Hundreds of primary schools across the country are currently being informed by the DfE that they have less than a month (over the Xmas period) to draw up a contract to become a sponsored academy, or their democratically elected governing bodies will be disbanded and replaced with a sponsor.
The sponsors that the DfE have lined up need not have any experience in running primary schools. What they do have is a range of products eg supply teachers, educational software that they supply to schools. It's very clear that these private, for profit companies (SERCO and CAPITA have been offered to one school near us) want to get a foot in the UK education system to line their own pockets by buying in their own products.
Sponsors will be given contracts for 125 years which, should it prove unsatisfactory, will take at least 7 years to dissolve.
There is a picture emerging which indicates that every one of these schools, in which parents stand to lose their democratically elected governing body for a for-profit organisation, is in an area of social deprivation with higher than above average FSM etc. Certainly in Haringey, all 19 schools targeted by Gove are in the poorer east side of the borough, with the stake holders in schools in the leafy echions of Muswell Hill and Crouch End retaining the power to make their own choices about their future.
If you would like to find out more, check out antiacademies.org.uk, or our local site in Haringey hcaa.org.uk or pm me directly.