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.

Does anyone have any inkling as to how many 'outstanding' schools are likely to go for this option to be in the first tranche of privatised academies? I'm going to be seeing the head of our sec school soon and want to ask her whether she will be interested. It is a bit unnerving to think that schools that ain't broke will be the first to get fixed.

The examples of private to state schools I have heard of were never selective in the first place. One was a catholic school that seems to have decided that when applicants from catholic fee paying families dropped, they would rather have catholic state pupils than widen out to non catholic fee paying pupils.

I Found this Telegraph article about the general trend.

Apparently what gove is after is to get rid of teachers national pay scales bytheback door. Saw his wife Sarah vine didn't write her column this week. Do hope they aren't taking holiday in term time smirk.

In our local area half our education money is creamed off to go to deprived inner cities so to have it all would be nice. BUT to have to run a business including doing teachers pensions is way too hard for a team of govs.

Apparently what gove is after is to get rid of teachers national pay scales bytheback door. Saw his wife Sarah vine didn't write her column this week. Do hope they aren't taking holiday in term time smirk.

In our local area half our education money is creamed off to go to deprived inner cities so to have it all would be nice. BUT to have to run a business including doing teachers pensions is way too hard for a team of govs.

The fear is also that if schools don't go in this first wave the economy of scale they enjoy in buying in county services would go.

Btw I am told there is NO way a school can go academically selective if it's not already

....don't get how parent govs aren't rep ofboarents though. Maybe huge uptake in applics for gov now ?!

Sessy, I agree that the universities will grab any student fees ... salaries are now running very far behind other demanding professional jobs which require long hours and a certain level of 24-hour commitment.

Here's a case study for everyone of an academic's budget for living, top of Lecturer payscale, permanent post.

MPhil and PhD legacy student debt £20,000 (four years' funded study, but full research council studentship doesn't include childcare costs).

Earnings:
£30000 p.a. after tax
less £22000 p.a. childcare
less £3500 p.a. commuting petrol costs
less £500 p.a. paid to university to park at work

Take home £4000 (£76.92)
50 hours a week work minimum.
£1.53 an hour.

This also represents what accountants call a 'marginal' tax rate of 91%.

Oh yes, and I forgot that we're now required to:

Self-fund most of the conferences we are obliged to attend (£400-£600 p.a.)

Self-fund supplementary childcare so we can promote the university at open days and admissions events at the weekend (£200 a year)

Have I forgotten anything?

Anyone fancy setting up a chain of no frills academies with me in former WW2 aircraft hangars, and doing a RyanAir with the nation's children??? Unqualified teachers, no SEN support, no libraries, computer-centred drill replacing learning, etc.

For that is where the Academies/Free School policy is leading us.

Thinking through the private selective turning into academy model. Assuming the private school was situated in an affluent area (and most are) that would mean the school will become selective on wealth. If it were allowed to remain academically selective - it would at least give some poor but bright kids an opportunity. Strange the way 'fairness' works.

All schools are selective on wealth.
We should stop fussing about this and instead work at reducing polarisation in society so that people earned broadly similar salaries,not penalising the middle classes who are doing exactly what everyone should be doing, i.e. helping their children get on in life and be financially independent and socially functional.

The problem lies deeper. At the moment most national wealth is corralled by a small percentage of people at the top who bleat on about how many jobs they have directly or indirectly created, as some sort of justification for hanging onto all the loot.

The fact of the matter is that permitting them to do this has increased poverty and associated educational disadvantage, at the same time causing this country to slip down the infant mortality league table (another indicator of the overall state of development of a country). So for all their bleating, the fact of the matter is that it hasn't worked as a means to ensure the greatest good.

We should take responsibility for sorting out this polarisation problem for the greater good. Then you'll see educational standards improving, as more families have access to additional time and resources to invest in their children's wellbeing.

Well it is refreshing for someone to not blame the middle classes for decreasing social mobility by annexing the best of our schools. I have never been convinced that 'spreading middle class children evenly across all schools' is the answer. For one thing it's not achievable.

Whether you can blame the wealth creators is not clear to me. You could argue that the tax revenue from the banking sector enabled the last government's heavy spend on education. We now spend an average £6k pa per child in state schools - not exactly shabby.

Also, how do you propose to redistribute the wealth? Income tax above 50% has historically resulted in less tax revenue. And, who decides what too much wealth is? To a twenty year old office cleaner - a lecturer's salary is probably a fortune.

