Academies consultation period?

For anyone fighting for fair consultation on Academy conversion, please see my blog handsoffourschool.wordpress.com/academy-consultation/ I fought conversion at my daughter's school on the basis of demanding full and fair consultation - and won, for the timebeing. It can be done.

I do think it depends on the SEN. Is their SEN preventing them from accessing the curriculum (as in your pencil holding example or something like dyslexia) or is it something like a very poor memory. If you teach a child who can't remember what they've done from one lesson to the next then it is hard to envisage a situation where they can sit in an exam and remember how to calculate percentages and the formula for the area of a circle.

As a maths teacher I'd be interested to know what support was given to your DD in maths which makes you think her potential was unlocked in such a manner that progress to a C is achievable. I teach a handful of students in Y7 who got Ns in their SATs and it would be nice to know anything that could potentially make a difference.

" IMO, almost all dc, even those with SEN, can acheive a 'C' grade GCSE if given the correct help and enough hours help."

Can I ask why you're so convinced of this? Is it just your experience with your DD? I notice that you say her problem isn't her understanding or her brain, but getting things down on paper. What about those students where their problem isn't getting things down on paper but understanding in the first place? Ones who aren't very bright?

I would be absolutely astonished if a student on a level 3 in Y8 in maths got a C at GCSE. It is unlikely that she will keep up the level of progress from y7 as to go up past level 5 will require algebra and a shift to more abstract thinking which can be too much for some.

You possibly need to manage your expectations in that area.

And if she doesnt scrape a C in E, M and S? I personally think you should be happy for her if she reaches her target grades and very proud of her if she exceeds them, whatever they are.

Take a look at her schools stats for 5 A* to C in E and M because they are the best public statistic which indicates how many children actually nail both subjects. In our, pretty reasonable comprehensive, we have about 50-60% gain these grades in both subjects. There are a lot of children who do not manage at 16 to gain these grades.

Just my pennyworth on Grade C GCSE because my daughter is a very hardworking borderline C/D student. She is in year 11.

She gained in her year 6 SATS :

English 3b
Maths 4c
Science 4c

Solid level 5's in year 9.

She has made excellent progress in English and has a target of C but actually achieved a D in year 10 (early sitting)
She has made good progress in Maths and is targetted a C but is currently working at C/D borderline level.
She struggles in Science. Her hardwork may bring her a C and a D in double science but, currently, I think it is more likely to be D,D.

Obviously support your child and aim for the best for her and ensure she has the help she needs at school. It's not all about help at school - it also depends on her ability as well and if she does anything out of school (they have a huge amount of time not in school). However, if she were my child, I don't think C's are realistic unless she hits solid level 5's in year 9 and has the capacity to continue to improve well right through to year 11. We ensured, for our daughter, that the strengths she shows are supported to the hilt, so she has that to fuel self esteem and maybe a future career.

I have been looking into the arrangements for SEN support services in Essex. These do differ from LA to LA.

Some LAs provide all SEN support services centrally. The schools therefore don't receive any money for this but draw on the central support as required.

Most LAs provide little or nothing in the way of central SEN support services. Instead they expect schools to pay for such services out of their general budget. The funding per pupil for maintained schools in these LAs does not depend on the number of SEN pupils. A school with a high proportion of SEN children would therefore potentially be at a disadvantage, although they would receive additional funding for any children that need tailored services.

The last government encouraged LAs to move to the latter model, i.e. providing little or nothing in the way of central SEN support services. Essex is one of the LAs that works in this way. Your school is therefore ALREADY in the position that its budget is directly affected by the needs of pupils on SA and SA+, and it has been in this situation for several years. The more money they spend on these pupils the less they have to spend on other things.

You say that an academy has no obligation to spend any of the LACSEG money on SA and SA+ pupils. That isn't strictly true. The LA will monitor the academy to ensure that it is making adequate provision. More importantly, the school has been in that position for a number of years. It just gets a lump of money from the LA. No part of that money is designated for SEN support services (ignoring children needing tailored services). They are under no obligation to spend any of it on SEN support services provided the LA is happy that they are making adequate provision.

If your school converts to Academy status it will have slightly more to spend on SA and SA+ pupils - around £53 each. This figure is so low because that is all Essex provide in the way of central support services for SEN children. So, discounting this small amount of additional funding, your school will be in exactly the same position for funding SEN support services after conversion as it has been for the last few years.

