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.

I am horrified to hear this news.
Mind you I had a feeling about this - the whole debacle about how SATS have been made much harder this year and the pass rate not even published in advance, so standards in LA schools can be unfairly said to be dropping to give an excuse to Academise them (have any of you tried the sample tests? Ridiculous) and of course Academy schools aren't required to follow the same curriculum.....

I feel this is basically an excuse to take more and more power from Local Authorities.
When I was looking round secondaries I found the whole Academy thing quite weird; in addition the school Head, you'd have a talk from some bigwig from the Academy chain and I didn't like the feel of it. Notably the LA run school was the only one to mention parental involvement....

Re Academy CEO pay - this is interesting: tompride.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/the-shocking-scale-of-osbornes-fat-cat-academy-school-ceos-pay-exposed/

The whole scheme feels like jobs for the boys in my opinion.

Another different petition here:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124747
I'm signing the lot!

Can the government do this without any change to legislation? The thought of this utterly terrifies me.

White paper has just been released. They're getting rid of Qualified Teacher Status!

What?

Today's White Paper here www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere

I've only read snippets so far, chiefly because I keep being inspired to hare off to look at other things to see if my memories of earlier news items were correct. (This kind of thing.) www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35492433

Hackles are up, but so far I can't pretend I'm fully in the picture.

They're getting rid of Qualified Teacher Status

That is a bit misleading. To quote from the white paper:

"we will replace the current ‘Qualified Teacher Status’ (QTS) with a stronger, more challenging accreditation based on a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as judged by great schools"

Reading a bit further it seems they are saying that QTS is awarded after initial training which may last less than one year. They are suggesting that new teachers should be accredited to a standard similar to that for lawyers and accountants where, after completing an initial course, trainees spend 2-5 years further training and work experience before becoming fully qualified.

A friend teaches in an academy chain school which gave a lucrative IT contract to a company ...director of which is head's partner....just tip of the iceberg if you ask me. Privatisation and a disaster for children and teachers...this includes bullying by senior staff of teachers from stories I have heard.

I am so depressed about this. Asset transfer pure and simple. Our children will be victims - what can we do? We HAVE to do something to stop this. It will mean the closure of my DCs outstanding tiny school and the crushing of the ethos of the school DD is about to go to - liberal, quirky, comprehensive, with an SEN base.

oh and they who force it on us will all put their DC in private schools anyway...so there you are.

Academy companies get the schools and the LAND they are built on..think on that.
This says it well
www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/i-am-part-teaching-crisis-these-are-reasons-why-i-feel-i-have-no

and I have seen the SPAG and maths requirements for primary children. Ludicrous! - eg 4 part question - your DC gets 3 out of 4 right - zero marks. DC with dyslexia - no chance.
Bloody awful - sneaked in too with most people knowing very little about this massive crisis.

Was looking for something else and found this
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35347602 Doesn't give much reassurance about accountability...

What I was looking for was this www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/17/parent-governor-role-scrapped-schools-teacher-qualifications "Parent governors are to be scrapped from school governing bodies in favour of professionals with the “right skills”, the government has announced"

robin my understanding is that the government have the deeds signed over to them. michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/gove-nicked-our-schools-and-handed-them.html?m=1

They have enough trouble attracting governors let alone attempting to cherry pick them!
That said the ones at my school are ex teachers, lawyer and an accountant.

I'd be interested to know what they intend to do with a database of all governors. Do they even have a database of all staff?

The whole Sen code of practice works on the basis that there is an LA. :(

People I were talking to yesterday say that the Indy schools will produce the leaders and the state (now academy) schools will produce the drones. But I feel that has always been the case? But now it will be more pronounced?

Stupid question here:

will Ofsted still be in charge of inspections? I ask as they are gov managed and if gov are passing over schools to private sector, then why would we still have Ofsted?

HOPIT - thanks for that link..HOLY SHIT! worse than I thought. What the hell??

Hopit

newlife academies are not private schools- they are state funded schools directly accountable to the DfE rather than local authority. Ofsted do inspect academies

99luftballoons it might be less pronounced if Academies try to emulate the practices of the successful independent schools eg longer day, zero tolerance of low level disruption, emphasis on competitive sport etc etc

and many are in dire financial straits - my DS state school desperate for funds and charging parents for text books now - won't even lend books for the year. Tried to charge me £8.00 for an eng lit book and sent home an old 2nd hand copy with £6.99 on the back!

it's an academy now btw