They are NOT going to make ALL schools ACADEMY now

[RTKangaMummy]

Education dept just announced

[BlueEyeshadow]

This one Valentine?

[Valentine2]

I can't find the other thread where so many posters put up a united front to chase her away from mumsnet effectively. Can someone pls share the link

[What1984]

And this, today, in the Sunday Times:

Academy threat to failing schools
Sian Griffiths, Education Editor



May 8 2016, 1:01am, The Sunday Times

"As many as 1,000 primary schools are expected to be turned into academies after failing to ensure that sufficient 11-year-olds pass the new tougher national tests in maths and English."

(The rest is behind the Sunday Times paywall.)

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/academy-threat-to-fa-i-l-ing-sch-o-ols-9p07gg6zt

[What1984]

But Schools Week I fear, have a pretty good idea of what it means also

schoolsweek.co.uk/morgan-u-turn-new-plan-puts-schools-in-labour-areas-at-most-risk-of-forced-academisation/

[What1984]

Have a look at this blog post.

Well written, and links the battle of Hastings to current government policy!

disidealist.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/when-is-a-u-turn-not-a-u-turn/

[AuntieStella]

I'm cynically wondering if they've rapidly hit a problem with VA schools, because I've never been remotely certain that the Government can force them to change status.

Some have volunteered to become academies, but I thought they could not be compelled as no layer of government owns them.

[starry0ne]

Shame they didn't ask people, teachers heads in particular before decisions are made in the first place..

[sassytheFIRST]

This is good news though I'm dubious about timing and loopholes.

But also - kangamummy! Long time no see! And I can't believe that ting boy of yours is at uni now...

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

Ffs.

Our primary school was in a federation. We've now decided to join a MAT but the other schools in our federation couldn't join so they got left to fend for themselves. Our lovely headmaster left because he apparently didn't agree with the decision. Then it got announced that it would be compulsory so we didn't have any choice. Now they say they've changed their minds?

[noblegiraffe]

Sam Freedman (former advisor to Gove) is saying on Twitter that allowing conversion of whole LAs at a time is a cost-saving measure which will allow targeted wholesale conversions where there is a shortage of quality sponsors.

[Kennington]

Academies don't require teachers to have teaching qualifications so it is a money saving plan
I really hope academies aren't forced on us all

[TheDailyWail]

Nicky Morgan said today that "it was the right thing to do".

Just the tip of the iceberg of right things to do IMO.

[neolara]

In our local authority, less than 50% of secondary schools are good or better and results are much worse than the national average. Every secondary school is an academy. However, primaries are doing well and most are still maintained by the LA. I have a nasty feeling the government is going to say as we are a failing LA we're all going to have to convert.

[BungoWomble]

Yaaaaayyy!

I also worry that they'll find a stealth way of trying to force it. Who trusts government nowadays. But a great victory for common sense, and congratulations and thanks to all the teachers who stood up against it. And the Tory backbenchers. Perhaps there's still some hope left for this country after all.

[clopper]

I really hope this turns out to be good news but I have a feeling they will engineer inspections etc. To make this happen regardless. I wish heads would stand up to this constant change more although I suspect it was Tory councils which forced the climb down.

[rollonthesummer]

I was pleased until I read the small print. This is just another way of getting rid of LEAs and pushing in forced academisation in by the back door. My crystal ball predicts that in the extremely near future, lots of LEAs that were previously good, are now inspected and all of a sudden found to be failing

[RTKangaMummy]

kateemo yes that was just demonstrated on the news

"Sorry we don't have much time to talk about this, as it is a very busy day, hope you understand"

[pointythings]

I like a good U-turn.

But I don't trust them not to come at this from a different direction by labeling a local authority as 'underperforming' by finagling the criteria.

[GoblinLittleOwl]

Delighted to hear this, although they need to examine the whole Academy ideology before forcing one more school to convert.
They also need to take a long hard look at small rural schools and ignore the sentiment surrounding them; they cannot provide a full education with small rolls, limited staff and poor accommodation.
What is more important is the reason why these schools are so small: second homes and holiday lets occupy 65% of homes in pretty rural villages round here, and create ghost villages for most of the year. This is what needs addressing.

[BlueEyeshadow]

Finola / Claudia - But the DfE just tweeted this: "Where a LA is underperforming or unviable, legislation will be introduced to convert all schools within that LA to become an academy."

That is different to now, because at the moment they only force individual schools (which can now be RI and not just Inadequate, and a whole can of worms that is!), rather than every school, incl. the good and outstanding ones, in an LA (not a LA, tsk!).

So they're still just as keen on forced academies as ever, and will find plenty of ways to make LAs "unviable" (is that even a word?), or deem them "underperforming".

[BackforGood]

Lets just hope Jeremy Hunt takes a tip out of her book too, and tries listening to what every other person in the country thinks.

[noblegiraffe]

This is presumably because the head teachers conference voted that they were prepared to take industrial action over this.

[kateemo]

Also Kanga the news today that the "weekend effect" is not a real thing and that Jeremy Hunt was wrong to repeat this as the reason for imposing junior doctors' contracts over and over again, even misleading parliament. That too gets buried in election day results.

VERY happy about this and all the other U-turns. Now if this government would just admit that they haven't a clue what they're doing, actually take the time to fact-find, gather consensus, and implement policies in every department sensibly rather than throw around ideological daggers. . .

[CluelessClaudia]

That's no different to now really Finola. Schools only need support (in theory) if they're graded Requires Improvement or Inadequate and these schools are already forced into becoming acadamies. The criteria are slightly different I think - inadequate = forced, but RI given time to improve. I would read today's announcement as back to where we are now.

[Finola1step]

Ah but read the small print. Schools will still be forced to become academies if the local authority can not adequately support them. I wonder if there will be transparency over criteria for this judgement.