Academy schools - your opinions

[Itstheprinciple]

Just heard my Dd's school is becoming an academy following a poor Ofsted result. I have my opinions of academies from a staff perspective as my husband had a brief stint working for one and had colleagues who lasted longer than him but I don't have perspective from parents and pupils so if your child goes to an academy can you let me know how you/they find it please?

DH now works in a private school, I've sent him off to enquire if there are spaces in DD's year group but I don't know if I'm overreacting and given Jeremy Corbyn's opinion, they're not guaranteed either!

Wouldn't academy schools be much the same as any other 'type' of school, in that one can differ wildly from another, in terms of how they treat staff, staff satisfaction and retention, how they deal with disciplinary issues, uniform issues, what the overall experience is like for the child?

All I can comment on is the Academy school that my children are at, and our personal experience.

The staff faculty that we've met have seemed engaged, enthusiastic and positive, and told us that they enjoy working at the school and there is good staff retention. (They seemed surprised to be asked. I think this is a fairly good indicator of the 'culture' of a school.)

On paper they are very rigid about uniform, in reality they don't seem any stricter than the school I used to go to in NZ, in fact less so. Some of the belts masquerading as skirts have to be seen to be believed.

There have been issues with drugs, and weapons in the school. The school has taken them seriously, and has taken steps to get on top of it. There have been reports of bullying from within the community. My daughters have not suffered any incidents of bullying, and have got good solid friend groups, with nice kids.

There is plenty of homework given, but not so much that my kids haven't been able to stay on top of it, and there is plenty of feedback to parents, which is helpful.

So much also comes down to the personality and attitudes of the students and the parents too, as to how positive a school experience is.

(Oh, the school also has good physical facilities - lots of grounds, and a fitness suite and indoor pool).

They are likely to start by getting rid of all the existing staff one by one, starting with the oldest.

They will also throw in shedloads of money at the beginning but it won't last.

Well it depends, not all academies are born equal.

My children are at an academy school but on a day to day basis little has changed. I am not so sure about the large academy chains, I feel more uncomfortable with them.

I'd be more worried by the 'poor Ofsted' than the governance model.

Some academy chains are better than others.

All of the schools in my area are academies so I can’t avoid it. I live in a very small town so two primary schools and one secondary school, all academies. None have poor OFSTED ratings and they’re all voluntary academies.

The only thing that is different to the former state school my DC went to is the weird mixed classes. My eldest is in year 5/6 this year so he’s nine but some people in his class are eleven. I find the concept odd.

Voluntary academies are different - they tend to be higher performing schools.

I'm not concerned about the poor Ofsted. DD is thriving there, getting good results, positive feedback, minor issues have been dealt with quickly and effectively, she's getting stuck in to the varied extra curricular activities on offer.

I appreciate they can vary, which is why I posted. I have a limited experience of them, and I have to say *CaptainMyCaptain's experience is the one most similar to my DH's experience and why I was worried. I had visions of a new, less experienced (cheaper) staff slowly being brought in and a high staff turnover so its good to know that doesnt necessarily have to be the case.

I would avoid an academy school if I could. Our school was academised too following a bad ofsted. Money just goes into CEO's pocket and not where it's needed most. They go on about benefitting from all the schools in the academy being able to pool and share resources, but this translates as sacking staff, spreading them thinly and moving them around, so a school is always left short somewhere.
That's my experience. Plus when you want to complain - there's nothing you can really do as the CEO doesn't really care nor have real hands on experience of the school at ground level. You can't get out of an academy once you're in one either.
I can't speak for all academies of course but that's enough to tell me they don't work. A school is not a profit making business and should not be run as such.

It's a how long is a piece of string question
Dd3 and ds attend a academy
Outstanding Ofsted and genuinely deserved engaged and interested teachers with students enjoying their schooling
Dd2 attended another academy near by for a while we removed her as the school was appallingly bad. Nothing to done them being academies all to do with the leaders. They can be good and bad academies or not.

If a bad Ofsted personally I would welcome a academy taking over.

I'm sure some are excellent ,the two near me however are both terrible, they look great and big shiny new buildings and facilities and yet they still get requires improvement at OFSTED and they seem to.under perform at GCSE one of them can't seem to retain staff which says it all really .

My DC school was converted to an academy when OFSTED place it in special measures.

I can only give my opinion, as someone else has said, my DC academy rapidly got rid of existing staff and survive on the bare minimum, this means some classes share a TA so 3 staff for 60 plus kids. The CEO is like a salesman swanning around in his expensive suit spouting sales speak. It's really hard to talk to anyone, there have been some awful examples related to safe guarding and just recently have been investigated for cheating in SATS. My remaining child can't leave soon enough. I always feel like things are being hidden from parents I don't trust them in the slightest.

On the other hand my dd goes to a secondary academy and my experience of this one is amazing. It's very approachable and we are always kept informed. The staff are accessible and friendly.

It depends which chain it is being sponsored by (academy order schools can't set up as single academy trusts). Check the financials of the sponsor, have a look at the Ofsteds of existing schools in the trust. Have a look at the historic data on teacher spend if you can, and pupil number (statistical releases by DfE). That will give you an idea of the way the trust operates. The really large successful chains like Harris and Creative tend to be aggressive in negotiation with the DfE when taking on failing schools and seek additional funds to pour into them, this often means restructuring to align with trust models and can result in redundancies for long serving (more expensive) staff.