The ideological vandalism of the English education system

[daphnedill]

anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/michael-gove-ideological-vandalism.html

What does the future hold for state schools?

Just to add, if any LAs are illegally charging schools for Ed Psych services I am not surprised academies are not using those services. They do not receive any funding for Ed Psych services because the LA is required by law to provide this free of charge.

I think we need to back up the GCSE/Ebacc figures per type of school with other data on FSM, SEN etc. but I agree that we will end up with a fragmented and socially segregated school system.

Sponsorship by certain academy chains and the 'academy' tag can be a liability for a school, offering far less autonomy or flexibility than under the LA. It begins to resemble a secondary modern rather than a comprehensive that will never attract a more balanced intake. Yet this has been forced on comprehensive schools against the community's wishes (apart from recently in Barking). That is a millstone to improvement when you could have the amazing area-wide progress seen in LAs like Tower Hamlets.

I agree with you, straggle, about the curriculum in some of the chain academy schools. I was looking at the curriculum which the ARK schools have to offer. Out of thirty timetabled lessons per week, five are for maths and five for English. "Vocational" courses feature very strongly in KS4 options. This might very well be appropriate for students currently not achieving "floor targets", but it's not a comprehensive offering.

phr - GCSEs without equivalents are shown in the Main Tables, Table 5a. Taking the figure inc. E&M that includes iGCSEs and applied GCSEs, but not BTECs, the difference is quite revealing. BTECs may be entirely appropriate for some pupils, but not necessarily for higher attainers and/or those intending to go on to A-level.

Converter academies: 62.7% (67.9)
Independent schools: 54.1% (54.4)
LA maintained: 52.0% (58.8)
Sponsored academies: 36.3% (50.7)