Would you send your DC to an academy?

[CamillaRose]

As the title says. Our two nearest schools are academies. I don’t know anything about it really but from the media I’ve got the idea that academies are poorer schools? I’m considering sending DC to a non-academy school further away. This school is rated Good, as were both academies before they converted.

Making the assumption you are in England- Overall, 79% of England secondaries are academies, and the pressure is back on from the DofE to convert, so most people don't have much of a choice.

So being an academy,per se, is not automatically a bad thing, and can be a good thing in terms of access to support and resources. So you need to look specifically at each school and it's situation, and of course your own likelihood to actually get a place there.

Up to you but my kids school changed into an academy AFTER I sent them so sometimes there is no choice

Depends on the school and maybe the academy trust. They vary widely.

I teach in an academy which is part of a diocesan trust: we are basically just a church school grouped with other church schools. Would you know we are an academy? Not really. We do have a strong faith ethos but no outward links to the other schools. Economies of scale mean that we all use private systems for things like educational psychologists, which cuts down waiting times.

DS attends an academy which is part of a high performing trust. It has a reputation for pulling schools around and driving up results. You can argue with the strict policies and demand for compliance if you want, but you won’t win. You know that when you apply and actually the pupils are generally happy, results are good and opportunities wide. It’s not ridiculously strict, but if you don’t like it, other schools (with 35% lower 5-9 exam results) are available locally. The trust is high profile and links between schools are clear.

I’d forget the academy bit. What is the school like? Do you agree with the ethos? Will it suit your children? If you send them further away will it impact on friendships, travelling, access to after school clubs etc?

Most schools convert to academy status for financial reasons. Like all schools some are good and some are bad. I wouldn’t include this even remotely as a consideration when choosing. Look at the school itself as most schools are academies now.

My DC's secondary school is an academy. It outperforms both national and local authority statistically, their progress 8 is above average especially for low ability children. Their discipline is great meaning far less children pissing around in class, pastoral care is also great. They keep the same head of year all the way through for continuity. DS1 started there in 2014 and it was already an academy.

I genuinely feel the school does everything it can to help children pass their GCSEs to the highest level they can. In History class which is mixed ability they push the grade 6s as well as the grade 3s.

Look at their prior attainment make up, how many low, middle and high ability children are coming in to the school and how well they perform. Don't just see academy and think negative things. The school was turned around when it became an academy.

Don't think you'll get much choice soon as I don't think they'll be any LA schools left in a few years

Yes it's not really a choice, they're just schools. I don't like the idea of teachers not having to be qualified, so keep an eye on that.

The three closest primary schools to me are academies, they are all ofsted outstanding, as are the two closest secondary schools.

Being an academy has little impact on the childrens quality of education, pastoral care etc.

DD2's junior school is part of a large CoE of trust and they abuse their academy status to move science off the curriculum in favour of RE.

DD1's secondary is an academy in a different trust and it's outstanding in every way.

It just depends on the trust

@holidaynearlyover

Don't think you'll get much choice soon as I don't think they'll be any LA schools left in a few years

I agree with this. All our local secondaries are academies, and my school is one of only 2 LA primary schools left in the area.

I think originally academies were the struggling schools but now virtually all schools either have gone or will be going down that route.

Our little LA school is going down that route now.

I don’t agree with taking schools out of LA control however it is what it is- you need to find out about the ethos of the academy that’s running it
Round here the best performing schools are academies

I wouldn’t make the choice based on the funding status of the school, but on atmosphere, approach, Progress 8, what languages are on offer, triple / double science, arts provision, school trips, any specific needs or interests of my child etc etc.

I would look at the learning and discipline policies and personally would avoid the ‘zero tolerance’ boot camps that use those acronyms about sitting up straight, and make them walk everywhere in silence with their hand behind their backs.

Lol
I think you’re going to be severely limiting yourself if you discount all schools with academy status! 😂
Do you know what it actually means?
Have you looked at the dreaded league tables and identified how many of the top 50 are academies or not? Perhaps you should do that.

There are something like 25 primary schools in our council area. I think only 4 of them AREN’T academies. Automatically discounting all academies will drastically limit your choice.

DC started reception this year, and when I was looking at schools 8 of the top 10 were academies (stands to reason when there’s so many of them!). If I recall correctly the top 6 were all academies, the highest rated non-academy was 7th. It’s not necessarily an indication of performance. Certainly not here.

As pp have said, there are two types of academies really- those who were forced because of poor performance and LEA either didn't have the finances or didn't want to support them and those who chose to go because they were unhappy with LEA support and wanted a different financial service. The school where I teach (primary) was outstanding when it decided to jump. To be honest, so many schools have gone down the academy route that most LEAs have no choice but to only provide the bare bones legally proscribed services now- they have so little money. It's a shit system that has given all sorts of unknown people control of our education system. I would be more focused on looking at who runs the local academies and what the future looks like for and LEA schools still left in the system.

As pp have said, there are fantastic academies and there are terrible ones. Do your research and make no assumptions.

Personally, I would be more likely to have concerns about a multi academy trust than a single one, but again, you can't generalise.

@Frazzled2207

I think originally academies were the struggling schools but now virtually all schools either have gone or will be going down that route.

Our little LA school is going down that route now.

I don’t agree with taking schools out of LA control however it is what it is- you need to find out about the ethos of the academy that’s running it
Round here the best performing schools are academies

Originally when Labour brought them in Academies were the outstanding schools, which were seen to need less oversight , support etc.

Academy chains are business enterprises. It doesn't sit well with me to commercialise children's education. Having worked for academy chains and local authority schools I found some of the practices of academies to be morally suspect, they are the masters of spin, dodgy exam results will be tweaked to reflect the school more positively. Children with SEN and extra support needs will be chewed up and spat out at the expense of the school's public imagine.

I've found local authority schools to be much more rooted in the local community. Much more likely to support children when they most need it and go the extra mile for them.

Round by us they are pretty much all Academies, a lot of them came together to make their own academy trust.

My DC’s old school didn’t want to convert. Along came Ofsted and suddenly they required improvement. Inspections came and went over best part of 18 months, never good enough. The school started talks with another school that had academy status and suddenly as if by magic they improved enough that Ofsted put them back to good.

The staff were brilliant but the stress took its toll and by the end were clearly exhausted and demoralised and it rubbed off on the students though they did try hard for it not to and my DC emerged with 4 GCSEs which obviously wasn’t ideal.

The academies near us are really good.

As others say, not much choice where I live. There is only one secondary in my city that is still LA run and not an academy. Doesn't mean they are bad schools. Nor good ones, sadly. Judge each school on its merits.

There's no choice round here, they are all academies now. As far as I can tell, they are much the same mix of good, bad and indifferent schools as they were before.

Academy chains are business enterprises

No they are not. They are charities. A business cannot be the proprietor of an academy.

There is a local authority neighbouring em where I would actively choose to AVOID the LA schools and pick out academies to go for- I don't think that's typical but this LA is particularly dire on all fronts and I wouldn't want to work in it or have a child at the mercy of it either.

So it's the standard advice- go and look round, do you like the vibe, are the staff happy (retention is a big help), yes look at results and to a lesser extent Ofsted, don't be sold on a very good Ofsted rating if it's quite old as those schools/academies sometimes have been resting on their laurels and will have a shock when they do get inspected (not all).

from the media I’ve got the idea that academies are poorer schools

No, academies are not poorer schools. The fact that a school is an academy doesn't guarantee anything about its performance. There are good academies and bad academies. Don't reject a school just because it is an academy.