor are less than at the other local secondary schools. Avanti Hall is still often being used as a school for additional needs children and is not a thriving mainstream school. It has a high staff turnover.

Top down multi academy management leading to lack of flexibility to suit the children's needs and low job satisfaction.

School is still "finding itself ". Very top down central office management as we are one of a large group of schools. Underfunding of staff and lack of facilities along with some ridgid policies make it difficult to give our best to the children.

Great school good teachers!