Does anyone teach at or have dcs go to a school with Academy status?

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itchyandscratchy are you in worcestershire?

Yeah but don't forget how much planning they have done . After all it has a logo AND a new uniform

Nothing like the controversy there's going to be if they sign it off this week to go ahead in September ...?!

Look up the controversy around the Furness/Barrow academy. It was in yesterdays Education Guardian. Shambles!!!

Twinset what is wrong with teachers' performance affecting their pay or indeed ability to keep or retain their jobs.

All the research shows it is thw quality of the teaching that matters, not new buildings, not class size notICT.

LOL there all called Academies here, must mean something different elsewhere.

They do have History and Geography, but only restricted - ie in a single option block, so you can't do both, and you can't do either of them with, say, German! But GCSE Humanities is in lots of blocks.

(It's a stupid options system. I would go nuts as a parent. My son is only yr7, but if he chose options today he would choose History, German and Geography in that order. At my school currently he could only do one of those three!)

We already have no History or Geog GCSEs, only Travel and Tourism BTEC etc.

Roisin are they not teaching History and Geog as well? DD's school offer Humanties GCSE but only to students who have taken the options in both Geog and History at GCSE they can do it as an extra GCSE how they intend to teach it I'm not too sure.

Next year our spanking new Academy is going to be teaching "GCSE Humanities". Sixth Form College haven't yet decided whether they will accept this dumbed down course as prereq. for A level History or Geography!

Geography seems to be a bit of a dying subject. A shame.

And you're right of couse: colleges and unis really aren't interested in that course in Motor Mechanics 'worth' four GCSEs!

The thing is when it comes to choosing options many students and parents think a high number of GCSEs is a good thing. These days some students end up with 15!

But actually in terms of Russel Group Unis someone with good grades in, say:
Maths
English Lit
English Lang
Triple Science
History
French

looks far more promising than someone with fistfuls of GCSEs garnered from the diploma tree, or COPE courses, or NCS, or BTEC performing Arts.

The new Media Studies course at our place is going to be worth 2 GCSEs!

How can schools persuade students to follow courses like Geography and German when they know they are much harder work, and 'worth less' at the end of it.

Cory - that sounds dreadful.

Twinset - yes, absolutely: for the right pupils BTECs etc are a real boon but there has to be an element of choice rather than all pupils shoe-horned into taking them because the pass rate may be higher than more traditionally academic subjects.

The other thing worth mentioning (that the press, unions etc on the whole have ignored) is that not all schools that may become academies are failing schools.

interesting what you say about Academy transition, roisin. I wish I could hope that that is all it is in our school, and that they will come out the other end once their teething problems are over

but I have my doubts about this particular management

I went to the introductory meeting and it was fascinating how they just assumed that all parents would be really negative towards education and would need lots and lots of reassurance that the school would understand their fears and not overwhelm the children with academic expectations

there was no sign of recognition of the fact that some parents who might actually want their children to work hard and do well at school, and that some children might even (heaven forbid) have ambitions

the reality is that we are not a wealthy community, but we are a fairly stable one, where most parents probably do expect their children to work hard and behave well

local people were very proud of the council run language college we had there was no need to change it in order to get better figures: youngsters were leaving with all A's and getting in at prestigious universities. Can't see that happening under the current regime.

In case anyone wonders why it happened if there was no problem with the extisting school, the (Tory) council wanted to merge two schools so they could sell the land, they no longer wanted the responsibility of running the school and (it is alleged) they were swayed by a councillor with strong affiliations to the religious group in question.

No you are right Janeite the are not a product of academies. But the problem is that because the government is investing so much both in terms of money and reputation in academies they want results fast whicb can mean BTECHS etc. Of course there is nothing wrong with those courses of the correct students are doing them

I have felt the same thing about unions and academies. When we had or meeting to say our school was being merged and an academy was likely the union reps were very scathing about academies but beyond a vague statment about contracts being changed they could not say why.

Roisin I can well imagine, we were a failing school that was merging and it was the final straw in my leaving.

itchy are you in Kent?

there is one local-ish to us which is reopening as an academy in 2010 i think.

Depending on the circumstances generally transition to an Academy is pretty grim all round and I would avoid it like the plague if you possibly can.

I work in a secondary school (not a failing school) and we are closing this summer along with two others to become an Academy. As is common the new buildings will not be available for several years, so the 'Academy' will function in the old buildings of two of the schools for a few years.

If I told you some of the details of what is going on 'behind the scenes' it would make your hair crawl. I wouldn't touch a school in Academy transition with a barge pole if it were my children.

BTECs, NVQs etc are not a product of academies though, they are a product of a system which focuses on league tables to the ignorance of anything else. However, now that schools are judged on the percentage of pupils getting five A-Cs including English and Maths, the schools that shot up the league tables due to vocational qualifications are likely to shoot down again now.

Academies seem to be one of the few things that the unions agree on but when we've had the unions in our school they spout a lot of hot air but haven't been able to give us much actual concrete evidence as to why academies seem to be so hated by the unions. They also don't consider individual school circumstances at all, so their rhetoric isn't really relevant/meaningful to many teachers or specific school situations.

If one school is becoming an academy (rather than several schools merging) my understanding is that teachers transfer to the academy intheir existing roles and can choose to remain on their existing contract. I don't think they should have to re-apply for their jobs, as it should all move across via TUPE (is that what it's called?).

V sad re: the little girl who has been so badly put off school.

lots of teachers do that anyway tbh.

it was a CTC before it became an academy, so no real difference! We are obliged to offer 2 after hours sessions a week, plus 2 hours of staff training on weds. Results are good, therefore pressure on staff is high, to maintain the standards. The main change from CTC to academy has been the catchment area, which is now far more local than it was (not a good thing!). I don't like it, but that's an internal political issue for me, not an academy thing. It wouldn't put me off working for another one.

Do you enjoy working there ducky? Is it working in your opinion?

In what way do they demand more from staff> I have no problems with more being asked of me if it works.

It is hard to get unbiased reports as the unions are against them

I teach in an Academy which is very high achieving. I also work with 2 other local academies, with trainee teachers, and the 3 of them are very different. Academy status per se doesn't mean things will go well nor does it mean that they will go badly, though I have experience of both. It is down to the sponsors, their relationship with the management team etc. Unions will be dead against it because Academies are not bound by school teachers pay and conditions therefore can demand more of their staff (I know mine does!). Theoretically it is a good thing, but in practice it may be anything but...