Academies agenda gathering momentum again?

[Geoff]

There isn't enough money to join networks so they're all run independently.

 

That must cost money in the long term (labour overheads, duplication of equipment, etc).

[elsiegee40]

That must cost money in the long term (labour overheads, duplication of equipment, etc).

Beggars can't be choosers. You cannot spend money that you don't have. We are benefitting from centralised purchasing, etc. We just can't join the networks for the time being. If you draw a line 40 miles long and put a school at each end with one in the middle then that's us... there are geographical complications as well as monetary ones and PfI ones

[sippo]

Beggars can't be choosers. You cannot spend money that you don't have. We are benefitting from centralised purchasing, etc. We just can't join the networks for the time being. If you draw a line 40 miles long and put a school at each end with one in the middle then that's us... there are geographical complications as well as monetary ones and PfI ones

 

The same as. We don't have the funds, and have other priorities ie. One phone system, office 365 for the whole academy.

 

Eventually it would be nice to go down the VPLS route.

[elsiegee40]

So no parent governors? What about staff ones?

@CAM Now I think about it, there is no requirement for an academy to have staff governors in the first place. So nothing has changed. Academies will still not be required to have staff governors.

[LeMarchand]

Angry article in The Independent: Thank God our schools have finally been liberated by our national free spirit George Osborne | Voices | The Independent

 

Interesting point in the comments about Lord Nash led me to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nash,_Baron_Nash . So no conflict of interest there .

[sparkeh]

Mumsnet give Nicky Morgan what for: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/21/nicky-morgan-under-fire-over-mumsnet-post-on-academisation

[sparkeh]

Yikes! Even Fasna are questioning the plans, and they support full academisation: Speedy academisation plan risky, says school body - BBC News

[mthomas08]

Beggars can't be choosers. You cannot spend money that you don't have. We are benefitting from centralised purchasing, etc. We just can't join the networks for the time being. If you draw a line 40 miles long and put a school at each end with one in the middle then that's us... there are geographical complications as well as monetary ones and PfI ones

 

Likewise from a previous School. It was a nice idea at the time I had my naïve shades on. On paper I thought it would be beneficial, allowing all Staff and Students to have a single logon across the Trust. Generic systems in place, access to everything and anything anywhere. We currently have over half a dozen usernames and passwords for our kids for multiple systems and I completely feel for the kids. Something I am still trying to fire fight/improve.

 

I think at the time when another School in the trust looked at the prices, if I remember rightly it was either a line rental (fortune in costs every single year) or go and organise digging up the street for cabling which again cost an arm and a leg for miles.

 

One thing I do hate for anyone is having multiple accounts, if I struggle to remember everything what do 13 Year olds feel...

[LeMarchand]

Mumsnet give Nicky Morgan what for: Nicky Morgan under fire over Mumsnet post on academisation | Education | The Guardian

 

We need to put our trust into the hands of the people that know best how to run our schools – the teachers – and the academy system does just that.

 

Whilst there must be academies where the teachers are involved in the running of the school, my experience is more of a dictatorship rather than a community. Certainly within a couple of years most of the teachers where I used to work have left.

[novastorm]

Scrap plans to force state schools to become academies.

 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702

[mthomas08]

Whilst there must be academies where the teachers are involved in the running of the school, my experience is more of a dictatorship rather than a community. Certainly within a couple of years most of the teachers where I used to work have left.

 

I would agree. It's why Governors tend to be a broad group, local business owners, parents and staff. It's also why some Schools openly advertise those posts to the Community and not necessarily shall we say "certain" individuals just because they follow the HT's way. Also I am a strong believe in a Business Manager position, not a Teacher but instead someone with more Business/Financial sense.

 

Although I would support let the Teachers run the curriculum side of Teaching, I think non Teachers should also be strongly involved. We currently have a BM/2 Deputies and they are on par with each other. We also have rep in the Governors who's Support Staff. Have to say things seem to be working very positively and Staff generally are working better together.

[novastorm]

The Anti Academies Alliance is a campaign composed of unions, parents, pupils, teachers, councillors and MPs.

 

Academies are schools that are run by a private sponsor. They are outside of the local family of schools, not accountable to the local community, allowed to set their own curriculum and terms and conditions for staff. We oppose the government’s Academies programme and believe we need ‘a good school for every child’.

 

Anti Academies Alliance

[pbainbridge]

The education support grant given to LAs to support schools is also being slashed 75%+. This means all the LA school support workers will be made redundant and schools will be forced to pay market rates to private organisations for these services. What cost a child clinical psychologist or Education Welfare officer? Then there's the little problem of who will do admissions, currently supplied by the LA and funded by the ESG. Anyone fancy doing that chore every year?

[sparkeh]

The education support grant given to LAs to support schools is also being slashed 75%+. This means all the LA school support workers will be made redundant and schools will be forced to pay market rates to private organisations for these services. What cost a child clinical psychologist or Education Welfare officer? Then there's the little problem of who will do admissions, currently supplied by the LA and funded by the ESG. Anyone fancy doing that chore every year?

We've not had LA Ed Psychs for years. We have to pay for them ourselves.

