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Original poster

your thoughts on the whole academy thing?

152 replies

ArfurBrain · 17/03/2011 17:40

My child's secondary has just announced consultation into becoming one.

By my reckoning, this now means all the town's secondaries will be (potentially) academies.
I dare say many of my questions will be answered at the parents' evening. But the whole academy thing appears to be so rushed that I'm sure there are loads of issues which no-one really knows what will happen until they rear their heads, so to speak.

From a social point of view, what implications might this have on the town?
Admissions etc?

What will happen to those academies which have a less afluent parent pool?
SEN services?
Exclusions?
I mean if all the schools are no longer in LEA control, whose responsibliy is it to ensure each child gets a school place ?

And as I understand it, once a school has become an academy, it cannot go back to LEA control,
I sort of feel our children are being guinea pigs in a ratheruncontrolled educational experiment.
Would just like to know what MNetters feel.

OP posts:
Original poster
ArfurBrain · 17/03/2011 18:14

thanks prh, that's a very comprehensive set of answers.

Any thoughts on any possible implications for a town having 100 per cent secondary academies?

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 17/03/2011 18:10

To provide some answers:

Academies set their own admission criteria. However, their criteria must still conform to the Admissions Code and in all other respects the admissions process will be unchanged. It will still be up to the LA to ensure that every child gets a place.

Those academies which have a less affluent parent pool may receive additional funding. Academies will receive a pupil premium for children who receive free school meals.

SEN provision is complex, but not significantly more so than it is already. The LA retains responsibility for education psychology, SEN administration, SEN assessments and monitoring of SEN provision. Academies receive funding for services for pupils with SEN. Many LA schools also receive this funding - the previous government was pushing LAs to delegate this funding to schools. However, some LAs retain this funding so academies in those areas will see a change.

The LA also retains funding for PRUs and is responsible for excluded pupils. There is, however, a concern that some academies may have been too eager to exclude pupils.

When this government came to power there were already over 200 academies, the first ones having been established in 2002/3. This autumn the figure will go up to over 400. Some academies are achieving impressive results. For example, the percentage of pupils getting five decent GCSE passes in state schools is 23% lower for free school meal children. One of the current groups of academies has narrowed that gap to 3%.

That is not to say there are no concerns. As I have already said, some people believe that academies may have been too eager to exclude pupils. There are also some concerns about how well LAs will monitor SEN provision in academies.