Should I be delighted or horrified or indifferent that the LEA wants to close the local sink school and turn it into an academy?

[LittleBella]

I've heard 2 things about them:

1. They're built in crap areas (like mine) and provide an opportunity for working class children to be properly educated.

2. The criteria for getting in are so opaque that only the well-informed middle classes can get their children in and they're even more selective than grammars.

So, what's the real deal? Currently in this area, it's the 11+ and DS either gets into a grammar or we move (seriously, the local sink school is one of the worst in the whole country, not just the county). Will the appearance of an academy be relevant to him or not?

It is also a mistake to assume that an academy is replacing a failing school we do not get very high GCSE reults but that is because of our intake, our CVA is very high. We just have no money and poor buildings.

Our local comprehensive has changed into a science academy - they are trumpeting how good they are this year, 40% of the pupils got 5 grade A-C gcse's and think its wonderful because they aren't as crap as they were predicted to be . They are doing the whole pushing kids into BTEC so they can count it as more than one GCSE thing as well. The new school buildings are supposed to be done by 2010, so the poor kids have got to go through 3 more winters of rain pouring through the windows and down the stairs, having to evacuate classrooms above 2nd floor in high winds and filthy inadequate toilets, god knows where the academy money has gone because it certainly hasn't been spent on the school.
Lisa X

I think some people do want to fund a school for genuine reasons. Is ARK not an example of this who have 7 academies. If I had lots of money and could afford it I would fund a school.

I can remember reading something last year abouthow many academy sponsors not handing over al their pledged money, will have been guardian, TES or Independant.

Of course some just want a peerage.

are you talking about two things here though? there are the city acadamy schools (targetted at most deprived areas) and then there are the schools with specialisms (individual school applies for this) which get called a science college or a sports college or whatever. they just get extra funding for their specialism and stay under whatever type of control they were previously.

One of the badly failing Southwark schools became an Academy....and is now worse than ever.
Hallgerda - so does that mean that fees will suddenly be abolished for studnts already in the school??? Or will it just be for new intakes from that year?

I went to a GDST school that was Direct Grant, too.

is who talking about 2 things?

Blu, I think the fees just disappear when the school changes over to being an academy. Clearly the change is economically-driven as olala suggested - I gather from local newspaper reports online that the school was in merger talks with the boys' school up the road shortly beforehand. The boys' school is now considering admitting girls, so quite possibly a number of existing pupils may defect before the school's composition changes. The GDST as a whole clearly is not leaving the private sector - I gather they've acquired a few new schools in leafier areas. I was in the first post-direct-grant year btw - the Head was always going on about how our lot personified the change for the worse...