[zag]

The education support grant given to LAs to support schools is also being slashed 75%+. This means all the LA school support workers will be made redundant and schools will be forced to pay market rates to private organisations for these services. What cost a child clinical psychologist or Education Welfare officer? Then there's the little problem of who will do admissions, currently supplied by the LA and funded by the ESG. Anyone fancy doing that chore every year?

 

You make it sound like "paying the market rates" is a bad thing!

 

There is nothing wrong with private companies offering services. The beauty of that is there is competition and one would hope, good pricing!

 

We've also paid for these services privately for the last couple of years and had no issues that I am aware of.

[LeMarchand]

There is nothing wrong with private companies offering services. The beauty of that is there is competition and one would hope, good pricing!

 

Because that's what has happened with water/energy/rail...

[sparkeh]

Academy account fiddling. Coming to a school near you soon. Half kidding

Academy trust boss was paid second salary - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35890448

[sparkeh]

Even Tories are now coming out against the academy plans: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35897430

 

Wonder if we will see another u-turn like the disability cuts. The government is losing a lot of battles at the moment.

[sparkeh]

LGA parties unite call for academy bill to be stopped: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35905260

 

The resistance against this is growing.

[CyberNerd]

 

The resistance against this is growing.

 

24% of eligible voters elected this Government. In their 2015 manifesto they said they would convert inadequate and RI schools. Converting all schools wasn't something the tories had pledged. I think it is fair to say there was never popular support for this.

 

The Govt plan is clearly ideological: to pave the way for privatisation and to remove the local authority pay schemes so heads can pay the staff they think are the most deserving.

 

The problem I have with this is that I don't really trust local teachers to behave responsibly: There is little control if heads decide to line their own pockets and employ 'yes wo/men' and not get good results. . I don't think Ofsted look into financials and if Governing bodies are disbanded (many are) then there is too little oversight without LA's.

[GrumbleDook]

I have a number of issues with what is happening here ...

 

As someone who worked in the pre-cursor of Academies (CTCs) I can honestly say that they work. The ideology behind them is something different and the separation from the LA is needed, but they do have to work with other local schools ... but no be dictated to.

 

Some of the differences might seem strange but it was simple things such as the 5 term year, each term made up of 8 weeks with a 2 week break in between ... and 4 weeks in the summer. The day was 8.30 to 4 (for the students) and it worked.

They started to be come more and more like exam factories as the politics interfered in the ideology and *that* is the snapshot which was then taken into the Academies program, not all the pre-cursor work that was done to make them places that treated students differently and focussed on specific problems in the given area.

 

As someone who moved to a Technology College, and one that wanted to be treated as close to a CTC as possible (if only to try to beat the CTC at its own game), then being a vocal, independently minded school* was a good thing ... but understanding the politics of playing nicely with the LA. However, the balance was right ... enough freedom to work the system but enough backup when needed too.

 

The idea that Academy Groups would come in and do a better job than the LA is not hard to track through ... some LAs only focussed on the failing schools and were stretched to do that. The creation of Education Action Zones allowed for more funds to go in to give targeted support, but this was often too little and too late.

 

The one thing I would like to see is LAs being allowed to become Academy Trusts in their own right. As a publicly owned body, the land remains public property ... and an asset of the Council. This allows the council to get better borrowing rates when it needs to. Cash flow in councils is always problematic and they do need to borrow money every so often. The more assets they have the lower the rate and larger the sum. With assets being stripped, or sold off as no longer used (the merging of office space for the remaining council staff has left a number of prime locations being sold to private developers) ... and so they have to pay more in the interest.

 

It also means that those LAs that have a good success rate can still do the good work. It means that services are still tied in to the council systems and there are less chances of children falling through the gaps. Yes, I know it means that councils are likely to get the schools that no other group wants, but you would have a defined pay structure, no problems with fat cat salaries and more accountability. However, this means losing face for the central Tory party and that is not going to happen.

 

A few years back, in conversation with a friendly Labour MP (still sitting), it was worked out that it would take 10-15 years to fix the education system from the mess it has been left in by some trusts / academy groups. Personally I would now see that as 30-40 years.

 

I'm not saying that it should all be rolled back into the LA ... but there should be more accountability, less focus on exam factories and more work with other local services. I'm just hoping that the fight back from the LGA is the start of fixing things. Ever the optimist.

 

*This translates in some quarters as 'bloody minded' or 'awkward'.

[elsiegee40]

Mark Steel's view :

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/thank-god-our-schools-have-finally-been-set-free-by-our-national-free-spirit-george-osborne-a6937016.html

 

(Tip: Read it - not just the headline!)

Edited March 30, 2016 by john
fixed url hyperlink

[mikeprice]

That's already been printed off and posted in the staff room - some people aren't sure if it is serious or not

[Ephelyon]

you would have a defined pay structure

 

A proper one, I presume?

[sparkeh]

Has there been any indication if this will go forward before the brexit vote?

 

I ask as there is a strong feeling that Cameron (and perhaps Osborne) will only survive with a strong remain vote. Any successor could make a quick win by dumping an unpopular policy.

Edited March 29, 2016 by sparkeh