Becoming an Academy

[Lorfarius]

In the last few months the Secondary school where I work has been through an OFSTED inspection and been rated as Special Measures. The general talk with the council seems to point towards the school becoming an academy which is terrifying the teachers. But no one really knows what will happen for support staff, I'm the Network Manager with a team of 2 and have been asked but no real idea! Has anyone lived through the switchover and knows what actually happens to us?

[6Foot2]

We became an academy a while ago. It has made no difference in the day-to-day working of my team. However this may not be the case for all converting schools. Hope it goes well for you.

[Lorfarius]

Thanks. How did the change over go? I've heard talk of being made to re-interview/apply for the same job, being made redundant then given a new contract. No one seems to know for sure what actually happens.

[witch]

Going through it now at my governor school. I'm sorry to say that it is impossible to say what will happen to you because it seems that every academy is different. Are you in a multi-academy trust? If you are then there is more likelihood that there may be changes to the setup in your school as they may wish to have an IT support team which covers all the schools. I have been looking into this for our new setup. We will probably stay as we are for now but as more schools join the trust, things may change.

In a single academy, if the IT setup works well, you have a chance that you will be left "as is" but it is up to the new board to decide what they are going to do.

Academisation shouldn't terrify the teachers - if things have gone very wrong at the school it will hopefully bring in new ways of working and get them out of the spiral of despair they are very likely in already. My governor school teachers are very keen - the academy is all local (within 5 miles of us), there is a lot of expertise that will be able to bring new insights into how to get us back to "good" and all in all it is seen as a good thing .

[zebulunn]

I get the impression that an Academy Trust has offered your school help if you join up with them. If they have a good rep then hopefully good things will come toward you.

 

If your school want to become more autonomous with the same SLT then it seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

 

However this is coming from a Techie in a currently imploding school so I'm very cautious about everything now

[witch]

If you have been forced into academy then it is likely that you will go with a trust so that you can get help. Around here it is only the outstanding schools which have gone into academy by themselves.

From speaking to other governors, it seems that at the transfer, most staff were transferred over to the new setup without having to apply for their own jobs - except the teachers who were RI or inadequate.

However, there are two levels of Special Measures - both with result in adcademisation, but the upper level will leave the head and SLT (which is what we have) and the lower will result in the HT being instantly removed, along with the governors.

[sparkeh]

If you have been forced into academy then it is likely that you will go with a trust so that you can get help. Around here it is only the outstanding schools which have gone into academy by themselves.

Forced Academies have to be Sponsored Academies, they can't go it alone, good and outstanding schools can choose to standalone if they wish.

[howartp]

We're an outstanding academy, but we are still supported by a trust.

 

A local school is in special measures and has been helped by us and their local college for 12 months, including our deputy acting as their head for that period. I believe they are becoming academy this/next year.

 

I do know they have just laid off a percentage of their staff, but I don't know if this is anything to do with Academy status or not.

 

Their IT team are still all there and not going anywhere to my knowledge. I speak regularly with the NM there.

[6Foot2]

Thanks. How did the change over go? I've heard talk of being made to re-interview/apply for the same job, being made redundant then given a new contract. No one seems to know for sure what actually happens.

 

There was a lot of talk of potential consequences before the change but as far as my team is concerned there have been no differences. Were we simply lucky with our conversion?

[hardtailstar]

We are going through it now and have been told that Staff won't be affected, just the way the school is run and who by.

[sparkeh]

Every conversion is unique, there is no set template so no one can say "XYZ will happen when your school converts". I've seen conversions where very little changes personnel wise except the school gets more support, conversely I've seen conversions where everything has changed including replacing the entire Governing Body and taking over IT completely so the school is a very different place.

[Tall_Paul]

We're part of a multi-academy trust that was set up almost two years ago.

 

As has been said, I suspect every situation is different. It has made no difference to us at all and, from an ICT POV, we don't interact with our other partner at all (which I find somewhat bizarre TBH).

 

Whether that will change in the fullness of time, who knows?

[witch]

Forced Academies have to be Sponsored Academies, they can't go it alone, good and outstanding schools can choose to standalone if they wish.

Yes, that's what I meant But a trust can have lots of schools in it and be a huge organisation, or merely a couple of schools, which changes the way they operate

[Oaktech]

We're a MAT and everyone just got TUPE'd across...

 

We were a secondary, with a sponsored primary (that was in special measures and just got an outstanding) and last year we also acquired a free school.

 

Didn't feel a thing. Same jobs, same annoyances, no more money - either for us or for purchases, in fact the only thing that changed was the name.

 

For new staff there are a few changes, like there is no such thing as a 52 week contract now, they are all term time + something which means they also don't allow term time holidays.

[Lorfarius]

At the moment there's only 2 people in the whole school on 52 weeks a year and I'm one of them. Thanks for all the responses good to actually hear from people who have been through it all.

[Oaktech]

At the moment there's only 2 people in the whole school on 52 weeks a year and I'm one of them. Thanks for all the responses good to actually hear from people who have been through it all.

 

 

There are only 6 here out of nearly 300 staff on a 52 week contract... Me and my Tech, and the 4 members of the site management team.

[Techykev]

We have also just recently been told that we are changing to academy status in September, part of the Ormiston Trust group of Academies. We have been told that all our jobs are safe, still very worrying though so its nice to hear that there have been so many positive replies in this thread.

