A CRISIS-HIT academy trust based in south Essex has seen six of its trustees resign at once – three months after being savaged in an Ofsted inspection.

The Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) lost vice chairman Ian Foster and five other trustees, including National Union of Teachers south east Essex secretary Jerry Glazier, when they collectively resigned last month.

The Hockley-based trust, which runs 67 schools nationwide, including Westerings Primary and Greensward Academy, was subject to a damning inspection by education watchdog Ofsted in February in which it was judged to be letting down too many pupils – particularly poorer ones.

Ofsted regional director Andrew Cook said: “After operating for nearly eight years, the Trust is failing too many pupils. Almost 40 per cent of the pupils attend AET primary academies that do not provide a good standard of education. It is even worse in secondaries, where 47 per cent of pupils attend academies that are less than good.

“Children from poor backgrounds do particularly badly in this trust. The attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils, in both the primary and secondary academies, still lags behind that of other pupils, and gaps in performance are not narrowing quickly enough.”

Southend Council approved the establishment of an education board on Tuesday to monitor academies, which fall outside of local education authority control.

Labour councillor Anne Jones said the trust’s failure showed academies aren’t always the answer for failing schools. She said: “I think it’s a false ideology and puts out a message which is the antithesis of what Ofsted and educators are saying.”

A trust spokesman said: “Trust was established in January 2008 and a number of long serving trustees ended their term of office earlier this year. As a mark of good business practice we commissioned an external review which recommended that this would be a good time to review and refresh the board. We have so far recruited three trustees working with Ian Comfort, our CEO.

“An Ofsted Report on the Trust last year was critical but it should not conceal that in Essex we have five secondary schools, four primary and two special schools. All are rated “good” or “outstanding.” We are indebted to the outgoing members, many of whom were with us from the beginning. None more than AET’s co-founder, Ian Foster, former governor at Westerings Primary and Greensward Academy, in Hockley, who was chair of Trust for most of his term.”