To ask why so many people are against schools turning into academies?

[rainydaysarebad]

Realised DD is starting school in September and I have NO IDEA about the schooling system or how a school is run.

Why are people against academies? Aren't they like private schools? (Realises this may be a stupid question).

What about grammar schools that have turned into academies? Are they still good schools?

One more question not related to thread title: Can a child from another county apply to a grammar school by sitting their 11 plus exam? Do grammar schools take children from other local counties?

Our local primary is one form entry and depended on the Local Authority for help and advice all the time, personnel, training, appeals advice, auditing, the list goes on and on.
Now so many schools have become academies the LA has shrunk dramatically and can no longer offer so much support. I'm convinced that one of the main reasons for academies is to diminish the LA's.

My head stood in front of the school a couple of years ago and said they had no desire or plans to become an academy, which was a relief to the teachers who didn't want to go that route.

A year later we were an academy. We had no choice. There was a massive cut to our budget (around a hundred thousand) by the Tories and despite the head not wanting it, the teachers not wanting it and probably the parents too, we had to take the financial incentive to convert quickly or completely sink. As it was we had to lay off teachers and increase class sizes and teaching loads as well as convert. Our budget will be reduced further in coming years.

The Tories want to sideline and eventually close down the LAs. If becoming an academy was such a great option, they wouldn't need to force schools into it as they have.

Trainee teachers bring in income! I knew one not that big secondary which always had lots of trainees just a couple of years ago, and it was for the money.
Also DCs school is a training school, which is a nice additional income strand. It also provides money for nice training facilities, and brings in new and foreign teachers to this expensive area (to live).

My old school was closed, the kids had to relocate (including my two brothers) and then they turned it into an academy. Totally and utterly unfair. Especially because I had to fight and go to a tribunal to get my brother into the other school in the area because it was overcrowded apparently.

God, this is depressing.

I believe that getting rid of LAs is one of Gove's main objectives in pushing academy status.

My school is currently being threatened with academy status (I say 'threatened' because that's how the majority of the staff feel about it).

My main problem with academies is that if they go bust (and some do), guess who has to clear up the mess? The Local Authority.

Another problem: staff already at the school are, to some degree, protected, i.e. entitled to the same terms and conditions as they were pre-academy (for two years after the change to academy status). New members of staff have to take whatever conditions and pay are offered, which could lead to resentment and unofficial hierarchies, among other problems. Also, existing members of staff who take on a new role and sign contracts to reflect their new responsibilities or amended working hours lose all of their protection; the new contract is an academy one.

Academies often also mean fewer TAs and bigger classes, not to mention disgruntled, overworked teachers (who'd have thought teachers could get more disgruntled and overworked? ) - and that's never a good thing for students.

The Tories want to sideline and eventually close down the LAs. If becoming an academy was such a great option, they wouldn't need to force schools into it as they have.

This. Absolutely.

Academies are privatisation of schools by the back door.

Look at the rail system, the water and energy companies and then think if privatisation is a good idea.

DS1's school is going to become an academy. It got grade 4's in every area last OFSTED and is in special measures. The most recent check revealed little improvement. A change to academy status under a new head is last chance hotel for the place. I don't really want to move DS1 because we wanted him to be at the local school for various reasons but will have to reconsider if things are still as grim by say Christmas.

What happens if ALL the Secondaries in a town (and most from the next town over, 30 miles away TOO) have become part of an 'Academy Consortium', and you have a DC with SEN?

Would the LEA be toothless to ensure there was a Secondary AT ALL that would be willing to admit your DC, if all the schools in the consortium refused? The only schools that WON'T be part of the Academy Consortium will be the Catholic school and the Grammar schools (and both Grammars are already Academies anyway).

I am wondering in practice HOW you would get your DC that has SEN a school place at all, if all the schools were Academies, and NONE would accept your DC with SEN?

And also, what would it mean for a PRIMARY that's converting at the same time, with a HT who already has delusions of grandeur, and has been proven to lie (officially) and falsify records such as RIDDOR when reporting serious incidents involving injury to students?

