HOPE Academy has been accused of failing to engage with St Helens Council.

The Newton-le-Willows faith school came in for criticism during a discussion about the progress of the borough’s secondary schools at the council’s audit and financial monitoring overview and scrutiny panel meeting on Wednesday.

The local authority placed fourth from bottom of English local authorities in 2017 based on the aggregate the Progress 8 figure for for all St Helens secondaries and St Helens College.

A report discussed at Wednesday’s meeting revealed the council is due to meet with nine of the ten secondaries – not including Hope Academy – and the college to assess the quality of their plans for improvement.

Cllr Jeffrey Fletcher, chairman of the panel, said: “It is a great pity that they (Hope Academy) do not engage with us in a collaborative process.”

Speaking to the Star after the meeting, Patrick Ferguson, principal of Hope Academy, said the school is not required to report to the local authority.

He said: “Hope Academy is an independent academy and with that independence comes accountability.

“Our accountability is with the Department for Education.

“While I fully understand that the local authority has invited all secondary schools to monitor and ask us and to check through the process, it doesn’t really apply to us.

“The council did send us an invitation, but our monitoring and responsibility to report is first and foremost with the Department for Education – and the local authority knows that.”

Cllr Fletcher said the council have a “very complex” history of working with Hope Academy.

The school was placed in special measures by Ofsted in 2014 but was rated “Good” following its most recent inspection in December 2015.

Mr Ferguson said the academy has made “exceptional progress”.

He said: “The indicators say that everything is going well. It’s a lovely school and it is a pleasure to be the principal of it.”

During the meeting, Thatto Heath councillor Nova Charlton expressed concerns over the lack of powers available to local authorities when dealing with academies.

She said: “That is a concern, the more academies we get into the borough.

“As a local authority we should engage with our academies because ultimately we’re still responsible for the outcome of the grades young people are achieving.”