Every school to be an academy?

[CamboricumMinor]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35814215

Apparently this is expected in tomorrow's budget. I'm sure this isn't going to be a good move for school staff but what about the children? I'm not convinced at all.

In the private sector, your staff being on strike does not liberate you from contractual or statutory obligations.

That's not the case for universities and FE colleges who were regularly brought to their knees by striking lecturers and support staff a few years ago. The model is the same - those colleges were funded direct by Government to deliver a service.

I have not heard anything over the last few months that suggests that LAs are going to have their statutory responsibilities regarding safeguarding or attendance removed from the,. The a
"All schools an academy" agenda has been widely discussed within the sector for months, it's old news to many people plans are well underway between forward thinking schools to ensure that the Trusts and collaberations add value.
There is absolutely no reason why groups of local schools cannot form their own MAT - a MAT doesn't have to be fat-cat led charitable trust arms of corporations.

DoctorDonnaNoble your MA course was subsidised by government funding for teaching in universities. Universities used to get a sum for teaching for each full time equivalent undergraduate. That money has now gone. There is no other funding and that is why fees have gone up. University teaching is now funded only from tuition fees.

The OU is subject to exactly the same regime. It now does not get money from the government for teaching undergraduates, and what is more the rules over repayment of loans disadvantage part-time students, particularly as no-one who has previously done a degree is eligible for tuition fee loan (a large proportion of the OU's students are doing a second degree because they want to change career, so they have lost millions through this one rule alone). That is why it has had to make such large cuts.

Not just many schools - the vast majority! Strike action like this is very rare. Teachers actually don't strike at the drop of a hat. Last time I was on strike I took a friend's children to the zoo as I felt so bad their school was closed.
Last strike I didn't take part in as my Year 7s were performing that evening.

Thank you patricia - I've been rummaging about for similar links!

MNHQ
don't know where exactly to report it but your live budget link is not working on my phone for some reason. It takes me to a page which is blank and Url says : about:blank

I'm so thankful I live in Scotland where ds is doing well at secondary, being taught by qualified teachers.

CfE changed very little for him as his primary school had taught in that way anyway.

You should've heard him ranting this morning on behalf of English school kids. An extra hour would seriously impact on his extra-curricular sporting activities. At the moment he has a good balance between studying/homework/revision, relaxing/family/friend time and sports/physical activity.

All kids should go to the local state run school. No league tables, no fighting for a place. All schools the same unless parents can afford a private fee paying school.
That way the education should in theory be more or less equal wherever you attend.

prettybird
we live in Scotland too.
CforE has been a disaster in Primaries in general which is why SNP is bringing back testing for Primary aged kids. Since it came in our High School the number of subject choices has dropped, the achievement levels have dropped and kids with SEN have had a far worse time. There was some fudging last year about the Maths higher pass mark, was there not (it being adjusted to around 43% due to mass failures in the system).
Not all wine and roses in Scotland either (and with a £15 billion deficit, cuts will have to happen here too).
And that's without the Named Person debacle which takes funding and resources away from kids who need it.

Nice to here Scottish people interfering on English matters that have nothing to do with them. Next they will be telling us when we can go shopping, it not as if we dont give them enough money.

weepat can I join you on your time machine back to 1982?

Bolognaise
I am not interfering just pointing out that education in Scotland is not a land of milk and honey.

I agree completely btw about Scottish MP's interfering in English only decisions. Just like Nicola Sturgeon promised not to. About right, on the SNP's record of broken promises.

Sorry wheelofapps was actually referring to prettybird's rant 'on behalf of' English children. You comment was spot on.

The staff have the option of starting a local free school if they believe they can do things differently.

Just a bit misleading, Fireflies. Starting a free school isn't just a matter of getting together and setting one up in someone's front room. It's necessary to set up a non--profit charitable trust and apply to the Secretary of State for start-up and ongoing funding and permission, negotiating a funding agreement, finding and funding premises, taking on employment contracts etc etc.

But the LA doesn't and won't have "no role" in schools. The expectation above is already for academies; the LA and the Regional Commissioners currently have the ability to take over academies which go into bankruptcy or fail. There has been no suggestion this will change.

Given that the announcement has only just been made, I really don't see how this can be stated with so much confidence. Whilst the current system allows LAs to take over failed academies if necessary because they obviously have all the relevant systems and infrastructure in place, I really can't see how it can sensibly be expected that that will continue once LAs have no role in local schools whatsoever and have dismantled all their current school related systems and activities. It is equally illogical to expect LAs to co-ordinate admission arrangements for schools they have nothing to do with and where they have no power, for example, to require the provision of bulge classes as they do at present; and frankly I see no reason why my council tax should be spent on providing an admissions service for a number of wholly independent organisations.

