Primary school academies

[blakeway45]

Just found out our local catchment school is a primary academy (a St Chad's Academies Trust one). What are academies? Are they good or bad? What's the difference to a normal school? By DC will be going Sept 23 so will be applying this side of Xmas

I think (at least in my experience) that most schools are academies now. I work in one. I would say the good things about academies are lots of support and expert help - as an academy trust we employ lots of consultants that we wouldn't be able to afford as individual schools. The disadvantage is some loss of autonomy as a school, but I can't say we feel that in our school. The trust celebrates the diversity of our schools and all the schools have their own ethoses and values.

Most schools are academies now at least in our area anyway. Realistically for the child it makes no difference. Its all about the way they are managed and financed.

Most of my colleagues would rather work in the few local authority schools still around and cite loss of professional autonomy and corporate, top heavy business management style leadership as the reasons. There is a feeling that academies can favour formulaic teaching across cohorts, ie all Y3 classes across the trust having the same lessons, delivered using the same PowerPoints and worksheets at any given time -this as a measure of effectiveness. Teachers can feel that their creativity and professional judgement are made redundant.

An academy is a school (or one of a group of schools) that now gets its funding directly from Govt, rather than via the local authority. They have much more control over what they do and how they spend this money than a maintained school (one that still gets funding via the LA) does, but they are still a state school and as such have to follow the same rules on admissions, and support for special needs. They do not have to follow the national curriculum, but in practice many still do largely.

In practice, what this means on a day to day basis will differ. Some academy chains exert more influence and centralised control over their schools than others.

I don't think pps are correct about most schools being academies. When I last looked, 4 in 5 secondaries were but only 1 in 5 primaries.

It depends massively on the academy chain. They almost certainly lead to less autonomy within the individual school. Staff working conditions are generally less favourable. I wouldn't choose to work in one if at all possible but will be sending my child to one - overall I think the pros of being in the local school with good results are greater than the cons of it being an academy.

It depends on the ethos of the Trust. Ours favours local autonomy and celebrates the unique identity of each school. Staff pay and conditions are at least as good as maintained and CPD is much better than the LA offer. We are popular with applicants and have had no problem filling vacancies.

A Trust just down the road is more predatory and dictatorial. It's just advertised 3 times for a headteacher and has had to do an internal reshuffle of staff to fill the job.

A Trust down the road

Thank you so much everyone. I hadn't been getting alerts on responses (I don't post enough to know what I'm doing!) but I'm grateful for all your thoughts. I certainly feel better about it. Thank you!

@blakeway45 my DD is starting in one of St Chad's academies this September so I can let you know how it goes if you'd like. Feel free to PM me!