What does academisation really mean?

[crapacademy]

14th May ? My 9 year old daughter is worrying about the year 6s sitting their SATs ? ?Mum, if they don?t do well we?ll all be in trouble!?

Why does a 9 year old think this? Because we as a school have spent the year under the impression that we absolutely have to reach at least floor standard (for the first time in 5 years) and so SATs have suddenly become a huge focus. Undeniably standards were well below where they should have been and action needed to be taken, but is the answer really to focus so much on a test and pile pressure on 11 year olds, not to mention the knock on effect to those lower down the school? Unfortunately for us the ?quick fix? method, ie a year of teaching to the test, appeared the only option to ensure the long term survival of our school.

What my 9 year old doesn?t know is that school will be made an academy anyway ? this much was revealed to the school a couple of months back. Teachers and children will leave ? many are already looking for alternative jobs and schools. At this point we have no idea of our sponsor and are only vaguely aware of the wrangling taking place between the relevant authorities. For the authorities this is a business decision, they do not wave off my 9 year old every morning in the knowledge that her safe little world that she loves is about to change beyond recognition. They leave their business at their desk at the end of the working day, it is my daughter who will be losing sleep over the loss of class mates and teachers. Whatever happens, my sensitive 9 year old will be devastated. She either has to sit back and watch friends and teachers who she cares about leaving the school, or she has to leave the school herself, either way, this is going to have a huge impact on her primary years. Not to mention her belief that the incredibly hardworking year 6 class will have ?failed? ? an opinion which in reality will be far from the truth. This years year 6 will have produced stunning results, well in excess of floor standards.

My difficult choice as a parent:-

a) Do I sit this through, with all the good staff leaving and inevitable upheaval and changes in staffing with no realistic guarantees of quality? A 9 year old who is particularly aware of and reactive to weak teaching is not going to cope well with this option.

b) Do I find another school, knowing that in our authority we are just the first of many schools to tread this path? An enormous change for a 9 year old and not one that guarantees good quality education

c) Do I find £15000 to fund private school for a year or two? Not a realistic option even though my husband and I are both professionals, and certainly not an option open to the vast majority of other families, many of whom are on benefits.

d) Do I home educate for the next year or so until secondary, making the secondary transition a harder process than it needs to be and impacting on my family life and requiring a big change in my relationship with my daughter.

And all this forced upon my hardworking, tax paying family unit, by government ministers who have very little real understanding of state education.

But forget politicians, teachers, governors, even parents, IS THIS REALLY FAIR ON A 9 YEAR OLD GIRL?

Will the school change dramatically for your dds last 2 years? I can't imagine lots of staff leaving as jobs are hard to get right now & I imagine quite a few of them may be on the upper pay scale?

4 of our best teachers have interviews in the next week. We aren't a particularly big school and that's quite a big percentage.

Yes, its likely we'll keep our teachers who are high on the pay scale, but they are not always the best teachers.

I wonder if you might be over-thinking this. I can't imagine either of my children having the slightest concern over whether the school was called an academy or not.
Could your concerns perhaps be rubbing off on your dd? Does she really need to know about all this? SATs pressure (or the perception of it) is not uncommon in many schools, acadamies or not.

Hm, wish I was over-thinking it!

This really isn't about whether the school is called an academy or not, it's about whether it will still have adequate teachers moving into september. It doesn't become an academy until after this date. Its also about the impact this will have on friendship groups.

Yes of course SATs pressure is common in many schools, but ours really have been told that the schools future depends on these SATs results, and to a certain extent, this is true.

If you are still fortunate enough to live in areas where this isn't happening yet, get yourselves ready, because its on its way!

But you're happy to send your child to a school which fails to teach a significant number of children to read, write and add up?

To not reach the floor target you have to be really bad.

If parents weren't bothered by those stats, I can't see why they'd rush to leave a school just because it's management changes.

And I would certainly be pleased with a bit of staff turnover. Otherwise, how will the school improve?

Ok, its encouraging to know that this has been a better experience for others. However, what was your scenario? Did you elect to become academies or did you feel it was forced on you?

Also, part of my problem is that I know a lot more than I should know about what is going on behind the scenes, both in school and even with regards to the discussions at a higher level. Perhaps I am looking at worst case scenario, ie all 4 teachers get their posts next week. However, whichever way I look at it this is currently having a very negative impact on staff moral and I know parents (who know a lot less than I do) have jitters. Also, we know that our Senior Management will come under the spotlight and may well not keep their jobs - good or bad, this causes uncertainty and anxiety amongst those in the know.

For us, the next couple of weeks are critical - I will feel a little better after the 31st May deadline for resignations, and one or two other pretty major decisions should have been made by then.

Oh, and just to add in response to Indigos very valid point - we will be well above floor standard this year - the necessary improvements have already been implemented, its these staff we stand to lose!

If your management is any good they need to sell the positives of becoming an academy to the staff, and to improve morale.

Their are pros and cons to converting - forced or otherwise. But the HT needs to sell it well - to keep his staff and the patents happy.

There is absolutely no reason for staff to leave. Their t&c's stay the same. Their pupils stay the same. Their job stays the same.

