Guest post: Nicky Morgan - "Why academisation is best for our schools"

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As parents, we all want the best for our children. We want to make sure they have access to the best opportunities and to help them grow up into well-rounded adults. Making sure that our children have a high quality education is a key part of that.

I want to outline exactly what academisation means and why I truly believe this is the best way forward for our schools. Our children only have one shot at receiving the best education and I am committed to ensuring this happens as swiftly as possible.

We need to put our trust into the hands of the people that know best how to run our schools - the teachers - and the academy system does just that. tells you more about what an academy is. It gives schools greater autonomy to make the decisions that are right for their community and pupils. After all, we have the finest generation of teachers ever and being part of an academy helps put the power back in their hands.

The most recent results show that the percentage of pupils achieving the expected level in reading, writing and maths at the end of Key Stage 2 in primary academies has risen by 4%, from 67% in 2014 to 71% in 2015. Additionally, when it comes to secondary, it's a similar story with converter academies which are performing 7.2% above the national average, with 64.3% of pupils achieving five good GCSEs.

However, a dynamic school system where all schools are academies is just one part of a much wider plan to improve our education system which I set out yesterday in our white paper.

It is every parent's right to know their child is in an excellent school no matter where in the country they live. I am confident that this move will guarantee a higher school standard with each academy held to account for the performance of their pupils.

Ultimately, I am committed to making it easier for you as a parent to play an even more active role in your child's education. In essence, I want to put young people and parents first – something that might sound obvious, but the truth is that for too long parents have been an afterthought in our education system. We want you as parents to have a much stronger voice in what happens to your child during their school years, because we know that you want the very best for your child.

So how are we doing that? Firstly, I am well aware that the education system can appear complex to many parents. I am dedicated to changing this once and for all, and putting the control firmly back in your hands. As a result of this, I plan to introduce a new, online Parents Portal from as early as next year. This portal will enable parents' access to key information and allow you to support your child's learning.

Alongside this, we have changed the curriculum and the way that students will be assessed. This will help to raise standards and make sure that your child leaves school with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. It is imperative that every child fulfils their potential, and this includes stretching the most able pupils.

More young people will also study the EBacc - a combination of maths, English, two sciences, a humanity and a language - up to the age of 16. And the exams and qualifications young people are awarded will set a new international gold standard that is respected by employers, helping them to succeed in our increasingly global world.

I am a firm believer that an exceptional education transforms children's futures and everything outlined in this White Paper is committed to ensuring that parents and pupils come first. Our goal must always be to ensure every single child leaves school with the best education and the opportunity to excel in adult life. I believe that together, we can achieve that goal.

I'd like to see a guest post from the opposing side MN, with equal space / voice to set it the case against. Will that be possible?

potatoes It was published first, before NMs thread - from a deputy HT.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/guest_posts/2594235-Guest-post-As-a-deputy-head-these-are-my-fears-about-macadamisation

Petition signed. My 4 yo is due to start school this September - I dread to think what level of education he's going to get. Guess we'll have to do a lot of work at home too.

Michael Wilshaw may have been part of that committee that fed into the new curriculum but he is most definitely not behind academisation: schoolsweek.co.uk/sir-michael-wilshaw-multi-academy-trusts-have-developed-same-weaknesses-as-worst-performing-councils/

That's what we're talking about, not the curriculum (and I take issue with it being 'developed by practicing teachers' but let's return to the matter at hand, rather than getting sidetracked)?

Academisation isn't even a word.

Signed and posted

I speak as an experienced teacher who left when the new curriculum was introduced. I could write reams of measured argument invective here but what good would it do. Nicky didn't write this and won't read the responses. The poor dear looks like a rabbit caught in headlights.

MNHQ if you are going to allow MPs on to spout propaganda, can you at least ensure they come back and answer questions?

Nicky Morgan/and or whatever minions you have reading these,

Please stop twisting facts and figures.
Please stop pushing religion in schools, we need less of it not more.
Please make it compulsory to teach proper sex ed and PHSE in all schools, it is insane that in 2016 kids are leaving school with no know

Petition signed
This is a huge pile of crap. It won't help parents, it won't help children.
Education should be about the children, not set up like a sausage factory.
Ebacc is not right for every child.
Children with SEN will suffer the most under this proposal.

oops

.....no knowledge of basic sex issues.