If you have any questions to ask about SEN provision feel free to ask them here. I am familiar with exactly how SEN funding works in academies and who is responsible for what. Unfortunately some schools undergoing conversion don't understand how SEN provision will work and muddy the waters by giving incorrect answers. But don't let me stop you from asking them!

As we were told at DC's school - " a consultation isn't a rolling ballot ,you can't just vote for what you want "
Indeed not .
94 % of stakeholders said that they didn't want Academy status .
We got Academy status ,and a completely different ,very changed school from the one we sent our children to .
Not better in any way ,worse in many .
IME consultations are just expensive ,legally required ,tick box exercises .

DCs school has also become an academy. I have seen little difference. It still has its specialist unit for SEN. As far as I can remember the schools have to work in partnership with at least one other school.
Also I would think from what you have said that Essex is struggling to recruit head teachers, and would move to a more federated model anyway (you don't have to be an academy to become a federation). I have seen this work well in one case locally, but it does depend on the heads involved. As far as I see it each school still needs their own headteacher, but they have an executive head for the federation.

I dont think you need to panic about the Academy status. Our school has just converted and the only difference it makes is that we get more money - ie the £400k the LA used to cream off every year for the benefit of their virtually non-existent 'services' comes directly to us.

if they are converting now, it will be a 'second phase' conversion, meaning that it is NOT because it is a failing school, as many/most of the first phase were.

they are very unlikely to make any sweeping changes to anything to do with the day to day running of the school.

being in partnership with other local schools is a real benefit; dont want to out myself, but we are in a partnership with some others and it allows all the schools involved access to different areas of expertise, students can have more flexible options esp at A level, and down the line we can reduce costs on certain things through increased buying power.

I would just keep on top of the situation with your school and your DD, and it sounds as if you are doing that.

The LA is responsible for ensuring adequate SEN provision at the school. They are responsible for determining what constitutes an adequate level of provision. If you are unhappy with decisions made by the LA you may be able to appeal to SENDIST.

I would not pretend there hasn't been a change in the treatment of SEN children at your school. From the information you have posted it is clear that things have changed. My only question is why. As the school wants to convert to academy status I would expect them to want to keep parents of SEN children onside to avoid damaging publicity. That is why I suspect the change may be independent of the conversion plans. But I may be wrong and I would encourage you to investigate. Don't give up until you get some answers. If necessary complain to the LA.

I don't know where you get your information that LACSEG is calculated using the pupil figures from January 2009 but that is wrong.

LACSEG is the additional money the school receives for the services no longer provided by the LA and only forms a small part of the academy's funding. The LACSEG portion of the funding for the financial year that started in September 2011 (for academies - maintained schools started their financial year in April) was calculated using the LA's accounts for 2010/11. This gives the amount of additional funding per pupil the academy will receive.

The actual amount of money received by an academy for the financial year that begins in September 2011 will depend on the number of children on the roll on a date in January 2011. It will therefore receive funding for the additional 180 pupils you mention.

Funding for SEN children is frequently misunderstood or misrepresented. Most SEN funding remains with the LA which continues to be responsible for ed psych, assessments, statementing and so on. The only item the school has to fund is SEN support services, i.e. the services provided to students such as your child. The amount it receives under this heading depends on the number of pupils on School Action or School Action Plus. Again, that is the number in the January before the start of the financial year.

Some pupils with SEN require expensive tailored provision. That remains the responsibility of the LA. The LA continue to receive the money from central government for this. If an academy has such children it will receive a grant from the LA for each child and the LA will stipulate the services to be provided to that child.

Every school that is performing well when it converts to academy status is required to support a school that is struggling. However, I would share your concern about the plans regarding head teachers if that proves to be true. Whether or not that approach would work depends on the strength of the management team they put in place under the head teachers.

I understand your concern about the changes that have taken place in the last few weeks. They may be related to the conversion to academy status but they may be completely unrelated. I would suspect the latter as changes are more likely after conversion than before (after all, they want to minimise objections) but I may be wrong. I think you need to get to the bottom of that and, if necessary, complain to the LA. If the reason for the changes is independent of the move to convert to academy status your daughter would continue to suffer even if you stopped the conversion from going ahead.