Forced academisation

[Academisationnightmare]

I’ve name changed as this situation is very recognisable to anyone connected to the school.

Back in January the school was inspected after 15 years of being ‘outstanding’. It failed spectacularly but only on safeguarding, although leadership issues were also picked out in the report. All other areas were rated good or outstanding. All issues relating to safeguarding were promptly fixed and some personnel changes have resulted in a more settled school.

the school is a CofE foundation school and so is overseen by the local diocese. The rating of ‘inadequate’ triggered the academisation process and the diocese are insistent on having to go into a CofE MAT. Some reading suggests that church schools do not have to be in a church MAT and I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge in this area.

This has become more urgent as another parent has uncovered an agenda for a forthcoming meeting on the DfE website - it looks very much as though an MAT has been chosen and the process started without any consultation of information to the parents.

The parent population have been quite vocal about wanting to apply to overturn the academisation order, which seems possible for schools who fail solely on safeguarding, and who retain ‘good’ status in a timely fashion.

Any experience or insight into anything listed would be gratefully received.

Why are you so against going into a MAT? Just on principle? It sounds like the school needs help with its leadership and management, so it is worth keeping an open mind. There are many excellent MATs.

I’m not against academisation per se. I’m against being forced to join a particular MAT without consultation or input.

Do you mean that many of the parents want it to stop being a CofE school and become non-denominational as part of the avademisation process? That would presumably be the outcome if it didn't join a CofE MAT.

Is it currently a Voluntary Controlled (VC) school or a Voluntary Aided (VA) Church of England school? The latter may have more flexibility about which MAT they join because the Local Authority will have a greater say in the matter and may be more inclined to listen to local parents.

This is what I’m trying to get to the bottom of. It appears that a CofE school could in theory join a mixed MAT locally which might be better for the community than joining a church MAT based miles away. As it stands, the ofsted grade 4 have given much power to the diocese to do this behind closed doors.

The MAT chosen is run by a diocese with an absolutely appalling history of child sex abuse. And there has been no consultation on the process.

I don’t think anyone is saying that the school should stop being a CofE school but I would like the process to be more open and transparent.

You didn't answer the question about whether its Voluntary Aided or Voluntary Controlled..If you're not sure, find the school on this Government website and look for the School Type: www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Search?SelectedTab=Establishments

in our diocese church schools must join/form a church MAT. Community schools can join a church MAT too, but church schools may not opt out.

What did the agenda say? If it's that they will consider joining the MAT, that would be correct. They decide to start the process, then it goes to consultation. Once the consultation has been completed, and other info gathering done, they will decide if they want to go ahead with joining the MAT

Oh, sorry, I re-read your original post and you said it is a Foundation School (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_school). That is relatively unusual. It means the school's Trust has a lot of power, and is likely to have appointed at least a third, possibly all, of the school governors. They make the decision.

Is the diocese that controls the MAT the same diocese that controls the school at the moment or a different diocese?

There's some info here on who should be consulted: schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-conversion-who-do-you-have-to-consult/

If you are wanting to campaign for a non faith MAT you could contact Humanists UK to see if they could advise you: humanists.uk/contact-us/.

There's ongoing legal challenges against this, supported by the headteacher's union.

Did you sign the petition against the schools bill?

All schools become academies if that goes through.... And gone are all church/ catholic schools...

Neither of those statements about the Schools Bill is true. It does not contain any provisions that would force schools to become academies. It does, however, contain provisions to ensure that faith schools continue to be faith schools. There are reasons to oppose some aspects of the bill but these are not among them.

On the OP, it is highly unlikely that legal action by the parents would overturn the academy order. If the governors are in favour of conversion and happy with the MAT, it is unlikely that parents will be able to stop it

I am not aware of any ongoing challenges. Link? I am, however, aware of a successful challenge earlier this year when a Catholic diocese sought to convert all its schools to academies. The challenge succeeded because the schools were not failing, and hence could not be forced to convert, and the governors of the schools concerned had not formally voted to convert.

I don’t know the answer to your question but this process is being discussed a lot over the last few years as it has happened to a number of schools who have chosen not to voluntarily move towards academisation.

We had a move by the government to force academisation which was then backtracked due to a backlash from the public and education sector (this is important to remember). Since then a number of previously outstanding schools have been labelled as failing and forced to join a MAT. I’ve been a governor in 2 schools who have seen the writing on the wall and chosen to become an academy rather than being forced to join a MAT which they have no control over at some point in the future.

My son’s old secondary school was fantastic, years of outstanding inspections then one which was inadequate on pretty spurious grounds and as a parent, none of the stuff which was listed was evident to me (as if they were writing about a different school).

It joined a MAT, was taken over by people who act and dress like they’re on the apprentice. The quality of teaching, support, behaviour of pupils, relationships with families all deteriorated hugely but the PR machine is in full swing and they spend a fortune on events to share all over social media whilst the kids are suffering.

Not all MATs are terrible but the process by which this is being done to education by stealth is morally questionable.

Why are you so against going into a MAT? Just on principle? It sounds like the school needs help with its leadership and management, so it is worth keeping an open mind. There are many excellent MATs.

It really doesn't. MATs are funded from the money which would otherwise go to the school. They add layers of bureaucracy. The decision makers are distanced from the school and often lack practical classroom experience.

Some MATs are good but (on average) the data suggests that academies, especially forced ones, have not been a raging success.

this process is being discussed a lot over the last few years as it has happened to a number of schools who have chosen not to voluntarily move towards academisation.

But the OP's school won't fall into the category of "forced" conversion if the school's governors are on board with the idea. The parents can't challenge it on their own. They can make their voices heard, but the school governors don't need to do what the vocal parents want if they think joining the proposed MAT is in the best interests of the school.

C of E Schools don't have to join Church MAT's, but they do have to join MAT's that have Church articles. That's to say, there has to be a guarantee within the articles of the trust that the Christian distinctiveness of the school won't be diluted. So the school could join a mixed MAT, if it was willing to include Church articles.
The DBE will have the final say though.

MATs are funded from the money which would otherwise go to the school. They add layers of bureaucracy. The decision makers are distanced from the school and often lack practical classroom experience.

Not in my experience (as a local governor of a MAT-run school). Our trust is run by former senior school leaders. As well as providing invaluable efucational expertise across the trust, they employ experts in HR, legal, finance, etc, that individual schools wouldn't be able to afford on their own. It's an efficient model, similar to how the best LEA's used to run, but without the local monopoly and, importantly, with the ability for schools to switch trusts if the MAT performance nosedives in future. The schools do still buy in some services from their local authorities too, (or from neighbouring lical authorities if they happen to be better).

Unless it is different now or different with faith schools I don’t believe the governors have a choice once OFSTED has made its judgement.

So if we weren’t being forced down this path now because of a botched ofsted (by the school not ofsted), I would say the preferred outcome would be to take time to consider academisation including local MAT which is tipped to form from the local secondary plus feeder schools. They already have a trust (that we are members of), it’s just not a MAT yet. Being forced to join into another diocese 50 miles away will cut ties with local schools to the detriment of the pupil population (but will keep the church happy).

there is a loophole to overturn an academisation order at DfE level when the school failed only on safeguarding and improves quickly (which would apply here).

The foundation nature of the school means that fighting is likely futile, but I think there is a large cohort of parents who would at least like to try. I strongly suspect most of the teachers are against academisation, but can’t come out and publicly say that.

It feels like the governors are not interested in the school community. Only the church.

It isn't a loophole but regardless, if the governors are in favour of conversion the parents will not be able to stop it.