Now evidence reveals that principals at Rachel de Souza’s Inspiration Trust schools, praised by Michael Gove, were surprisingly well informed about when inspections would happen

This article is the subject of a legal complaint made on behalf of Inspiration Trust and Dame Rachel de Souza.

UPDATE On 27 January 2015 Ofsted published a review into alleged inspection irregularities at three academy schools in Norfolk. The reviewer, Julian Gizzi, has concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, no one associated with any of the three schools in question received more than the requisite half a day’s notice of the date of their inspection. The full report is available here.

Ian Harris was surprised when his 15-year-old daughter told him that her year group had been taken out of class at Ormiston Victory Academy to be told there would be an Ofsted inspection the following week and that they should behave. As a father of four school-age children, he knew of the terror among teachers of such inspections and that it was normal practice to receive just half a day’s notice to avoid the priming of pupils and the cover-up of failure. His irritation that the school in Norwich, run by headteacher Rachel de Souza, didn’t then offer him the chance to provide feedback to Ofsted over its performance led him to complain to the regulator.

“And, to be fair to Ofsted, they called me back,” said Harris, 50. “But I was told that if I wanted a full-blown investigation I wouldn’t have anonymity. We thought about it but I didn’t want that sort of distraction when my daughter was going through GCSEs. I do wonder about that phone call now.”

Allegations by whistleblowers published a year later by this newspaper about schools run by De Souza, two of which are part of the Inspiration Trust academy chain venerated by the government, and sponsored by the Tory donor and Department for Education non-executive director Theodore Agnew, made Harris wonder ever more. As did Ofsted’s response to this paper’s claims this August.

“Academies run by ‘superhead’ received advance notice of Ofsted checks”, the Observer revealed. We reported that three schools in Norfolk, all overseen by De Souza, knew of impending visits by inspectors days, sometimes weeks, before Ofsted arrived.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former education secretary Michael Gove said that his ideal schools policy would be to clone De Souza 23,000 times. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

De Souza had by now moved from Ormiston Victory school to be chief executive of the Inspiration Trust, had been made a dame and was a part-time Ofsted inspector, lauded by former education secretary Michael Gove, who claimed his ideal education policy would be to clone De Souza “23,000 times”.

Ofsted’s immediate response to the story was to say that it would not have been possible for De Souza to see inspection schedules. And, anyway, there hadn’t been any complaints. “But I had complained,” Harris said.

The Observer can now reveal that De Souza did not only see an inspection schedule for one of the schools she oversees but was in a position to converse with Ofsted about the timings of inspections. And, despite an investigation by Sir Robin Bosher, national director for quality and inspection training at Ofsted, concluding that the three schools overseen by De Souza could merely have estimated as to the rough dates of inspections, such guesswork was surprisingly accurate.

While there is nothing to suggest impropriety on behalf of senior Ofsted figures in the east of England, the Observer understands that close relationships were formed between De Souza and Ofsted’s director and his deputy in the area, Sean Harford and Paul Brooker. Gossip and small favours were exchanged, as would be typical in any friendship; at De Souza’s prompting, a place opened up on a ministerial visit to China for Harford. Brooker helped to edit a document written by De Souza on the future of Norfolk schools which was to be submitted to the education department. De Souza and Harford even discussed coming up with ideas for the next Conservative manifesto.

Ofsted will now perhaps have to reflect on whether it is an independent regulator, challenging schools without fear or favour. For there can be no doubt that De Souza was in command of information that most people running schools would dearly love to hold. “Only three weeks or so till Ofsted due at Victory too! Let’s keep focused”, De Souza wrote in a group email sent three weeks and two days before the school attended by Harris’s daughter was inspected on 14 and 15 May 2013.

That email was sent 10 days before an inspection was held at a sister school, Ormiston Venture. Ofsted’s claim in Bosher’s investigation that Ormiston Victory had merely predicted the timing of its inspection on the basis that it would be two weeks after the one at Venture, as had been the case in 2012, now looks hollow.

Emails seen by the Observer, sent over the weekend before the inspection started at Ormiston Victory on the Tuesday, provide evidence of how this prior knowledge was acted upon. “The last update on the website was 8th May. Can you get it going with lots of news. Inspectors will probably look Monday!! It’s the first thing they look at,” De Souza wrote on the Saturday before the Monday on which inspectors would formally inform the school of their plans. “Is the roll of honour sorted – it looked sparse on the wall – I’m worries about it!” (sic), she wrote about school decorations. “It is all sorted – extra photos being taken at 8.30 on Monday and Becky is sticking them up... It’s all in hand,” reassured the then vice-principal Claire Heald that Saturday, adding: “Everything’s fine – a few people in today so far. Probably a good sign there’s not more, as it shows people are ready.”

On a second school, Great Yarmouth Primary Academy, where De Souza was chair of governors, Bosher’s investigation prompted by our initial story conceded that she “was mistakenly given sight of a schedule that included the planned inspection date of that school during her training to become a seconded Ofsted inspector”. However, Bosher said there was no evidence that she had passed the information on. The error was picked up on and rectified, with another inspection date arranged, he said.

The Observer has now seen the group email sent on 4 April 2014 to which Bosher referred: “Rachel, I have ensured that you will not need to be in two places at once as discussed,” wrote Tim Bristow, a senior inspector for Ofsted in the east of England, attaching an inspection schedule which included a date for Great Yarmouth Primary, which is part of the Inspiration Trust academy chain, to be visited. This does not appear to be a message that had been casually sent in error. Ofsted has refused to provide details about who noticed this email had been sent, when it was noticed and who then insisted on a change of inspection date.

