Academy status - pros and cons.

[LauraNorder]

I am attending a meeting later on in the week about the possibility of our school becoming an Academy. I am a recently elected Parent Governor and don't know a lot about it but have been asked to read up a bit and come prepared to avoid lengthy explanations.

So what are the pros and cons and also is there a good on line resource I could tap into to find out more?

If you accept a compromise agreement (which he almost certainly has) you are never allowed to speak about it.

It's part of the legal contract you sign.

It's nothing devious, it's absolutely standard.

From 'An Employee's guide to Compromise Agreements:
'Restrictive covenants or post-termination restrictions are often included in compromise agreements to protect the employer from harm to its business. They are only enforceable to the extent that they are necessary to protect the legitimate business interests of the employer.'

(Actually Indigo,I can see that they don't want him speaking about what's happened. It's just from looking at the section 8 doc that he and (most of) his staff must have been working their socks off to turn the school around, only for him to be kicked out 3 months later. I would imagine that he feels very bitter.)

The head resigned, he wasn't kicked out.

I guess he resigned because he didn't want the school to be an academy!

I doubt if he felt able to fight any more.

mumblesmum - As I have indicated a couple of times already, there is a new, as yet unpublished, Section 8 inspection report that places the school in special measures. If they were still turning the school round successfully they would not have been placed into special measures. It was that report that prompted the head's resignation. And, as Rosebud05 says, the head did resign. He was not kicked out.

IndigoBell may be right that there is a compromise agreement in place. Employers will sometimes go down that route when an employee resigns if they feel it is necessary to protect themselves. But even without a compromise agreement I am not at all surprised at the lack of a statement from the head. School goes into special measures and the head resigns. It happens all the time. It is rare for the head in such a situation to issue a statement and if they do it is usually something fairly anodyne, wishing the school well for the future.

OK, I can hear you sighing..... I'll look forward to reading it.

It doesn't look like the Save Downhills Campaign are saying that everything is wonderful. They seem to be saying that the school is improving (and its results obviously are) and they want to continue this improvement in a local authority framework.

Given that the alternative might be this:-
www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/9529435.Coleraine_Park__bullied__into_agreeing_academy_plan/?ref=mr

... being bullied into agreeing to be handed over to a Tory donor with no experience at primary, a patchy one at secondary and a reputation for managing out children with SEN, I couldn't disagree with their argument, whatever Ofsted say.

I didn't see this on the national news.

It was in our local paper.

Shocking, isn't it?

I agree the campaign doesn't say that everything is wonderful but I've come across a number of people opposing conversion who want to deny there is anything wrong at this school.

I'm not sure how it is relevant that a Carpetright store was burned down by looters but I suppose it helps to fill the newspaper!

Harris Federation does have one primary school but it only opened in September, so I would say limited experience at primary rather than none (I'll turn pedant mode off now!). Lord Harris of Peckham is indeed a Tory donor. He also gives 20% of his profits to charity and has given substantial donations to LA-controlled schools in south London. He sponsors a number of LA-controlled schools, both primary and secondary. I'm not saying that makes Harris Federation the right people to run this school, just pointing out that he can be presented in a different light.

The most recent figures I have seen suggest that most of the Harris Academies have very low exclusion rates. A common accusation made against academies is that they have high exclusion rates for SEN students. However, LA-controlled schools have similarly high exclusion rates for SEN students. I wish people would get upset about that.

I remain uneasy at schools being forced to convert and am surprised at the governors' assertion that they were forced to choose Harris. I know the schools were given a very tight timetable to work to so I guess it is possible they missed the deadline for choosing a sponsor and hence had one chosen for them. But that is only a guess. If they didn't miss the deadline I can see no good reason for preventing them having a free choice. Unfortunately truth tends to be one of the casualties in this kind of situation. I would not fully trust any statement made by either the DfE or the governors unless there was independent evidence to back it up.

I've just written a long post and deleted it by mistake, so this will be shorter.

Harris - Newsnight a few weeks ago - several parents speaking out about their children being 'managed out' of Harris academies (given no help then told that they might be better off going to another school or vocational training). Don't show up on formal exclusion figures, of course.

Coleraine Park - what sort of independent evidence would you like?

I know people in this school (it's quite near where I live) and have a good understanding as it what's been going on.

CP was the only Haringey primary not to launch a campaign against being forced to become an academy and whose governors tried to negotiate with the DfE. They met with Harris and wanted to meet with AET (within the ridiculously short dead-line imposed by DfE which ended 10th Feb) and were prevented from doing so by the DfE, and told that they had to have Harris. Harris is sponsoring a free school near CP as from September, so I imagine that's why he's been given the school.

The governors at CP have never issued a press release before. They clearly feel bullied and treated with contempt. Which they have been. They were told that if they went along with Gove they would have some say in who took over their school and that hasn't been the case.

There is nothing benign or respectful about the current forced academy conversions, I'm afraid.

Did you listen to The Report on Radio 4 last night? It highlighted the arbitrary targeting of schools all over the country. There was one head in Birmingham (good Ofsted, above floor target) who was visited by the DfE in September and told she had to convert. She has yet to receive anything at all in writing, including explanation for why her school was chosen. The DfE are conducting this all by e-mail and phone calls. Personally, I think she and her governors were crazy for not getting legal advice from the start, but she did point out how isolated and bullied she felt, so maybe not being able to see the wood for the trees.

No-one from the DfE was available to comment. The programme also cited the LSE research that said that the academy model was far from proven at secondary and results couldn't be reliably transferred to predict success at primary, which is the research that the govt uses to try support its actions.

I hope that the Emperor's New Clothes are gradually being shown up for what they are.

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/04/academy-status-incentive-cuts

I know. The great majority of schools that have chosen to convert have done it for the cash bribe, and now even that has turned out to be deceit.

One of the schools where I used to work (large primary) looked carefully at becoming an academy, but couldn't see any advantages. It has a recent outstanding Ofsted report. Instead, they are strengthening the link group assosciated with the feeder secondary school.

The link below was Monday which is timely!

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/04/academy-status-incentive-cuts

Isn't Derby your neck of the woods, Mrz?

www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/ll-fight-plans-turn-Derby-schools-academies/story-16282915-detail/story.html

No I'm across the Pennines although we do work in a similar way to that described in the article you linked.