Academies consultation period?

[CardyMow]

My DD's Secondary school, along with six others in North East Essex, have sent home a single letter telling parents they want to become an Academy, and that they are starting the consultation process tomorrow. Being concerned, I googled a lot little, and by reading the website of one of the other schools, have discovered that all seven schools have ALREADY submitted their applications to the DfE for Academy Status - BEFORE the consultation period has even started.

I stayed in a very small house so that my DD DIDN'T go to an Academy, as she has SN, but not 'severe' enough to get a statement (she is on SA+, despite working on lvl 3/4 in Y9 with lots of extra help...my idea of severe enough for a statement doesn't match Essex LA).

I don't want my DD at an Academy - she is exactly the sort of child that will either lose help, or be 'shuffled' out of the school. But her CURRENT school and the only other feasible option travelling-wise are BOTH in the seven schools that are becoming Academies.

Will there be anywhere I can go to if the school stop giving her the SEN help that she has been getting? Because the current level she is getting is VERY much down to the school being extra helpful - in fact it's WHY she is at this school - they offered more than twice the amount of help to pupils on SA+ as any other local school, but from September this year, I have had no end of problems, including my DD being left with no English teacher for the entire first half term, there being no LSA in a lot of her lessons, school being very evasive, blah blah blah (still ongoing).

Can they put in the application anyway, before they have even started the consultation period? EVERY parent I have spoken to whose dc attend the school do not want the school to become an Academy - it is a fairly well performing school, good results, is apparently the wealthiest comprehensive school in Essex, so doesn't need the extra Academy money IYSWIM.

I chose the school based on the fact that it WASN'T an Academy - now halfway through my DD's time there, they are doing this. And I'm not paying out for a new uniform - if they want to change the bloody uniform, THEY can give me the 3 sets I'll need for FREE. The uniform my DD currently has is in adult sizes and will last until she leaves. I need 3 sets so she has one on, one wet in the machine, and one drying on the airer (no tumbler). I also chose this school in part BECAUSE it has a traditional Blazer / shirt / tie uniform. I don't want a scruffy polo shirt and sweatshirt combo! (Which is what all the other local schools that are already Academies have done).

I'm worried and scared about the school possibly getting rid of all LSA's for dc without statements, about there being no real way to complain to the LEA if the school is doing something wrong, I don't want this, neither do many (any?) of the parents, what can I do to try to stop the school? Which seems a bit fruitless, as IMO they have already made the decision no matter what the objections of the parents are, because they have already submitted the Academy application, with a view to it changing in Spring 2012.

WHAT, if anything can I do? How can I get the other parents that I know are unhappy involved? Is there ANY way to stop this?

Firstly, calm down. Changing to an academy is unlikely to involve any massive changes. The school I teach in is becoming one in January, and I for one was surprised to discover that we are the 14th out of 15 local schools to do so. The other 13 have changed without any noticeable differences to staff, children or parents.

If you are concerned, then talk to the school- really.

It seems to me that the majority of schools are, or will be academies soon. The government seems to want this and many LAs seem to have little choice. Once the majority of schools in an area have changed, it stops being cost effective for LAs to provide certain services and so schools are "encouraged" to become academies. However, they're so common place now that these changes changes you're concerned about are unlikely to be as negative or as dramatic as you dread.

our school did this too - no change really

Dc,s school became an academy in march and there has been no noticeble changes.

Yes, but I am concerned about the fact that the Press release about it is quoting GCSE figures that have been averaged out over the seven schools - thus making the other six school's results seem better than they actually are, and DD's school's results seem worse.

Does this mean that as they are looking to become a Consortium of Academies - we will not be able to find out what the individual school's GSCE results are in future? I am also worried that funds from DD's school will be diverted to some of the other six schools, leaving DD's school with less money to pay for, say, LSA'a for dc that are on SA+ (that should have statements but don't due to Essex LA's illegal 'blanket rule' about how low academic levels have to be before statementing, but that's a whole other thread).

It's practically impossible to get a statement for a dc in Essex that is in Mainstream school and doesn't have Behavioural Difficulties - in fact it's bloody hard even when they DO have behavioural difficulties. So we are already at the mercy of how much help each individual school feels like offering dc that are on SA+. At least at the moment we have the LEA to go to, to complain to if the school doesn't do what it says it will, if the school are failing our dc. What happens if when it becomes an Academy - the Secretary of State cannot possibly deal with all complaints from all Academies in a timely fashion - i.e. before that particular dc's education is ruined. The system works slowly enough with it being run on a local level - can you imagine how bad it will be on a national level?

