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 wonder how they think that things like SEN provision could work if local authorities have no say in how schools are run?&

The same way they work in academies and VA schools today. The LA is responsible for SEN assessments and for ensuring that schools (including academies) make the required provision.

The trouble is that the system doesn't work in academies and free schools today. The local authority has responsibility for ensuring that SEN provision is delivered but if an academy doesn't want to do it there's very little an LA can do; but at least under the current system the child can be moved to a school which the LA can control. That option won't be available. Time and again, if an academy finds it inconvenient to have a child with SEN, they find a way to get rid. This will end up back in the bad old days of all children with SEN being conveniently put out of the way in special schools.

Will they have to build rights up with each academy chain?

What, just like non-teachers have to with each employer?

No government is going to end the compulsory education for all children. No government will make compulsory education payable

The academies local to us routinely refused to take students who had been excluded from elsewhere or who needed a fresh start. Some of those families decided to "home educate" because they could see no other way. Of course these students are receiving no education at all - so there are ways of denying a compulsory education.

Surely that's the parents' choice, there would never be NO school for a child.

homebysea I am just asking the question, I actually do not know the answer. It is another erosion of conditions of that is the case. I am not denying that teachers had relatively good maternity conditions

Surely that's the parents' choice, there would never be NO school for a child.

We are talking about highly vulnerable and sometimes chaotic families. Sometimes there genuinely is no school place whilst various applications go to different academies - all of whom reject the student. Sometimes the place offered is on the other side of town so just not practical.

There is no school for children already.

Indeed, philoslothy. Also, when this comes in and the mass exodus of teachers happens, there will be many children in school, attending each day that will not really be receiving an education either. At least, not an education as befits a first world country.

I've seen very little evidence that on a practical level (as opposed to objections of principle) that this will adversely affect the education of our children.

There is little evidence that academies raise standards so one has to ask the question - why make such a fundamental change if there is little evidence that it will improve things?

MrsGuy - autocorrect error. Wasn't concentrating.

Hope you have more to add to the debate than that though.

guerre please explain why the "mass exodus" I genuinely don't understand this point?

Isn't this a version of what was the old grant maintained system where schools were independent of LEAs.

No, it's not. Grant maintained schools were still state schools albeit that they opted out of local authority control, but they were only semi-independent - hence the fact that their status could be removed by an Act of Parliament.

philoslothy flip side of that is - if no real change then why not?

elementary could not the status of Academies be removed by Act of Parliament too?

I fear that this will inevitably lead to asset stripping of the type that led to some disastrous nursing home closures a few years ago. Goodness only knows what will happen if an Academy company goes bankrupt and closes down a school overnight leaving 2000 children without a place, and with no local authority with a duty to organise education for them.

home - teaching is difficult at the moment - more so than at any other point in the last 20 years. Constant changes to expectations, messing with the exam system, ridiculous targets and so on. There is already a teacher retention issue. This is likely to push more teachers out. The lack of standard terms & conditions will be the final straw for many. Also the culture change - academies are businesses - they're not about the children. For lots of teachers, who went into the profession for real reasons, this is immoral.

I think the "mass exodous" is over-exaggerated. There is always a proportion of staff who leave an organisation/profession when terms and conditions change, but as a pp said - TUPE applies so there will be no overnight change. Yes, MATs will undoubtedly restructure and staff will be expected to apply for new posts within the school on new T&C's - but that is no different from the changes that the LA staff that the schools work with have already experienced.

And in a few years, teaching graduates will consider it the norm and won't know any different.

I think it would be extremely difficult, homebythesea, because academies essentially have a contractual arrangement with the DfE, they aren't schools governed by statute.

flip side of that is - if no real change then why not?

Why not invest the time and money doing something that will make a difference? I thought that is what we elected politicians to do - make a positive change.

There is evidence that academies are having a negative impact - although it is difficult to get an unbiased opinion.

The thing that strikes me on a practical level is that academies have a board of trustees or governors ( can't remember the actual term) who have real power and who need specialised knowledge. Where are we going to find these people from - getting the current style of governors is a challenge.

There are a lot of staff leaving at the moment - about a third of staff left my children's school in the summer. Quite a few of these were leaving teaching altogether. This is in a school that a few years ago did not have a high turnover. This summer they are expecting a similar figure with a higher number leaving teaching for good. Some of the staff cannot be replaced because of a lack of applicants - including maths teachers

No government will award contracts to Academy businesses that don't ensure there are enough places for all children within each locality. It's laughable to think otherwise.

But how does the government ensure that an Academy Trust actually wants to set up more schools in a particular locality? They can't force them. In my area, for instance, there has been extensive and expensive construction work done in a number of schools to add extra year groups. What will happen if the expansion of a need for school places continues in our area and there is no local authority keeping tabs on the likely demand and investing in school expansions? Once a government has awarded a contract for a particular school to an Academy Trust, it can't demand that the AT put millions of pounds into expanding it.

And then there's the question of the Academy that has school places but refuses to take the children who have SEN and disabilities, or who have been excluded from other schools. Or, if they are forced to take them, they excludes them as soon as possible, so that our most vulnerable children are moved from school to school and they move inexorably towards disaster.

Surely that's the parents' choice, there would never be NO school for a child.

If parents end up home educating because they can't find an academy willing to offer their child a place, clearly it isn't their choice.

Can academies refuse to take children with SEN? If there's no lea to take them, there will they go?

Is it true that teachers in academies cannot strike?

In my first 10 years of teaching I only knew 2 staff that left teaching altogether. In the last 2.5 years I know 11. They are personal friends and colleagues, not to mention the many friends of friends and family etc.

There is a serious issue of retention, older teachers are pushed out. Young teachers are burning our within 5 years. Terrible situation. But no one cares, they just think teachers are whiny and lazy.

My school is just converting to academy status and one of the first policies to change was the admissions policy. It's a lot tighter now.