Gove's proposals for academy schools: parents and community will have no say at all!

[policywonk]

In the proposed Academies Act, which will be one of the first pieces of legislation the coalition government brings forward, the rules will be changed so that governors alone will be able to decide whether or not to turn their school into an academy. Parents and the wider community are explicitly excluded from the decision-making process.

Academy schools could be run by profit-making businesses and religious groups as well as by groups of parents. The sponsors are given the school land and buildings, and can decide which subjects are taught, and how. And once a school has become an academy, there's no clear way back into local authority control.

38 Degrees has set up an online action in which you can email your MP to ask him/her to oppose this move and sign an Early Day Motion against it.

Litchick - that's a very good point.

I do wonder though that if there's a fairly sudden increase in demand for services from private suppliers, that there will be providers available to offer them. I guess schools will still buy in support from LEAs until the market catches up. Or perhaps there'll be something of a goldrush, with new firms coming in and trying it out.

The thing with private schools is that most of them have been operating as businesses (I know they have charitable status but essentially, they are commercial enterprises) for a long time. They've been able to acquire the commercial and procurement expertise. Although it isn't rocket science, I think to do it well does require expertise.

Caveat: I may be talking out of my arse - I don't have any experience of running a school.

TheBoy... only just got your name. V good

Oh and re. your point about LEA funding - have read that one concern about mass academicisation (thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week) is that the LEA's procurement advantage will be reduced (as it would be buying for considerably fewer schools), meaning that costs for schools remaining within the state system would effectively rise.

Why thank you, PW

I think that whilst this policy could well be bad for schools, it is absolutely a disaster for LEAs...

In terms of consistency of service and validity of data it makes monitoring and tracking and measuring against performance impossible. Already the burden on our LA statistics team has increased because effectively they have to do the same work, from what is now a myriad of sources (allowing that they co-operate that is!) But with reduced capacity due to budget reductions. Ours is already stetched to its limit...

jackstarbright - thanks for link on school funding .
I can't quite reconcile this following bit
"Changes to the system over recent years have gradually reduced the discretion local authorities have in distributing these funds. This is the result of increased ?ring-fencing? (whereby local authorities are forced to spend grants on specific purposes) and increased use of direct payments and grants that must be passed on to schools in full.
?Other changes have also reduced the discretion local authorities have over school funding in their area, "
with the comment then made about only about 40% of the funding intended for pupils on FSM reaching its target .
I guess that bit not ring fenced and discretionary .I wonder why ?

Violetqueen. I struggled with that too! I think it might be difficult for the government to force money down to the individual pupil level. Which I guess has implications for the LibDem pupil premium idea.

However, looking at what happens to the FSM extra money in more detail -I have some idea as to why local authorites might spread the money. The LAs who do it to the greatest extent are in the most deprived areas and may be doing it to make up for other funding problems. As the report suggests - education funding is rather opaque.

The average per pupil funding is now £6k pa according to some other figures I came across.

boy -

Our town is in the same situation as your city.

The LA wants to merge two schools (we have 800 surplus places and another 800 going to people from another LA) so that it's not providing too many school places and also to enable a boys school to go mixed (something that people seem to want).

A girls school that is mostly full of people from outside the LA is going to go for Academy status. This will probably scupper the LEAs plans and these much needed changes will never happen.

Our LA will still have 800 empty places and all these extra children from elsewhere.

Builde - are we in the same town? Is the girls school OF? It's mentioned in the link I posted upthread. Apparently CH (the boys school) are thinking about applying for academy status too.

I think we are in the same town - my cover my be blown!

S'OK - I won't tell

I've been following the whole thing on the Chronic website. OH's head seems a bit power crazy. Heads like her running their own fifedom outside of anyone's control really do worry me.

Yes, she doesn't sound appealing...

Does anyone from our town actually go to the school?

Which side of town are you?

(We're south side, so it's not that important to us as a family but it will really scupper poor CH)

East side (that sounds far cooler than it actually is, doesn't it!). I don't think it will have a huge impact on us - although more co-ed, non-denominational places would be good news.