Please will you and your mates stop the ideology driven dismantling of a welfare state my grandparents fought for?

And finally, I will not allow you to destroy my country without a very hard fight, and all my friends feel the same, so........
If I were you I'd get put quick before the barricades go up.
There are only so many people you can piss off before it backfires you know.

MNHQ if you are going to allow MPs on to spout propaganda, can you at least ensure they come back and answer questions

I do agree that the timing of this post suggests that MNHQ have acceded to the request of Government Press Office. 17:09 on a Friday? Hmm.

Can guest posters on MN be embargo'd until a certain time, like press releases are?

I have signed the petition.

I think the real purpose of academies is to transfer public assets to private companies.that is the real scandal. Think of all those buildings, playing fields etc etc. who owns them now and who will own them once they are academies?

We need to look at the conflicts of interest of the people making these decisions or developing these policies..

My own view is that anyone who stands to gain financially should not be allowed to vote on this and that government and civil service should not be allowed to take up lucrative positions in such organisations after leaving office.

Remember Andrew lansley, architect of NhS privatisation? He has now taken up a nice consultancy with a private health care firm.

(BTW I am long time mumsnet lurker with a troubled teen but too shy to post but so fed up with this malarkey that I have overcome my post phobia....)

Why is she not resigning when it's obvious nearly everyone is against this and the plan is without any significant backing of solid data or facts? And why is resignations enough ? You all should be taken to court for wasting vast amounts of money and resources and time of this nation on incompetent and self serving plans that go nowhere in the end but some get mysteriously wealthy afterwards. It's a scandal.

Michael Wilshaw has stated very clearly that he's against widespread acadamisation (I'm so sorry this appalling word has come into general usage but I'm afraid it's a sign of the times - philistine, profit-driven government turning schools into juvenile detention centres). He would also be appalled by the direction Mossbourne has taken. Children are stood outside facing walls as punishment (I complained & was told it is school policy - oh that's all right then), teachers shouting so close to pupils that their faces are sprayed with saliva (kids told me not to complain as it's 'normal'), year 7s wetting themselves through fear, crying teens told to pull themselves together, detentions for taking a sip of water 'without permission' when coughing, or for waving at a friend before your foot has taken the final step over the threshold of building into playground, black boys more harshly treated than the others (controversial but so many children have told me this). No coats on in school - detention of you fail to take it off BEFORE you cross the threshold (thresholds very important) even if it's pouring with rain. Outside during break, even in the worst weather, nowhere to stay warm. No groups bigger than 5, no talking in a way that suggests you might not want the teacher to hear - teachers linger around the children at break and disperse them if they go quiet when approached: 'If you can't say it in front of me, you shouldn't be saying it at all, move along girls.' No dawdling, no talking between lessons, no touching, no questioning authority (DD yesterday got detention til 6 o'clock because she was overheard by a teacher saying Why? to her friend when they were told not to wait for another friend outside the toilets). Endless phone calls from staff about shoes, wrong placement of PE bags, pending detentions, nonsense that eats into family life and depletes children's self-confidence & autonomy. They have never, ever been on a school trip in the 5 years they've been at the school. No Tate Modern, no theatre, no museum, nothing - it would take valuable time out of the grey, grey school day after all. The only good thing to come out of all this is the kids' fantastic friendships forged to cope with a totalitarian system. DD says lessons get very awkward when reading 1984 - teachers don't know where to look...

MNHQs
I insist that like others are demanding, you get a written response from Nicky Morgan to print here ASAP. She should at least answer these questions in it:

1. Where is the data backing this decision and who analysed it for how long?
2. How much money the government will be saving/putting into it and the time frame for that?
3. will she resign if she fails to produce satisfactory response of 1 and 2?

MNHQs
We are here for a debate and debate we should get from everyone. If she can't respond like an accountable minister and at least an adult who is trying o do her (purported) job, she should at least have the courage to accept that hat she is trying o do is WAAAYYY out of her league and resign consequently.

