to wonder what benefits there are for turning schools into academies

[PosieParker]

as Michael Gove seemingly wants to. A friend of a friend said in his office there's a chart with a list of all schools he wants as academies this year!!!

[Cupboarddoor]

London our LEA is well known for being crap. Zero support available - we have to really fight for SEN stuff for example - and they have tried to screw us several times on admissions. One of the risks of turning Academy is not having the safety net from the LEA but in our opinion that never existed for us anyway.

I do agree that Academies only work with strong leadership in the school. We're lucky that we have an excellent head and group of interested governors and at the end of the day we had to make the decision that was right for our school but I do worry about will happen when the head moves on.

[Veritate]

A lot of schools that have become academies have discovered it's not the pot of gold they think it is because the local authority is no longer picking up the tab for lots of the day to day expenses. In the areas where there are a lot of academies, local authorities no longer have any infrastructure to support schools. The frightening thing is that a number of those academies and free schools are already failing, and when their sponsors pull out or they go bankrupt, there won't be any local authority schools available for the children who are left in the lurch by this. Gove is laying the foundations of a very expensive disaster.

[marquesas]

Posie - when you say the academies won't be equal who exactly is saying this, the HT, the staff, the pupils?

As I understand it if a school chooses (rather than being forced) to be an academy they are doing it because they see benefits. Is your experience that schools are choosing something that they don't agree with?

[thebody]

I am interested as a TA and our HT was talking about us going acadamy status.

Without exception all of our teachers aren't sure how this will affect us all, neg or pos, any ideas?

[PosieParker]

All the academics I know seem to hate the idea of academies as they say it will not be equal, or rather it will be even less equal.

[valiumredhead]

I can imagine that is true thebigj seeing as people nest in academies

Invest I mean!!

[londonone]

Impositions not iositions

[londonone]

Cupboard door- what were the issues or iositions from your LA that you wanted to get away from?

[marquesas]

I think this is an interesting thread too, thebody, my DCs school has recently converted and I don't remember any real consultation with parents but my understanding is that the decision is made by the governors and that true consultation isn't part of the process (happy to be corrected)

So far there haven't been any changes that are obvious to me as a parent other than a (slight) change of name.

I can see advantages to schools being able to have budgetary control if it's properly managed. I'd be interested in hearing the views of teachers.

[thebody]

Good god mutny!!!!!

Think thread interesting.

[Narked]

Earlier this year.

It says Ministers have already outlined proposals to turn 200 of the worst performing primaries into academies over the next two years, including more than 100 by September'

I hope someone has a chart of them in in his office, because that's a hell of a lot of schools to remember without one.

[TalkinPeace2]

Gove hates LEAs even more than Maggie did when she abolished ILEA

Gove has this sweet idea that excellent schools will stay that way without supervision

Gove has lots of secondees in his department paid for by private Academy chains who want to get their greasy paws onto multiple ready built £5 million a year businesses

Gove is a dangerous fuckwit with no plan B for when an Academy (ESPECIALLY a sponsored one) topples over.

[Cupboarddoor]

I'm a governor and our Primary converted this year and I think the school has seen some real benefits

• We no longer are tied to the LEA (who are utterly useless idiots)
  
• We have more control over the curriculum
  
• We have more control of the budget and are able to spend the money in the way that suits the school
  

With more control comes more responsibility and so there is an additional overhead in managing the budget / curriculum etc so overall from a money perspective I think it's a marginal decision but release from the LA was a real win for us as a school.

I can understand worries about maintaining ts & cs but from our schools perspective it makes absolutely no sense to move away from the National agreements in this area because we need to attract the good teachers and so need to offer at least as much as other (non academy) schools.

[PosieParker]

mutny. I believe it to be there, I have no reason to doubt my source. I am beginning to think that I've met you on a previous thread and must have pissed you off for you to be so insistent on something so inconsequential.

[valiumredhead]

Perfectly reasonable OP imo!

[LadySybilPussPolham]

Equally bizarre to be nitpicking to this degree mutny.
Op is asking a reasonable question about the benefits of academy status.

There's a previously failing high school in our town which was genuinely saved from closure by taking academy status - the head was brought in from another outstanding academy. I think the quality of management staff and general school ethos is key.

[whathasthecatdonenow]

Gove has sent the list of schools he wants to become academies to the Local Authorities. Ours was published in the local paper.

Those who are saying that their children are in decent academies who are treating staff well need to think about what happens as leadership changes - will this always be the case? If academies become the only choice, I'm out of teaching, fast.

[mutny]

Two things: One the absence or inclusion of a chart in his office is neither here nor there, I think his intentions are well known.

So there is no chart, so was sensationalism to try and start a debate?
If his intentions are well known, you clearly know more about this than you are claiming.

If its neither here nor there why was it in your OP? to give it a bit of credibility?

Bizarre, this thread.

[PosieParker]

It's so frightening.

[valiumredhead]

I think the difference will be noticeable in 5 - 10 years time tbh ( thank God ds will be out of education by then )

[BackforGood]

As far as I can see, it means they are no longer contributing their 'share' to all the facilities that the LA have previously provided, so they will not be able to survive, so there will be no support for schools when they do need it.

Bit like some of us choosing to opt out of paying tax, because currently we don't need the education system or health service or things like the probation service or the courts that we think we have nothing to do with, but, if they weren't there, I think we'd all notice a difference.

[PosieParker]

Two things: One the absence or inclusion of a chart in his office is neither here nor there, I think his intentions are well known.

[KenLeeeeeee]

My sons go to an Academy, fortunately it's a very good one and seems to be thriving even more than when it was a standard primary. I've heard some awful things about other academies though and I am very aware that we appear to be in a lucky minority with how well ours is run.

[mutny]

Fair enough. I fail to see how questioning 'facts' is bothersome.
Personally I would expect my 'facts' to questioned. But there you go.

[PosieParker]

mutny. I'm not really sure why you're being like this so I am going to ignore you as you're bothering me.