Harris Federation is a federation of Primary and Secondary academies in and around London. There are currently 41 open Harris academies.
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The academies' sponsor is Phil Harris (Lord Harris of Peckham), former chairman and chief executive of Carpetright. The federation is a not-for-profit charitable organisation. The group is generally oversubscribed in most of its Academies, particularly Harris City Academy Crystal Palace with 2,016 applicants for 180 spaces in 2014.
The Chief Executive Officer is Dr Daniel Moynahan, previously Principal of the Harris City Academy Crystal Palace. He is the full-time CEO at the Harris Federation Headquarters in East Croydon.
All Harris academies inspected by Ofsted have been rated either 'Outstanding' which is Ofsted's highest rating or 'Good' which is the second highest rating. Some of these, such as Westwood Girls' College and Battersea Park School, now Harris Academy Upper Norwood, and Harris Academy Battersea, were in Ofsted's category of Special Measures before being run by the Harris Federation. An example of the success of the federation is Harris Academy Chafford Hundred who were described as "outstanding" by Ofsted with a score of 30/31.
The group of schools is run as a federation rather than a chain and it claims that the autonomy of its Principals, who are 'free to innovate', is at the heart of its success.
In 2016, the Department for Education recognised the Harris Federation as a "top performer" in primary and secondary education, when comparing the performance of different multi-academy trusts. In July 2016, researchers at the Education Policy Institute found that "at primary level the Harris Federation is the highest performing school group in England – the improvement it has made is equivalent to pupils making around one and a half times more progress than average".
Harris Academies have also been criticised for high turnover of staff, whilst also paying CEO Daniel Moynahan in excess of £300,000 a year.
All-through schools
Sixth forms
Pupil referral units
Social Mobility
In 2014, 2015 and 2016, research by the Sutton Trust found that the Harris Federation was among the "The best academy chains (for) having a transformational impact on pupils’ life chances".
The Harris Federation runs a cultural enrichment programme that aims to improve outcomes for their brightest students, with activities run with organisations such as LAMDA, the Royal Opera House and Christie's.
In 2014, the Harris Federation and Westminster School opened the Harris Westminster Sixth Form. The aim of the sixth form, which received 1,000 applications for 2015 places, is to help students from London's state schools access top universities.
Controversies
Some of the schools within the federation were formerly run by local authorities, and forced by central government to become academies as part of the Harris Federation against the wishes of the parents and boards of governors. There was national media coverage over Downhills Primary School (now Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane), where it was reported that 94% of parents opposed the change to academy status. At the time, the government said it had decided to close Downhills Primary School and re-open it as a Harris Academy because of 'chronic underperformance' at Downhills. According to national news reports, standards of education at Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane quickly improved with the Federation’s involvement. Having been in special measures before becoming a Harris academy, its first inspection report after opening found that it was now good with outstanding features.
Another school forced against wishes of some parents and governors to take on academy status and placed in the Harris Federation was Roke Primary School. During a meeting to discuss the planned change to an academy, a parent accused Daniel Moynihan of spending half of the meeting time making a phone call, leading to a perception that the Federation was unconcerned with the opinions of parents. Now known as Harris Primary Academy Kenley, a range of complaints were raised by parents when it reopened under the new management. The academy has since been judged 'outstanding' by Ofsted. As part of a local awards scheme, the Principal of the academy was nominated as a 'Croydon Hero' because of the improvements that took place.
The Harris Westminster Sixth Form, which was scheduled to open in 2014, has been criticised for costing £45 million of public money to establish. Before it opened, the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, called it a "vanity project". However, Ofsted inspected the Sixth Form in autumn 2015, rated it "outstanding" in all areas and praised it for creating "a community of scholars". Its first set of A Levels were described as "outstanding" by The Times, which reported that "almost a third" of pupils "cannot afford to pay for school meals, but they achieved 12% A* grades and 42% A% to A grades".
Harris Academies have some of the highest turnover of staff amongst schools in the UK, with the Guardian reporting that over a third of Harris teachers leave after just one year, with 1,000 teachers leaving the Federation in three academic years, underlined by 34 leaving Harris Falconwood in 2015 alone. The Anti-Academies Alliance put this high turnover down to poor working conditions, excessive workload and unreasonable pressure on teachers from senior leadership .