Mumsnet is too dear to parents to allow such trolls use it as their propaganda space and get away with it.
I will take back the word troll if she gives a response, be it a single line even.
Thanks

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702

We should all respond with our feet by a) going on a massive march and b) refusing to send our children to academies on the grounds that they are academies. Just like you can say you don't want a single sex school or a religious school - the academy system is based on Tory ideology and I don't want my children's education informed by it. Just took my year 7 DS out of Mossbourne and sent him to an LA school, Highbury Grove, and he is HAPPY and excited to go to school. You cannot imagine the change. Poor DD has to stay to finish GCSEs then straight off to non-academy school for 6th form. Oldest DS left mid-6th form, couldn't cope with the hell of it.

I don't understand how they can think anyone wouldn't see through this. The people at the top really do think the general public are too stupid to challenge them, don't they?

I would say that a guest poster who doesn't come back to reply to comments should have their post removed, but this is such a blatant piece of propaganda that I'm pleased it's out there for people to see what absolute lies are being pushed.

Petition signed and hoping the unions are planning action.

Bloody hell marnie.
I agree there seems to be a concerted effort to go back to the days where there was an expectation that you don't question authourity, just blindly obey it.
DSD's school was like this, there's no way I'd send DS to a school which places more importance on appearance than it does on children's wellbeing. At DSD's school, they weren't allowed to wear coats to school, at all they had to be seen at all times in the blazer, even in the fucking snow!

Everytime I read or hear something like your post, I take another step towards HE.

#tellnickyno One thing I can't understand is why are we not looking at schools in Finland and other similar places. The evidence for their academic success is obvious plus the consistently perform better at the child wellbeing and mental health studies.

We seem to be on the opposite path that disregards things as vital as basic child development. We need to acknowledge that children can only achieve if they are happy, healthy and well rested, they need time to play and be children. Without this they will never achieve.

Children are not machines and us as parents know best, but you have taken away my right to decide what is best. I should decide that my child is not well enough for learning and needs time to recover. When my family need time to spend together and relax in order to be ready to learn or if I want to show my children things outside of the classroom you have removed my right to a holiday (unless I can afford high rates)

You say my child should achieve academically but refuse to acknowledge that not all children are or need to be, have you ever asked your plumber if he got 3 As at A-levels? I just hope he's good at his job. We are all able to be successful in different ways, that's what makes society work. Good results only get us the job, they don't always help us to keep it.

Academies are not going to achieve this, it's a whole other load of problems and ignores the issues that matter. Fix the curriculum, start valuing teachers and parents. Put children central in everything you do only then will you get your success.

MNHQ
I see that no one from the MNHQ has responded to my post yet. Are you guys off today? I could not sleep very well last night to be honest. I have been trying to see if me and DH could afford going private for DCs in the next five years. And I have been thinking about home education for the first time now. Supplemented by lots of tuitions. But there is literally no way unless I sell my soul to the devil and even then it would be hard.

I think that my children are about to be pushed into the class where my parents came from. That's very unfair. Since I have joined a few months back, Mumsnet has kept me going through very hard times. It would be lovely to see it becoming the platform where we win for our children.
Please get her to write this.

#tellnickyno One thing I can't understand is why are we not looking at schools in Finland and other similar places. The evidence for their academic success is obvious plus the consistently perform better at the child wellbeing and mental health studies.

Let me help you out with that. Teachers in Finland are respected and left to get on with the job. It is an incredibly sought-after career - there are far more highly qualified people who want to teach than they can actually train.

The government does not want to trust teachers in this country - they micromanage every aspect of their job. They prefer to deny that there is a problem.

Does that help?

Oh and by the way, Ian Duncan Smith has resigned on the pretext of the recent disability cuts that amount actually less than what he has lost over the last four years to the Universal Credit apparently.
Keeping that in mind, I do not expect some decent response from Ms Morgan here. It's just an incompetent bunch of smug politicos trashing our hard earned money and the lives of our children using things that are faaaarrr beyond their capabilities. It's a sick situation frankly.

Good questions Valentine2 and I would like to see MNHQ at least comment on this thread- ideally I would like them to get Nicky Morgan to respond.
I think that Prettybrightfireflies is right about how she go on here and that level3atsixmonths makes a good point- do the people at the top think the general public are stupid? Or is it just like BaddoGooder that we are not supposed to question authority?

Got on here- not go.