Has your @outstanding' secondary raced to be an Academy by Sept this year?

[ampere]

Apparently many have!

What do you think about it?

Ours is biding its time and watching that space which I am very pleased about. I do think it odd that there seems to be a need to interfere at all if a school is already judged to be 'outstanding'.

I have an idea why the governmet are doing this: to try and give the name 'academy' a higher status as currently it appears to denote a dire, failing inner city comprehensive that had a complete make over and huge cash injection in order to try and turn it around- with mixed results, I gather!

Ours is because the previous govt reneged on the financial reward that they were due for achieving such high ofsted inspections.

We've been turned down for £120000!!

Ours was a successful school but was taken over 2 years ago and treated as if it were a dire, failing school. The welcoming address to prospective parents (mainly lower middle class/skilled working class who had fought desperately for council control of the school or failing that parental control) was based on the assumption that in this area we are not going to find anyone who actually feels good about education. Funnily enough, results slipped drastically. Nothing like expectations.

DH's have.

He think its a good idea but is a bit wary of how evil the head will be - sacking all the staff and rehiring them on 5 grand less is just the sort of thing they would do

APprently loads were being wooed by Gove before the election so were all in line to apply.

Our local one isnt. NO one can see any benefit and the hassle factor for governors will be HUGE, who will REALLY want to be a governor of one?.. sage payroll, pensions, land ownership - all for what? Most schools have freedom over curriculum etc.

ANd which gmt will REFUSE an outstanding school next year anwyay?

Not aware of any local school doing so yet.

Would they tell parents as soon as they started the process?

Ours is changing HT this year. I'm sure that would have a baring on things.

governors dont have to afaik but is obv a good idea to liaise with parents.

25k to pay for the changeover?..laughable

At 'new intake parents info evening' this week someone asked the Head whether the school would be considering Academy status, and he said they'd watch with interest but could see no good reason to go down that path yet.

Admittedly, it is the highest achieving state secondary in the county so I expect they don't feel the need to make swingeing changes.

Ours is. I'm concerned about the speed at which they are rushing to academy status and the fact that there is abolutely no mention of any disadvantages.

Our 2 failing secondarys went acadaemy last year, handed over to a Swedish profit making firm against the wishes of the parents, if only this legislation had got in sooner. I don't think our local council or LEA are competent to run schools, if anything goes wrong they stand around like wet lemons.

My DCs primary is considering it. Don't know about the secondary, but as it wasn't a foundation last time around, I don't expect it will. The head (same one) was quite committed then to being a community school.

How would you know? Do they have to say?

ds1's secondary had outstanding from Ofsted (twice). They've not said anything yet to parents about Academy intentions.

I suspect they might though, just to avoid having to take on pupils excluded from the (new) local Academy.

I think you're near me Roisin. Wonder where your ds goes? Give us the first initial!

QE school in barnet is applying. Its one of the top secondaries in the country (regularly in the top three) so not sure what more they'll gain from further independence through being an academy.

Am I cornsilkey? ds1 goes to D school.
What age are your children and what schools do they go to?

My child's school (outstanding grammar ) has just announced they will apply but acknowledge they don't know enough to make a final assessment until more info available to them and will withdraw if they feel it will substantially affect the school's status. Governers have written to parents about this intention and invited a response. Does anybody know the best place to find out about what academy status will imply?

A local secondary school, which was recently in special measures (now out I think) is on the list of schools interested in being an Academy. What's that about?

The boys' schools ("outstanding" secondary and primary) have not expressed an interest, apparently.

I've just this minute found out via Parentmail, that Ds's outstanding grammar school is applying to become an academy as it was unanimously voted for by the school governors. I'm not sure what difference this will make as I really don't know anything at all about what academy's do differently or are about. Does anyone know please?

Ours is looking at it. The staff aren't sure but the Head is all for it.

Does anyone know what practical difference it is supposd to mkae?

list here

I am reading the list and wondering if anyone has NOT declared an interest.

The fact that they can't even sort the list into some sort of order (alphabetical or by local authority) does not bode well!