It's the SEN issue that really worries me - I have read on IPSEA about how dc WITH STATEMENTS will be protected - but there is absolutely NO information out there online about how dc on SA or SA+ will be protected. No information about how you can ensure that the level of help you and the school agreed on before your dc started there over two years ago isn't eroded or taken away completely just because the school has decided to become an Academy. There are already LOTS of people in my town whose dc have had 'managed moves' to the local PRU not because of bad behaviour - but because they are SEN and their school has already become an Academy. I am only so worried because of people I know that have had recent experience of this locally.

They cannot start the consultation process until they have registered interest in converting to academy status and been assigned a contact within the DfE who will support them through the conversion process. They can start the consultation later in the process but it must be completed before the DfE will approve the Funding Agreement.

If the school becomes an academy it will receive some extra funding for your child (and any other children on School Action or School Action Plus) over and above the extra funding they receive for all the children in the school. If the school is already offering a lot of help there is no reason for that to change. That doesn't mean it won't change, of course, and the problems you have been having in the last few weeks are worrying, although they may be unrelated.

It is likely that the school will still have the same management team following conversion and the governing body is also likely to be largely unchanged apart from a reduction in the number of LA appointed governors.

After conversion the LA will remain responsible for monitoring all SEN provision in the academy, not just for children with statements, so you will still be able to complain to them if you are unhappy. From what you say the LA may not force the school to stick with its current level of provision but they should certainly ensure that the school does not fall below acceptable standards.

Statistics are hard to come by but as far as I can tell academies are no more likely to manage out SEN pupils than maintained schools. A pupil with SEN is around eight to nine times as likely to be permanently excluded as a non-SEN pupil. SEN pupils are also more likely to receive fixed term exclusions (legal) and informal or unofficial exclusions (illegal). People get worked up about academy SEN exclusion rates but seem happy to accept this kind of disparity in maintained schools, which I find very odd.

You will still be able to find out the GCSE results for each individual school within the consortium. Your school therefore has a vested interest in ensuring that it is not damaged by its participation in the consortium.

Just to clarify a point having just read your last post again, if you have agreed a level of provision with the school I would expect the LA to enforce that as part of its role in monitoring SEN provision. However, I would not expect the LA to enforce any provision that goes beyond the agreed level.

Also - the LACSEG money is calculated using the pupil figures from January 2009 - but the 2010 intak and the 2011 intake were 90 pupils in each year group higher than the previous years - so the school actually has 180 pupils MORE on roll than they did in January 2009. So surely the school would NOT be any better off once that was factored in? Surely the SEN provision would have to drop?

Problem is, that since this September - conveniently the same time as the School would have applied for Academy status - the level of SEN provision for my DD has dropped significantly. And I have heard rumours (I know the plural of anectodes is not data, but it is from a fairly reliable source) that the HT's of some of the other, erm, less desirable schools will be leaving, and the consortium will have 2 HT's to cover seven schools.

Which is VERY concerning given the size of these schools (none are small Secondaries), and the fact that this is exactly the situation at the OTHER Academy Consortium in my town - one HT for 3 schools. And standards have suffered at all THREE schools. And also for the fact that some of these seven schools are 30-odd miles apart.

And as for the school not changing - before this year, while my DD was in Y7 and Y8, I could do nothing but sing my praises for the school, for the level of SEN help they gave my DD, for the amount of progress my DD had made over those two years (she started Y7 working TOWARDS NC level 1). Since this September, when she started Y9, it is like there has been a total sea change at the school - which is why I am SO worried.

BUT, prh47bridge - WHO deems what are acceptable levels of support once a school is an Academy - The LEA? The Secretary of State? What qualifies as an acceptable level of support? IMO the only acceptable level of support is one that allows my DD to just about scrape a 'C' grade GCSE in at least 5 subjects including English and Maths - anything else is not an acceptable amount of support IMO - and no-one uses THAT as a criteria!

So what IS an acceptable level of support? My DD needs LSA support in EVERY lesson to fully access the curriculum - not 1-2-1, but as part of a small group. She was getting this in Y7 and Y8 - but the LSA's seem to have totally disappeared now she is in Y9, she is going from having an LSA to call on if she needed help every lesson, to having 2 timetabled hours a week in a small group with the LSA in the learning support zone. That's a heck of a drop IMO. But because the school were basically offering my DD 'statement' level support without her having a statement - there is no obligation on them to continue.

