Private school becoming an academy - How does this work?

[paddlinglikehell]

My friend has found out that her childs private school is changing to become an academy in September. Apparently the school are opening it up to everyone and no longer with fees be payable.

There is currently a lot of stuff being discussed with parents, but does anyone have any idea what this will mean in the long term?

They have said numbers will increase from the 700 pupils currently to over a 1,000.

We had planned for our dd to go here in Yr 3, but moved her a year early to another private school, which we are very happy with now, but did we have a lucky escape, or have we missed out on the same standards and quality, without the fees?

A couple of private schools in Bristol turned into academies a few years ago now. I have personal experience of one of them - used to teach in one when private, and so have friends who still remain there. Obviously for the first few years much remained the same except for a gradual increase in numbers. A lot of the staff remained and so the quality of the education remained constant, and the results have also remained very good - but obviously this is in part due to the fact they were a selective school. I would imagine as the mixed ability intakes come through to year 11 the results will take a bit of a hit. They can still select their intake to a certain degree. 1/3 from each academic bracket (ie. top, middle and bottom). They do not have a specified catchment area and so can admit children from a wide area, therefore the school is still very popular and oversubscribed every year.
The school has managed to retain the ethos as much as is possible with the increase in numbers, and class sizes have obviously increased. But on the whole I don't think it has been a bad experience for the current students, as you can imagine the year before it turned into an academy people flocked to get their children into the school for what was essentially a private school education for the price of 1 years fees. I would say on balance those who were current students when it changed from private to academy have probably had just as good an education and school experience as if it had stayed private. Inevitably I am sure that this will change somewhat over time, particularly as the senior mangement move on.

Private schools don't have higher standards and quality than state schools - they have selective cohorts.

If this new academy gets the same number of kids with challenging SEN as your average state school it will struggle as much (actually probably more, as they're not used to it...) as the average state school.

What your fees pay for is the ability for the school to exclude disruptive kids.

unless Mr Gove gets his own way of course Indigo www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/dec/17/gove-private-school-academies-selection

Ahhhh......

I would not be happy with that.

In the same way that I'm not happy with the current grammar schools.......

It really depends on the entry requirements for the new school. For the 2 independent schools that converted in Bristol - siblings have a high priority for places (after Looked After/ SEN/ Medical & Social) but think this may have been restricted to siblings already in the school before the academy plans were made public. If you look at the OFSTED reports (Outstanding for both schools) the no. of pupils with SEN and FSM at these schools are actually much lower than the national average and pupils in disadvantaged areas close to the schools (for whom it would be a catchment school if this was applicable) tend not to obtain places there, as distance is not a criteria. So it is unlikely that you would get the mixed in-take that indigo describes if similar entry requirements were used.
However these schools are secondary only so am not sure what effect it would have for KS2 pupils. The girls school that converted did take girls from Y5/6 when it was an independent school but this was closed before conversion. The school would probably have to make a decision about becoming an all-age academy 4-18 or concentrate on 11-18 year olds.

The other thing to remember is that academies get approx 5K per pupil.

So if the private school currently charges more than that, and now has to survive on that amount, something will have to change - presumably class size.

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/04/academy-status-incentive-cuts?newsfeed=true

Thank you Jo, I did think that it probably would be the same for a few years, their plan shows they are increasing numbers gradually.

Crazymum, their entry requirement is still under revision, waiting approval, so that will be interesting. I think my friend is going to see how things go, her dd will be going into Yr3, into the large Prep school building, I think she is hoping she will get through to Yr 6 without too much change. It will be an all-age academy I believe.

Fee currrently are around £9k, so they will be £4k under, quite a drop, I agree that something will have to give.

Indigo, I am quite happy to pay to not have the five disruptive children in my childs class of 30, that bullied, 'ran riot' (HT's words not mine), and made my dd's first two years of school very hard. I just feel for the parents and those same disruptive children who are getting little support at school and the others in the class who are still dealing with the chaos on a daily basis.

However, my first concern is for my dd I'm afraid, who has changed from a swithched off, not interested in learning and not wanting to go to school child, to an enthusiastic, motivated and confident child, but that's for another thread.

Thanks for the links mrz

Is this school in Liverpool ??

If it is they are having entry criteria (I believe) which I think will still skew the intake to be pretty middle class, reasonable ability etc- I believe it will be the same criteria as Belvedere which also converted from Private to academy- priority will be siblings (ie from families who were already paying fees), teachers' kids (who have worked there for 2yrs+), then 15 (the intake will be 100 per year) places to people who 'show an aptitude for MFL' in NFER tests (ie are generally bright), then the rest of the kids will be banded- so theoretically the rest SHOULD be quite mixed, but there will be a catchment area and Allerton / Mossley Hill is an expensive area (£200k for a small terraced house, lots of £1million plus houses - I know people in the South think you can buy a mansion for 10 quid in Liverpool but that's not actually true!). And they will still take fee paying boarders.

I live about 5 miles away and enthusiastically went to the meeting for prospective parents, only to find there's not a hope in hell of my kids getting a place- unless I wanted to enrol them both as fee payers for 2012 as they would then be guaranteed a place for Sep 2013- so I basically could have bought a place for £12k. If I had it.

So will it still be an academic school? probably

Is this a fair use of taxpayers money, or good for the local community?- not on your life!!!!!!