Schools that thought academy status would bring in extra cash are now getting a terrible shock

[mrz]

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/04/academy-status-incentive-cuts

Interesting. I was talking with a HT recently and he said additional cash had been significant and made the change a no-brainer.

I think the concern is that once the initial lump sum is gone, then schools are on their own with no LA back up.

A friend of mine teaches at a secondary school in Brent which is about to convert. It was sold to the staff in terms of 'we have budget deficit, we either convert and get a wodge of cash or we'll have to start making redundancies'. The staff are fully aware that this will buy some of them another year employment, then redundancies will happen but given this economic climate, voted to convert.

Most schools that have chosen to convert have done it for the cash, btw, not because they believe it will improve their school.

Ditto where I work. The HT was 'philosophically' against the move, but was left with no choice financially.

I work in a school which was in SM, and was "forced" to become an academy so that we would have a "future" . We did so last January, and were told that there would be a whole re-branding process. Then we were told the re-brand would be minimal (new name, new signs, but nothing else) because there wasn't going to be as much money as we thought there would be. Then we were told the re-brand and the money would come in September. Now we've been told it won't. We are in a ridiculous position - we have a small sixth form, and are having to ditch courses because we can't afford to have a teacher giving 8 lessons per fortnight to a class of 6 or 7. It's incredibly frustrating.

The ridiculous thing is that being in SM has brought about so many positive changes - the weaker teachers either left or were managed out (in a proper manner) and we have been left with a staff, which whilst small, is consistently good or outstanding. But SM leaves a reputation in its wake, and our student numbers are down, hence the cut in money.

Gove has a lot to answer for.

I read the Guardian article after posting. Interesting - I'm in the same county as the school in the article. Hardly any secondaries in the immediate vicinity are not academies now.

Eviltwins, so is your school going to receive no 'transition money' (or whatever the £20K or so schools were given to convert?

To be honest, I'm not sure. It happened in January, and I don't think the initial injection of cash was anywhere near what the HT thought it would be. We're a sponsored academy, so slightly different. I do know my HT is disappointed that things have not turned out as they should in that department.

Do you mind me asking who your sponsor is?

Just wait till the insurance elephant has to be recognised ....

NB £20k is a drop in the ocean for a big secondary with a £5 million budget

Rosebud- don't think I should say tbh. I can PM if you're interested.

That's fair enough - would you mind PMing - I'm very interested in the profile of academy chains. TIA.

My son's temporary science teacher, covering maternity leave, has been absent himself for most of the run-up to the A levels (a failing in itself). My son was then told by a member of the Senior Management Team at the school that there would be no lessons in that subject for the A level students available after the June half-term - those last few important lessons before the A level exam - because there was no money left in the school budget to employ cover staff. The SMT person also admitted that next year there would be no money for home economics teachers, so staff in other subjects (including the head of Physics) would be drafted in to teach that subject. The SMT said it was down to the financing of the school post-academy conversion, and was bitterly disappointed and frustrated by the situation.

When the school announced it was considering academy status (ie. had already decided to move to it), virtually all the staff and parents were against it but were told that financially it was the only way, and that the school would be better off for having "jumped in first". Seems it's not so rosy after all.

This type of situation, unfortunately, is going to be happening more and more....