I have friends who live very near to OF who really, really don't want to have to send their dds there. I don't think I know anyone with dds at OF - a fair few at all the other schools though.

Just learnt that Academies are excempt from the FoI Act so no transparency once they've converted.

The government said last week that it intends to extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act, including making academies, exam boards and UCAS subject to the Act. Of course, the last government promised a similar extension but never got around to doing anything about it. I hope this government delivers.

Ah sorry, missed yours Eleison - thanks. Interesting. Sounds to me like a smokescreen though?

Smokescreen? Willetts or DH's?
Clearly they just want to put tuition fees up full stop, yes. Whether that would 'incentivise' good teaching , I don't know. I suppose it would depend the detail of how it was set up.

What happens at the moment is that the whole 'students as consumers' thing drives students (or their parents), not unreasonably I suppose, to put pressure on the system, not to teach them better, but to give them the grades they want. Many more complaints about marking than formerly, not so much pressure about quality of teaching (though that might be bcs is good dept); much much academic goodwill lost by the whole bureaucracy of measurement that goes along with marketisation.

The old ideology was very very strongly that a quality university education was secured by having the researchers as the teachers. All at the cutting edge of knowledge together. But that makes less sense in a system of mass university education when you are struggling to teach students basic stuff that in former times they would have picked up at A Level. Perhaos that is too jaundiced a view. Penth or Wilf obv wd know much more.

Hi eleison (kyrie?)
hm Im in academia and dont like the tuition fees idea. Doubt it will change teaching, I think the universities will just pocket it (and hire more bureaucrats). Im at a good research university, lecturers dont get a good deal - increasingly on short term contracts, as are all the researchers. They make the university what it is, give it its international reputation, and yet are treated worse than the support staff.

Having lecturers involved in research is good because it means what they are more up to date - the research and techniques change quite a lot within 10 years, let alone over a working lifetime. Its particularly important for students in their final years where they study at the 'cutting edge' of their subject, for research projects, and for recruiting new slaves 'postgraduate students'.

Can someone please remind the gov that students dont get paid to study and so are also sacrificing earning a salary? Im a bit worried that it means we will end up with only the rich being able to afford to study (i.e. not the best students).

Eleison - yes,that all makes utter sense. What a fucking depressing truth though.

I cannot imagine a parent complaining to a redbrick about the quality of the teaching. Jesus how utterly awful, for us all, that that is possible/appropriate. Which it is, if you're paying for a service.

AAAAAAAAAAAAh.

Thanks.

I think this 'exempt from the FOI act' thing is pretty important, civil libertettes?

Sessypoos, yes re hiring more bureaucrats. This does seem to be a growing thing, fueled by the culture of creating standard (and perhaops spurious) units of measurement of academic adequacy.

And yes re short-term contracts. DH was lucky enough to get to a senior position before the whole quality of university teaching shifted, but it was hard enough for junior academics even then, and now harder I am sure. Quite common for academics to be on short-term contracts well into their thirties, perhaps in a different country from their spouse on a shrt-term, contract elsewhere, etc. And I'm sure that this is differentially severe for woman academics, esp mothers.

Anyway, sorry, thread sidetrack I think. The FOI thing sounds worrying, except for prh47bridge's saying exemption will end?

Someone on another thread earlier was saying that private [sic] schools that become academies can remain selective. Is that really the case? I understood that academies could not be selective...

A school that is not selective cannot become selective on conversion to academy status. Any new schools that are established cannot be selective either. However, existing selective schools converting to academy status can remain selective.

I may have missed something but I don't think there is any mechanism for existing private (i.e. fee paying) schools to become academies. To be honest, I can't see any reason why they would want to. They would be sacrificing their independence and would receive far less per pupil from the government than the fees they currently charge.

prh47bridge - private schools have converted to state schools, even fairly recently. Normally this is due to falling admissions. Whether they will now be able to convert to an Academy - I don't know.

I've checked and there is a mechanism for private schools to become academies. It was set up by the last government. They have to become non-selective in the process - they have to drop their existing fees and entry tests. As far as I can see it is only existing state secondary schools that can remain selective when they become academies.