It's a little bit difficult for management to raise morale when they are far from certain that they will keep thier own jobs.

"we absolutely have to reach at least floor standard (for the first time in 5 years)"

If the school has really been so inadequate for so many years, with so many pupils in successive years not reaching a basic minimum standard, then I am both amazed and horrified it has taken this long. Should not the changes have been underway four years ago?

I am going to turn the emphasis around and say, the school has been below the floor level for 5 years, as such it is the school that has been failing your child and every other child in the school. I don't really care how good you think individual teachers are, this is about the school as a whole and it has failed as a whole over the last 5 years. I guess from your comments that the best teachers have come in recently and made a difference over the last year but you therefore still have a cohort of teachers that are not really up to scratch.

I am appalled that your daughter is being put into a position that they are concerned about the year 6 SAT results, they do not need that pressure, school should be an enjoyable place to come every day, not one where the pupils are scared about what the future holds. That again is down to the school, they are pressurising the pupils for what is the staff's failings to ensure that pupils have made appropriate progress since they joined the school. Shame on them for telling pupils that the future of the school is in their hands, that is cruel and unacceptable.

I don't underestimate how much pressure is coming on schools to improve KS2 results but actually this is long overdue and if making schools become academies is the catalyst for achieving this then that is a price worth paying if every pupil in every school gets a decent education and pupils achieve to their potential.

My mum's school is in a similar situation. Very small year sizes, plus socio-economic background, high proportions of pupils where English is their second language and parents who take them out of school at exam time mean the school's perfomance is low in the SATs tables. It only takes three or four pupils to not reach the standard and their whole year 'fails'. However, the atmosphere is happy and pupils are generally well rounded and settled.

Her school has been told, what boils down to 'change to an academy or we'll send Ofsted in again, you'll fail (under the new classifications) and we'll force the change'. They were ofsted-ed as Satisfactory just before the classifications changed.

It's hard to see how a change in management style will make much difference, seeing as not all the current staff will be lost. If the management team changes, the teachers, teaching style and curriculum will all be the same. So the pupils shouldn't notice a difference as such, and it makes you wonder how being labelled an Academy will suddenly mean they perform so much better.

I'm sure they must though, else the powers-that-be wouldn't be so keen for them to change. They will be only the second primary academy in the LA. Would love some enlightenment from anyone with experience of it.

There are two schools in one LEA, couple of miles apart; similar pupil demographics, around 70% EAL: one got 100% achieving expected level in SATS, the other made 80% on its beet year in recent years.

Which one do you think is doing right by its pupils? And should we ever excuse a 20% failure rate when schools just as challenged show how much better can be achieved?

Totally agree with posters comments regarding being under floor standard for such a long time, but to vastly over simplify a very long and complex story, school had been pushing for LA help for a long time, but LA was content to let one or two schools pick up more complex problems - even sent them in our direction - in order to keep all other schools within LA strong. I guess it was the threat of academies that brought them into action, but it wasn't for lack of trying from members of the school community.

However, still doesn't take away from the point that I was trying to make, that ultimately this is about fragile, young human beings and their feelings, and to bring this uncertainty into a community where at last things were being turned around is very, very wrong.

I do also agree that allowing standards to remain low was equally, possibly even more, wrong, but this wasn't happening!

And, yes, the school have been wrong in how they have allowed the children to believe that the responsibility for this is in any way on their shoulders.

But the speed at which our current government is attempting to bring about change and the brutal manner in which this is so often carried out is completely inappropriate.

Actually, for us, it is the academy conversion that has made all the difference.

Prior to the announcement staff were focussed and working hard on rapidly raising standards - the thing that really needed to happen. Since the announcement, staff morale has plummetted, and staff and parents (in the know) are looking to leave - as a consequence, standards are likely to fall again.

I admire peoples faith in this new system, but I am still very far from sure that this is the right thing in our particular situation.

As a point of information, if a school is forced to becomes a sponsored academy it 'closes down' overnight and re-opens as a new school. Staff have a new employer who can change their terms, conditions, pay and job description after one day.

The improvements have really only been underway this year, and I know that when our SATs results come out, it will show dramatic improvement. WE WILL BE WELL ABOVE FLOOR THIS YEAR.

Why do we/they fear academy status so much? Part of it is the uncertainty with regards to who will be leading - this may be clarified soon and I may feel differently after half term, but 10 days to go til final resignation date (31st May) that doesn't really help staff. Issue is also pretty new around here and I think many have had their heads in the sand and didn't see this coming, and now think they can somehow escape it (I know in reality they can't). Also, I think the biggest issue is that at the start of the year staff were led to believe that bringing around the improvements would avoid academy status, it's only as the year has progressed that it's become apparent that this isn't a possibility - staff therefore feel very demoralised.

I can't give many more details than I have, I'm already on dangerous ground.

Becoming a sponsored academy will have an effect on staff terms, conditions and pay.

I get crapacademy's point - the school has capacity within it at the moment to improve and it is doing so. For whose benefit - at this point - is it to rapidly force in a change of governance?

Thank you, Rosebud - my point exactly!!! And also I was trying to raise the point that so often seems to get forgotten, that vulnerable young childrens lives are at the heart of this.