fighting conversion to MAT - help?

[Jumpingshipquick]

My children's school is pushing for conversion to MAT. It's a school considered 'good' with a governing body considered 'effective' by OFSTED, within a local authority that performs well. It's a single form entry school, and has no good reason to convert - it won't give them anything they can't already do. I have my suspicions why, but the argument so far is that it is better to lead rather than be forced. Whilst I don't doubt the good intentions of the people currently running the school, I have serious concerns about the implications of the change of structure. I would really appreciate someone looking over my points to see whether I am right for now.

• My school will legally cease to exist.
• Funding will go to the MAT, not individual schools within the MAT and the Board of Directors is required to make spending decisions based on the MAT priorities, not individual (ex)school priorities.
• The Board of Directors of the MAT can be paid for their roles.
• Teachers are employed by the MAT, not the individual schools (and can therefore be deployed anywhere within the MAT)
• There is no legal requirement to keep the individual school’s board of governors, and as it will have no power beyond what the Board happen to devolve, it will only be a talking shop anyway.
• The MAT will be run by a board of governors, akin to the board of directors in a business. This board will consist purely of co-opted members, no requirement for parent governors, no teachers, not necessary local people. Appointments are neither required to be advertised, nor elected and members can only be removed by the Secretary of State, from London.
• The only form of public scrutiny is the published accounts.
• The only way parents can hold the MAT board to account is via the Regional Schools Commissioner. (There are going to be 8 for the whole country) The RSC will be appointed by the Secretary of State.
• The Secretary of State retains the right to remove, or force schools/ MATs to join other MATs.

Thanks

it always seems to me that it's the MAT digressions that get the news coverage while the maintained school failings don't

I agree - the scandals and failures of MATs that have been published recently all happen in LA, VA and VC schools too.

Often, it has taken a lot longer to expose them and resolve them, though.

Ministers for education rarely mention maintained schools, the praise is usually heaped on academy schools. A lot of the early converters were very successful schools before they were academies, not because they became academies.

Ministers for education rarely mention maintained schools, the praise is usually heaped on academy schools

Well, they would, wouldn't they? They're promoting the academy model as the Governments preferred option. Of course they're going to draw attention to the success.

Mumtryingherbest ds works for our LA in shared services so responsible for payroll/recruitment etc for schools.In our LA an academy school with a £200k deficit had the shortfall met by the LA, and the LA had no choice in that.

Even when it turns out that maybe they are not so good after all? Then it all goes quiet.
www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/28/perry-beeches-academy-chain-stripped-schools-critical-finance-report

If MATs fail of course they should lose schools. That's the model.

Except it doesn't seem to work like that.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35492433 AET]]
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Link fail.

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jul/24/academy-trusts-accused-of-failing-disadvantaged-pupils

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11758981/Three-quarters-of-academy-chains-contain-school-below-coasting-definition-research-finds.html

insan LA, VA and VC schools have deficits too - which are also plugged by the LA. I know of one VC secondary that has a deficit that is over twice that and it is growing year on year. The LA is powerless to do anything; the Regional Schools Commissioner has said he would have intervened if it was an Academy, but all the LA can do is issue a stern letter.

www.tes.com/news/tes-magazine/tes-magazine/appeal-autonomy-all-academic-now demonstrates the "autonomy" a MAT provides individual schools.
In particular:

"Anyone doubting the lack of autonomy for individual academies under the new system need only listen to the people who run them. Take Mark Ducker, executive principal of Step Academy Trust, a chain of seven South London primaries.

“We need to have standard operational procedure in terms of teaching and learning,” he told TES last year. “Our curriculum needs to be very similar across the group, and our teaching style and our assessment system.”

That is control over individual schools beyond anything that local authorities would have dared do at the height of their powers – it is control over actual pedagogy. Forget autonomy over the curriculum, a growing number of academies are no longer able to decide how to teach it.

Sir Michael Wilkins, chief executive of the Outwood Grange Academies Trust, an MAT of 15 academies based in Wakefield, recently told TES: “We run it like one big school. The principals are more like heads of departments.”

Ian Comfort, chief executive of the Academies Enterprise Trust, was even more explicit last year when he noted that heads of maintained schools had more autonomy than their peers in MAT academies. He said that heads had to “give up their sovereignty” when their school joined an MAT.

Not quite what Nicky Morgan said about giving power back to teachers!

insan1tyscartching Tue 29-Mar-16 16:20:29 Mumtryingherbest ds works for our LA in shared services so responsible for payroll/recruitment etc for schools.In our LA an academy school with a £200k deficit had the shortfall met by the LA, and the LA had no choice in that.