[mthomas08]

Glad others DIDNT feel a thing:

 

Sadly my last job didn't get a smooth ride, we was sponsored so if you are too be very very careful. Only reason why we got sponsored was simply because the Head saw a quicker solution to getting what he wanted. Even he didn't see coming what happened in 18 months to 2 years. The Head did his big thing and told Staff what happened, he got a phone call by a certain individual, this call told him "lets work together, instead of being rivals". After this conversation he said, no massive changes, no job losses/redundancies, no take over, working together.

 

This was all a big fat lie, everyone at this other School knew it (they said it before us), some at our School was worried.

 

The truth was this was about a full blown take over, this was about turning our School road map to match this other School, this wasn't about working together to improve both sites because this other School is considered to be "the way to go".

 

The 1st targets were management: Deputy Heads who are on too much or WONT comply with the new way are made redundant. Our School had 2 removed (these two were essential and did a great job), strange thing is the money they made compared to their redundancy pay actually made sense in keeping them till they retired so this had nothing to do with money and we knew it.

2nd Target: Now that the Deputy Heads are dealt with, its time to promote the Head so he is off site and loses full control of the School. He was given a fancy title in the trust.

 

Next put in place a new head of School, a new path for SLT forcing anyone that's left to re-apply for their jobs.

 

Next Teaching staff, anyone not qualified was instantly put on the black list and evaluated heavily. Most were pushed out the door.

 

ADMIN/SUPPORT Staff: The heavy casualties, the road map from this other School had a few ADMIN staff doing all the jobs. Most made redundant and some put down to an "off site area".

 

IT was affected, 1 Senior person doing everything and 2 Technicians. Strangely enough the way the other School does things had 4 full time and 1 part time yet their site work was similar to us.

 

We all knew this was coming the second they got rid of 2 deputy heads because they didn't agree with what the head did.

 

Now? The priority is Ofsted regardless of anything else, this means anything which is good for the kids but gets no recognition by Ofsted is removed. Staff at the School don't want to be there and are being moved around in the trust left right and centre. People are still being escorted off site because they use their voice, Students and Parents are unhappy about the entire thing.

 

Still the School recently got a GOOD Ofsted report, worst part is it was already not far away from getting it. SO after all the changes, sackings, take over it only slightly improved.

 

My other posts have far more detail about everything, lets just say I watched my back, went for another job and left. They tried to persuade me to stay but there was no point.

 

Even my previous boss there has just left.

[localzuk]

We've started to see some changes appearing now, after 3 years of being an academy.

 

Changes being introduced include:

 

1. New support staff will not be joining the LGPS. They are instead joining a NEST pension. This is being done to reduce employer contribution rates.

2. The school is cracking down on discretionary time off. Ie. Most people who have to take time off to look after their sick kids will not get the time off paid.

 

I'm sure there will be more, as we've seen quite a few years of dropping pupil numbers (all schools in the area have).

 

Until we see the upturn in pupil numbers in about 4 years time, things are only ever going to be tough towards staff.

 

Oh, also, expect a *lot* more paperwork in admin. The admin workload has increased massively. More audits for example. But that balances out with a lot more freedom to choose suppliers and the like. We've saved a huge amount of work organising building work in house rather than through the LEA of old. To the tune of at least £250k for one new build we did...

Edited May 15, 2014 by localzuk

[elsiegee40]

I am a governor and a director of a Multi Academy Trust. My school is the lead school and converetd as an outstanding school. We have since taken in two other schools that were forced to convert.

 

Staff are TUPEd over. As part of the conversion, it will be decided what structure is necessary and staff will either be slotted straight into the new structure, or they can apply for new posts in the new structure. Thise surplus to requirements are made redundant.

 

If you are joining one of the big chains, there is more potential for redundancy of support staff due to centralised functions taking on those roles. Even in my 3 school MAT some roles are centralised, e.g. Finance, Estates, HR and IT. This doesn't mean there is no place for people doing those jobs from a school joining the trust, just there may not be a need for all of them. One of the people most at risk is probably the business manager... A trust finance director probably does all the high level stuff and there is only a role for clerical people in the local schools.

 

The person who feels the change most, in my opinion, is the Head Teacher. That person goes from being the big chief to having to answer to a Chief Exec (Exec HT or whatever their title is) and a board. Many struggle with this... including in my trust. Governance changes too as accountability is with the Board of Directors who delegate some things to Local Governors. Financial accounts are aggregated for the Trust and submitted for the trust as a whole. While the school gets a financial payment for the year, that money is paid to the Trust who top slice it and then gives each school their budget. Their is no accountability to the LA and no support from the LA without paying extra for it.

Edited May 15, 2014 by elsiegee40

[LeMarchand]

My experience was much like @mthomas08's. The whole process seemed to be a power grab by certain people who were no doubt seeing significant pay rises and many of the staff got royally shafted.

 

That said, I know of other schools where they were perfectly happy with their conversions. Mind you, these are fairly recent conversions - they might see changes like @localzuk has in time.

[jertsy]

In the last few months the Secondary school where I work has been through an OFSTED inspection and been rated as Special Measures. The general talk with the council seems to point towards the school becoming an academy which is terrifying the teachers. But no one really knows what will happen for support staff, I'm the Network Manager with a team of 2 and have been asked but no real idea! Has anyone lived through the switchover and knows what actually happens to us?

 

I have been at two schools that became academy's separately, and the only difference was that in effect we broke employment and tuped across to the new academy, otherwise no difference in employment terms or anything else. If it was not for this change we would no have noticed. I guess it depends on the particular establishment and what the long term plans are.