As for SEN - the concern there is that current experience demonstrates that LAs regularly struggle to push academies to comply with their legal obligations when it comes to accepting and supporting children with SEN, let alone persuading them not to take the first possible opportunity to exclude them. I can't see that working any better in a fully academised system.

Wheelofapps - we'll have to agree to disagree. My experience of CfE is that nothing changed at ds' primary and I'm happy with how ds is being challenged at secondary school - including Maths. I'm also encouraged by the way that the school works hard for all its pupils, not just the purely academic ones who'll be doing 8 x Nat 5.

That's not to say that there aren't elements of the exams that still need bedding in (I have concerns about the prescriptive way that some of the exams are marked, particularly at Nat 5) but these are the first few years of a new curriculum and there are always bedding in problems - hence the adjustment to the Maths (iirc - there was a similar issue with Maths exams in England, so adjusting pass marks is not unique to the SQA). Interestingly, ds said his Maths teacher said none of "his" pupils had a problem with the "difficult" question - maybe he just taught them better . But I can understand that it could've caused some pupils to panic.

I'm also not up in arms about the Named Person legislation, which initially I was against but I've now read up on (both the legislation and the pilot studies) and I'm now relaxed about it.

But there again, MN wouldn't be MN if we all agreed about everything

Yy to 'agreeing to disagree'. I am glad you are having a better time of it in your area.

But there is no question that there are serious concerns about CfE's effect on Primary Education - the 'U' turn about testing this age group has been notable.

Also, my 'academic' High School now only offers 6 x National 5.

Re the Maths qu: clearly a large number of kids did have problems to reduce the pass mark to 42% to fudge the figures.

There are frequent stories in The Scotsman about educational bodies having real concerns about Scottish Education which is a huge shame given it was once famous for its quality.

re Named Persons -- we will have to see what the Supreme Court thinks, but certainly it has been introduced widely (and illegally) across Scotland prior to August (when it actually becomes legally binding) which breaks EU law on privacy and data gathering and sharing.

Whereas I wish the Named Person legislation had been fully implemented this time last year, when the school not ds' school I hasten to add didn't act on information it was given and the very thing it was warned about happened

I share ElementaryMyDear 's concerns about the lack of Local Authority

It is equally illogical to expect LAs to co-ordinate admission arrangements for schools they have nothing to do with and where they have no power

Even before the advent of academies LAs co-ordinated admissions for VA schools. LAs will continue to co-ordinate admissions even when all schools are academies.

It is not 'fear of change' for its own sake that drives negativity about academies. It's an understanding of the lack of effective accountability, and the irreversibility of the process. Fine if it works, but you only have to look at parallel privatisations in, say social care - take southern cross for example - to understand some of the risks being run with a generation of children. Politicians' children will be insulated from this mess, as were T Blair's children etc etc.

Is primary legislation required to make this change or is it in place already? Does anyone know?

I don't remember the conservatives making this pledge in their manifesto. Did I miss it?

If this goes ahead along, with the back door privatisation of the nhs , makes it really time to emigrate
Disgusting

antiacademies.org.uk/

I suspect that to force this change on schools that do not have performance problems would require a change to the Academies Act. If this proposal was not in the conservative manifesto, then the best means of stopping it would maybe be to persuade the House of Lords to throw it out in due course, on the basis that (like the abolition of tax credits last year) it has no electoral mandate, and if that fails, to crowd fund for an application for judicial review. But by that stage it would be too late for many schools.

There is a petition here against the proposal - petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702

If the requirement to become an academy was restricted to schools that are not rated good or outstanding that would be slightly better - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Apologies if some of this has been said before but haven't time to read all 12 pages.
Re SEN as a SENCO in a large secondary (still LA controlled) it is a lot harder to get an EHC plan than it was to get a statement. The other categories have also been reduced from 2 to 1 so there is no distinction for children who have some other external agency involvement. Many of the services that LAs used to provide have been cut and it is unclear where these services will come from in the future.
Not all MATs are good. Loathe as I am to agree with Wilshaw, our local rivals elong to one of the chains he slagged off last week. They were in notice to improve last Ofsted and results have got worse not better. They are trying to recruit in all core areas and in a monitoring visit last month were heavily criticised because the MAT has done nothing to support improvement.
Some MATs order crazy levels of control across chains to save money i.e. all schools within MAT having to teach the same topics at A level regardless of teacher specialisms and student interest.
The LA system was not perfect and few would claim it was but in the 7 years I have been teaching the workload has increased at an incredible rate and I am seriously questioning how much longer I can continue. Rapid changes all brought in at roughly the same time (new SEN code of practice,new GCSE, new KS3 new A level) has meant my work level has gone mental. I will hopefully be going on Mat. leave in September and giving up the TLR and going down to 3 days a week which I hope I can cope with. Will be gutted to stop SENCO role but it is so massive that I know I won't do it justice and be a good mum. Most teachers are not lazy and really care about students but the work load is too great.