They are ALREADY taking DC (illegally) of SA+, and not even 'dropping' them to SA, taking away ALL their help, EVEN when the DC is stated in their end of year report as 'working below the expected level for their year group' in EVERY area. And this started as soon as they started the patently bollocks 'consultation process'.

(And I know all this for a fact, as my DS2 is the DC in question, still under ENT & OT, Still under a developmental paed, LEGALLY should still be on SA+ as he has outside involvement from other agencies, and yet has been shunted from SA+ and TA time to nothing, no IEP, no TA help (other than sharing his BF's TA occasionally, who is MEANT to be providing 1-2-1 for DS2's BF who has a statement...And I got his report on Friday stating the 'Working below the expected level for their year group' line for every subject.)

From September, is the Primary, as an Academy, able to ignore SA+ and SA criteria and provide NO support, and if they do BUT aren't allowed to, who in the name of FUCK do I complain to? They were barely upholding the help DS2 needed when I had a running complaint with the LEA's legal team, they sure as fuck won't do it if I have no recourse to complain to anyone...

Oh - and I have NO option of changing schools either - DS2 is in a 'bulge' year in our town - the next school with a space in his year group is a mere 30 miles away, and I don't drive due to a disability...

The Tories want to sideline and eventually close down the LAs. If becoming an academy was such a great option, they wouldn't need to force schools into it as they have.

Why do they want to close la's? To save money?

If the cons (that's exactly what they are!) are voted out, what will the next government do? Could they stop this in its tracks or would they allow it to carry on, if say, labour came back into power?

Couthymow - I am so angry for you. I am genuinely shocked by the attitudes towards children with SEN at some of these academies. I just hope the NHS isn't privatised like this; that will be the end of everything.

I imagine one of the reasons the Tories want to close LAs is that it creates a market for various companies to tender for services previously provided by the LA and make a fat profit from education. Remember Gove has said that he is happy for schools to become profit-making businesses too.

Labour started the academies programme (although theirs was limited to failing schools) so I'm not sure they'd be able to stop it without much fallout. And once schools are academies I don't think there's any way of converting back.

I may be talking bollocks, but aren't SA and SA+ disappearing soon anyway? HT and SENCO were talking about how this would affect us.

My problem with academies is the SEN and statement admissions things. My job used to be to arrange placements for statemented children and academies could just refuse to admit the child and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

For "normal" state schools, mainstream or special, the LA can force the school to admit the child. I'm not saying that's great practice - I only did it once. Generally if a school doesn't want the child then you can force them all you want but the placement will generally break down later. Schools have a way of making pupils feel unwanted once in if they are that way inclined.

BUT I think it's wrong that the LA doesn't have the power. No state school should be able to turn children away on the basis of special needs IMO.

But I don't work in SEN anymore. And I know lots of things are changing, so I don't know how things work these days.

Its bloody depressing. I have a 5yo with SEN and I am so worried about where he will go when he reaches 11 (and stays in MS).

Doing away with SA and SA+? What does this mean for a DC like my DS2? (or even DD, whose school are adamant she should have a statement, but even THEY can't get her one, though currently they are treating her as IF she has one, she is in Y9, DS2 is in Y3).

My LA has been proven in court, repeatedly, to be using an illegal 'blanket policy' of refusing to even ASSESS for a statement unless the DC is BOTH more than 4 years behind their chronoligical age AND has behavioural problems...

I have as much hope of getting either of my DC's statemented as I do of going back in time and steering the Titanic round the iceberg.

Yet they still need support, in DD's case quite intencive support (2 hrs a week 1-2-1, in Y10 & Y11, plus floating TA in every class, plus work in small groups 3x30 mins a week).

What the actual FUCK do I do if they stop SA/SA+?

I can't afford to pay for any extra help outside of school, so how do I get them help if schools no longer have SA/SA+?

And if the DC is 3-4 years behind, yet is getting NO support, where does that leave the DC? Except falling further and further behind?

chronological. I can't preview at the moment as MN keeps going offline...

My local authority has told all the county's primary schools to become acadamies. If more follow we might not get a choice as to whether or not our children attend them!