This newspaper’s inquiries have further discovered that despite a change in the inspection date from 7 and 8 to 13 and 14 May, the academy’s principal, Bill Holledge, felt confident enough in early May of his knowledge of a likely inspection date to turn down an offer from the prime minister to attend a function at Downing Street on 12 May. It would have placed him in London at an inopportune time.

Indeed, nearly three weeks before the inspection date, De Souza further informed her secretary: “14 and 15th May – please do not add any further appointments – I am expecting a late notice very important event on or around those days.”

Meanwhile, when Bosher reported on claims that Thetford academy, again part of Agnew’s Inspiration Trust, had prior knowledge of Ofsted inspections, he suggested that because the school was in special measures, the timings of inspections were more guessable.

While it is true that the school will have known that the window for the inspection date was down to just a few weeks, as Bosher’s report argued, the Observer understands that staff within the Inspiration Trust were confident of the precise date of the inspection on the weekend before they were formally told. The record of Bosher’s investigation with the two other schools certainly suggests there are more questions to be answered.

The Inspiration Trust is only just over a year old, but is growing fast under De Souza. Having started in September 2013, it has seven schools, including two free schools, with another five schools in the pipeline. Schools minister Nick Gibb opened their latest school only last week. Now might be a time for Ofsted and the Department for Education to reflect. Parents, teachers and headteachers in the area certainly think so.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theodore Agnew, who sponsors the Inspiration Trust academies and chairs the Department for Education’s academies board. Photograph: James Bass/Eastern Daily Press

Tory donor checked his own reference for planned honour

Theodore Agnew, the Tory donor and sponsor of Dame Rachel de Souza’s Inspiration Trust academy chain, has been lined up for an honour – and even checked his own reference.

The Observer understands that the Department for Education confidentially approached De Souza, chief executive of the Inspiration Trust, to ask her to offer evidence in favour of the honour. It is understood that she shared a reference she had written with Agnew, who has donated £140,000 to the Tories, and invited him to fact-check it and add any missing details.

A lawyer for De Souza said in a statement that she merely sought to confirm biographical details with Agnew, who was unaware that it was in support of an honour. The intention was to honour Agnew in the Queen’s birthday honours list in June, although this did not come to pass.

Agnew, who was privately educated at Rugby school, and previously ran a cleaning company in Australia which mainly cleaned flats “used as brothels”, made his fortune in insurance, private equity and management consultancy, where he pioneered outsourcing of labour to India.

He has claimed that it was this experience that led him to donate cash to the rightwing Policy Exchange thinktank.

Last year Agnew told the Eastern Daily Press: “That’s when the penny dropped; that if we did not improve the education quality of our kids they were competing against much better qualified people who were paid a fraction of the cost.”

In December 2010, the then education secretary, Michael Gove, appointed Agnew to be a non-executive board member at the DfE, chairing the department’s academies board. He is a close friend of Gove, who, with his wife Sarah Vine, a Daily Mail columnist, was invited to celebrate Agnew’s 50th birthday celebrations in January 2011 at Boodle’s private members’ club.

When the Inspiration Trust chain was struggling to win planning permission for building work at a soon-to-open free school, Agnew discussed the matter with the then planning minister, Nick Boles, founder and former director of Policy Exchange.

Agnew told De Souza that Boles, who he describes as a friend, recommended pushing for an answer from the council and then appealing to the planning inspectorate who he believed would uphold the appeal.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “The planning application was approved by the local council’s planning committee in July 2013, after advice from council planning officers recommending approval of the application. Ministers were not involved in this decision.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former schools minister Liz Truss, now environment secretary, is said to have been close to De Souza. Photograph: REX

Trust’s £420 tea set and £1,700 armchairs

Concerns over the financial scrutiny of academies were raised last night as it emerged that the Inspiration Trust academy chain spent £420 of taxpayers’ money on a Vera Wang tea set.

A further £2,775 was spent on a table, £752 on a desk, £1,211 on a cupboard, £3,400 on two “Boss” armchairs and £2,600 on a “Boss” sofa in April this year. Another £746 went on a third armchair and £316 on a glass coffee table, although the trust later gained a £600 discount on the furniture.

A dinner for the glitterati of East Anglia at the Norfolk Club, to which the former chief of the defence staff, Lord Dannatt, a one-time Tory adviser on defence, is believed to have been invited, cost the taxpayer £666.

Liz Truss, then an education minister, who became environment secretary earlier this year, was also invited to the dinner, which was hosted by the former Tory MP David Prior, the chair of governors at the Inspiration Trust’s Sir Isaac Newton free school. A former Tory MP, Prior was appointed last year by the government as chair of the Care Quality Commission, which oversees the NHS.

Truss is understood to be close to Rachel de Souza, and De Souza is believed to have sought the minister’s support for a bid by one of her academies to lead a maths hub in her area, which would bring the trust extra funds. The government has established 32 maths hubs, with the aim of spreading excellence in maths teaching.

De Souza approached Truss before guidelines as to who would be eligible were being drawn up. Truss is understood to have told De Souza that she was also “very keen” for the Inspiration Trust’s Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form to be involved. The application succeeded, despite Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form not being a “teaching school”, hosting trainee teachers, nor having outstanding Ofsted status.

A lawyer for De Souza said she “denies attaining Liz Truss’s support for the school’s award before the application process started”.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “A rigorous process was followed in the selection of all maths hubs and every application to become a hub was considered on its individual merits.”

A lawyer for De Souza said the trust’s expenditure was reasonable.