Aibu to think educationally academies and trusts are pointless?

[MrsHookey]

What on earth is the point. As a parent I can see no benefit. Aibu?

No benefit in reality, in spite of all the spin. It just enables headteachers to be arseholes if they are that way inclined, to children, teachers and parents alike and removes the schools from local authority control. They can set what admission criteria they please, leaving local children without a school place, long standing staff frozen out when they reach the top of the payscale and cost more, parents forced to buy expensive uniform items, kids subject to ridiculous rules like no talking and constantly smiling...

But they are bribed to be become academies because that's what the government wants.

I wonder why the government wants this.

Thanks @Pemba

@MrsHookey

I wonder why the government wants this.

The multi-academy trust programme is, in essence, backdoor privatisation. There are a number of things that this allows:

• private enterprise gain access to schools,
• private individuals higher up in trusts can funnel public money through to their own / connected companies easier,
• Governments can reduce the funding to Local Authorities,
• if all schools join multi-academy trusts, the Government could claim that all teachers are privately employed and scrap some of the public structures like teacher pensions,
• it gets people used to privatisation little by little which is something that could be built on further in the future.

It is absolutely not about improving outcomes because local authorities have been found, in recent years, to be more effective at turning round failing schools efficiently than multi-academy trusts have been.

Really interesting @Iamnotthe1 and disgusting :-(

Iamnotthe1 sums it up well.

Not all academies are equal. Some genuinely do well, others... don't.

They've created a lot of instability in education turning it into a battle of constant survival for SLT and all staff, because a bad OFSTED results in a takeover and change of management.

It's also harder for schools to take a risk on a more individual ethos. Not that a post-Gove curriculum and funding helps with that either.

Even as a parent and newbie to England I can see the Gove curriculum is rubbish. It became obvious during the lockdown.

@BogRollBOGOF

Iamnotthe1 sums it up well.

Not all academies are equal. Some genuinely do well, others... don't.

They've created a lot of instability in education turning it into a battle of constant survival for SLT and all staff, because a bad OFSTED results in a takeover and change of management.

It's also harder for schools to take a risk on a more individual ethos. Not that a post-Gove curriculum and funding helps with that either.

Pretty shocking that if there is a bad Ofsted review, the heads roll. Ofsted don't seem a very constructive or useful organisation either.

The whole thig was/is a manufactured scam to syphon public money into private ownership.

Not all academies have sponsors/private enterprise linked with them.