AIBU that academies provide a better education?

[UndertheCedartree]

My daughter attends an academy and I'm constantly impressed with the education she recieves. To be fair I am comparing to my primary school when I was a kid so perhaps all primary schools are as good nowadays.

The kinds of things that impress me are specialist P.E teachers and the range of sports they cover from gymnastics to rugby to athletics to swimming and all with specialist equipment. Specialist teachers for music and French. All children having the opportunity to learn an instrument. Lots of outdoor time at the school allotment and woodland area. Lots of play structures and equipment at play time. Parents being involved with termly opportunities to go into the classroom, have lunch with your child, each class has a blog so we can see what they've been up to. The pastoral care is good too and extra support in the classroom when needed. There is also a wide range of clubs after school most of which are free and a very reasonable holiday club. Compared to my primary school experience it is incredible.

So I was interested to know if this is due to it being an academy or just that schools in general have improved a lot?

Sounds like your daughter's school has an unusually large amount of funding. Lucky her sounds like she has great opportunities.

It depends on the academy group to be honest, ours locally are good but I totally disagree with “positive discipline” that ours has and a lot around her have.

Its so very easy to end up in isolation these days in academies, especially if you have any educational needs.
you’ve probably just found a good academy!

You've just got a good school. Academies come in good and bad, just like other schools. My DDs' primary converted to Academy status halfway through DD2's time there - it was a good school before, it stayed a good school after. It just had a bit more money for a year or two and then everything went back to normal until they got a new head who went strict uniform crazy.

My kids are at an academy school (primary). It has steadily got worse. They stopped offering swimming lessons at all, but now offer one term in year 6 if the child cant swim the required 25 metres. And that's only because we complained to the school. P.E. provision is poor; there were weeks in year 5 where my daughter did none. In year 6 she gets 45 mins a week. Drop in sessions for parents have been reduced. School trips off site are rare. Sen provision is poor. There are no opportunities for music unless you pay for a lesson with the external piano teacher. Bullying is rife; I know one family who have just removed their children due to racism and the schools poor response to it. The head teacher seems to have the attitude that as they are an academy that they can do what they like. This includes having teachers who were completing their PGCE in post whilst teaching (so unqualified). Many teachers who were respected by parents and were very experienced have left the school to be replaced by newly qualified teachers. There were teething problems with those teachers due to inadequate support from the leadership team. It just goes from bad to worse. So in answer to your questions, no not all academies are good.

Gosh, that sounds terrible, user! I think we're just lucky to have a good local school, then. The leadership team to seem very good and there is a very active 'Parents forum' aswell as PTA. It probably helps that it is a large school (5 form entry) so a lot of funds coming in.

Yes I think you have found an amazing academy for your daughter. User, Perry and Pointy (especially the crosses out bit) experience is far more common.
Many academies treat it as a straightforward business investment. There are many instances of asset stripping, selling off playing fields for housing for instance. And paying the senior staff (principal, governors, trustees) huge salaries at the expense of classroom equipment.
Academies don’t even have to employ qualified teachers. Nor do they have to have parents or teachers or local community representatives on the governing body.