Why would an LA be responsible for meeting the shortfall of a school that doesn't fall under their remit?

What will happen in situations like this when all schools are academies, will LAs still be bailing them out and if which budget will they be drawing down on to do so?

"That is control over individual schools beyond anything that local authorities would have dared do at the height of their powers – it is control over actual pedagogy."

I disagree. Some of the most successful LAs have significant influence over the standardisation of pedagogy in the schools in their area.

How?

How do you know this PrettyBrightFlies?

what will happen to those schools that find themselves financially over stretched

The standard funding agreement says that the Academy Trust must balance its budget from one year to the next. They are allowed to carry forward surpluses to help deal with deficits in subsequent years. They are also allowed to incur a deficit on funds from sources other than the DfE. But overall they must balance the budget.

If they are part of an MAT or are sponsored the MAT or sponsors may be able to help with additional funds. ARK academies, for example, receive substantial funding from their parent charity.

A stand alone academy with no sponsor will be in a difficult position if it becomes overstretched. The governors should manage the budget to ensure that doesn't happen. If they really are overstretched it suggests pupil numbers are falling and/or financial management has been poor. Of course, when a school makes noises about being financially stretched it could be a prelude to a fund raising drive.

do you have any insight into how closely aligned the UK academy model is to that in Sweden and the US

That is an interesting question and one to which it is difficult to get a definitive answer. The simplest answer is that it is similar in some respects (freedom from LA control, freedom to set curriculum, freedom to compete with other schools for pupils) but different in others (for example, Swedish free schools are allowed to make a profit). Views differ on whether or not these differences are significant. Similarly views differ on whether or not the Swedish and US models actually work in terms of improving outcomes. Unfortunately it all depends on which evidence you look at and how you interpret it.

For what it is worth research by the OECD suggests that countries performing best in the PISA league tables are those that give schools freedom over curriculum and assessment, and freedom to compete with other schools for pupils.

www.tes.com/article.aspx?storyCode=6447747

Free schools in Sweden are coming under scrutiny as they are not providing the outcomes it was hoped they would. Also there is now more social segregation.
www.tes.com/article.aspx?storyCode=6447747

Spaniel - through incredibly well coordinated School Improvement Services that deliver well packaged, competitively priced support services alongside robust assessment of standards, which make recommendations that can best be achieved by accessing the improvement services on offer from the LA.

It's an incredibly efficient model - I have worked alongside the school improvement team and seen it in action. All the schools in the area have adopted a very similar curriculum (written by the LA) and method of delivery and it seems to be getting results. Staff retention is higher than nationally, too.

Mumtrying, it's a situation that infuriates ds but it is what has happened. An academy that chose not to purchase the LA's services had their deficit covered by the LA at a time when services are being cut and not all redundancies are voluntary even among his own work colleagues.

True, but schools don't HAVE to join in with the model, they can IF THEY CHOSE TO, but they can also disregard the advice/improvement support services/support packages, whereas MAT schools have no choice in the matter at all.

Jumpingshipquick - you sound quite committed, have you not consider your school becoming a stand alone academy or if that is not possible starting a MAT with similar local schools. Wouldn't that solve all your problems and your good school practises could be shared with other schools that might need a bit of guidance.

When there is talk of deficits being covered by the LA, then that should not be happening, whether it is a maintained school or an Academy. What should happen is that the LA (or EFA for academies) insist that the school agrees a 3 year budget back to break-even situation. If they do not do that then there is the bigger stick of the LA removing the schools right to a budget and the finances being run by the LA.

I do however know of LAs where for reasons which define any logic they have allowed schools to go significantly into debt and are now in situations where they can never recover back to a break even budget without the deficit being paid off. Should it happen? In my opinion, no they need to make examples of these schools who have been badly managed but I suspect they will not.

If an LA school is in deficit and is forced to become an academy then when it does the LA is left with the deficit.

admission am I right in thinking that a schools budgetary control can only be transferred to the LA if the school is judged to be inadequate requiring special measures to improve?

I know that a Warning Notice letter from the LA can be issued if there is significant concern over deficit, and that can trigger an OFSTED inspection - but unless that Inspection downgrades the school to SM, there's not a lot else the LA can do, is there?

I've heard Chairs of Governors use the term "wooden dollars" when discussing school budget overspend - in cases like that, a bit of business acumen is desperately needed!

Urban, I am committed, but I am a bit late in on the consultation process and very time poor. The school already shares good practice effectively within a town-wide partnership. It's one of the reason taking such a risk with MAT status seems so unnecessary. The only problem at the moment is this proposal!

I'm now losing sleep over this now grr. I don't know where to go next!