What are the sanctions or. Procedures in place should one of these academies not be performing well academically? Is it just that people won't send there children there? Because they will... in my area there is such a crush on school places people are forced to send their children to anywhere they can get in.

The best way to start redistributing wealth is comparatively simple. Get everyone to pay the taxes they owe, and reduce the ability of the very wealthy (top 1% or so) to avoid paying tax via the use of crafty accountancy tactics and so on, that are inaccessible to those further down the money hierarchy.

Leona Helmsley, the US millionaire, was famous for saying "Only the little people pay taxes". We are reasonably good at collecting taxes here but there is still more scope for discouraging the Leonas and encouraging a more positive form of citizenship in the form of contributing according to your means.

We should avoid salary envy of those near us in status - the difference between the mimimum wage and the average wage is only 10K, the difference between the average wage and the average professional wage is probably only about £20k, but the difference between the average professional wage and those in the top 1% or so is probably £100k or more. This is what breeds misery IMO, not smaller differentials further down the scale.

My children go to a private school and the Governors are a law unto thmeselves. They do not consult with parents at all and they basically appoint each other through a system where new Governors are 'invited' to apply.

I am quite unhappy about this proposed law even though it does not affect me. There needs to be very strong safeguards which create proper elections for governors.

Giving power to local people is one thing but the power that Governors are given must be ultimately controlled by parents.

What is being proposed here just allows governors to remove LEA oversight from themselves but not replace it with anything.

govt's Building Schools for the Future review is 'likely to focus on removing Labour's preconditions for new school buildings, which emphasised that schools in poorer, academically struggling areas received funding ahead of thriving schools, even if their buildings were less decrepit' (Graun today).

So that means more BSF money for the 'thriving' schools that will opt out to academy status & private control.

Plus: No such thing as a free lunch when govt wants free schools

Please remember that non-selective schools can select in a variety of different ways if they so desire. EG school near us which has partly opted out of LA control does the following things.

1. Different holidays to other schools therefore more effort for parents to organise with regards to their other children at primary schools etc. which means those who put less effort into the education of thier children are less likely to send thier children there (also any who are bound by school hols eg. teachers)
2. Expensive school uniform that is only available from the school shop and is very specific eg. football socks with school crest etc. Different uniform for different year groups within the school which includes blazer, tie etc. The school also has an 'if you don't like/ cant afford the uniform, don't come' policy.
3. Unhelpful attitude towards SEN children and those with behavioural difficulties which, while not exactly saying 'don't come' puts people off a bit.
4. A generally unflexible attitude.

This is my catchment area comprehensive school. It is a very successful school, it is huge and secures massive funding through private enterprise. It is full and has appeals every year. It makes me feel uncomfortable that basically, rich kids and kids who have parents who are bothered get a better education than their counterparts who are not so well off.

Understand problem with Catholic schools relates to owner ship. Many like for instance my dss' school are owned by religious order not diocese. Cant think they would be happy by GB deciding to transfer property permanently. Policy seems ill thought through. Also how do you consult during school holidays?

Interesting how different people look at the same thing in different ways. Having different holidays would be seen as an advantage by many as it allows them to book holidays at cheaper times.

There are some specific provisions within the Admissions Code relating to school uniform. They are "should" rather than "must" which means they are not compulsory, but they are supposed to keep the cost of uniforms down so that they don't put parents on low incomes off applying for places for their children. They should make sure the uniform is widely available and they should not act as a sole supplier to raise additional funds, although they can buy in bulk and pass on savings to parents. They should also have arrangements in place to help families who cannot afford the cost of uniform (including sports kit).

There are very specific duties on all schools with regards to SEN pupils.

If the report by littlebrownmouse is accurate regarding uniform and SEN children, parents should complain to the governors.

For the new academies, there will be extra funding for every pupil they take on from a disadvantaged background. That should help to address the problems.

I'm a primary school parent gov. Interested in the idea of opting out of the LEA. Although they do provide some support, they also order us around and treat us as if we work for them and should be very very grateful for any scraps they chuck in our direction. Same attitude generally to parents across the county. Tory LEA, btw. Our building is falling apart (1950s) but we can't have funds to replace failing curtain walling because 'it's not our turn' or 'no funds are available'. Fine, so we'll just wait for a 6yo to be hurt by a wall falling on their head, then, shall we?

So for my school, access to the BSF programme would be great. Except that the LEA has stolen most of our site in order to put up shiny new buildings for the secondary school next door...

Btw, we do a newsletter every term and show up at school events. There's an email address and a letter box for people to contact us.