So, now the SenCo is being evasive and won't contact me to speak to me about the reviewed level of support, the Dep. HoY refuses to answer my calls, and still hasn't contacted me back about how she is going to sort out the fact that the school left DD without an English teacher for half a term - I was told that the school would put something in place and get back to me - nada, none of my calls answered either.

Can't tell me that there hasn't been a sea change in attitudes towards SEN pupils at the school - it's not just me having this problem - 7 other parents with SEN dc at the school have spoken to me in the last week about issues like this!

Upon more intensive Googling - I have found out that 3 of the seven schools that will be included in this Consortium are the three that are already Academies - the ones where one HT covers all 3 schools. Then DD's school would be the fourth school - and the other 3 are in different towns.

I don't know where you get your information that LACSEG is calculated using the pupil figures from January 2009 but that is wrong.

LACSEG is the additional money the school receives for the services no longer provided by the LA and only forms a small part of the academy's funding. The LACSEG portion of the funding for the financial year that started in September 2011 (for academies - maintained schools started their financial year in April) was calculated using the LA's accounts for 2010/11. This gives the amount of additional funding per pupil the academy will receive.

The actual amount of money received by an academy for the financial year that begins in September 2011 will depend on the number of children on the roll on a date in January 2011. It will therefore receive funding for the additional 180 pupils you mention.

Funding for SEN children is frequently misunderstood or misrepresented. Most SEN funding remains with the LA which continues to be responsible for ed psych, assessments, statementing and so on. The only item the school has to fund is SEN support services, i.e. the services provided to students such as your child. The amount it receives under this heading depends on the number of pupils on School Action or School Action Plus. Again, that is the number in the January before the start of the financial year.

Some pupils with SEN require expensive tailored provision. That remains the responsibility of the LA. The LA continue to receive the money from central government for this. If an academy has such children it will receive a grant from the LA for each child and the LA will stipulate the services to be provided to that child.

Every school that is performing well when it converts to academy status is required to support a school that is struggling. However, I would share your concern about the plans regarding head teachers if that proves to be true. Whether or not that approach would work depends on the strength of the management team they put in place under the head teachers.

I understand your concern about the changes that have taken place in the last few weeks. They may be related to the conversion to academy status but they may be completely unrelated. I would suspect the latter as changes are more likely after conversion than before (after all, they want to minimise objections) but I may be wrong. I think you need to get to the bottom of that and, if necessary, complain to the LA. If the reason for the changes is independent of the move to convert to academy status your daughter would continue to suffer even if you stopped the conversion from going ahead.

The LA is responsible for ensuring adequate SEN provision at the school. They are responsible for determining what constitutes an adequate level of provision. If you are unhappy with decisions made by the LA you may be able to appeal to SENDIST.

I would not pretend there hasn't been a change in the treatment of SEN children at your school. From the information you have posted it is clear that things have changed. My only question is why. As the school wants to convert to academy status I would expect them to want to keep parents of SEN children onside to avoid damaging publicity. That is why I suspect the change may be independent of the conversion plans. But I may be wrong and I would encourage you to investigate. Don't give up until you get some answers. If necessary complain to the LA.

OH, don't worry, prh47bridge - I am phoning the Dep. HoY again tomorrow, and if I do not get some answers on what TF is going on, I WILL be getting in touch with the LEA and writing a snotty letter to the school Governors.

I am also attending the meeting on the 29th about the Academy conversion, and want to ask some searching questions on how SEN provision will work once the school becomes an Academy. Especially for those pupils on SA and SA+.

I would have expected the school to want to keep the parents of SEN pupils onside during the process - but I suspect that the reason they aren't bothering is because the needs of their pupils on SA and SA+ will directly affect their budget once they become an Academy, as the LACSEG money has NO obligation to be spent on pupils on SA and SA+, the spending of the LACSEG money is devloved to the school. SO I feel that they are 'testing the waters' so to speak, to see how vocal the parents of SEN pupils at the school are when it comes to disappearing provision.

IEP appointments seem to have vanished this year too - DD was meant to have one to assess her IEP at the start of the year - it still hasn't been booked and the SenCo has not been returning my calls. .

If you are having to rely on what your dc with SEN is telling you about disappearing provision - it is not necessarily very reliable, depending on their SEN.

Do you have any leading questions that I should be asking at this meeting?

At the End of Y6 DD was working towards level 1 in ALL subjects. At the end of Y8 she was working on level 2-4, depending on subject. Level 2's in some, level 3 in most, including Maths, level 4 (just) in English.

Surely if she went from p scales at the end of Y6 to level 4 in English - then given the right help in the right amount, scraping a 'C' grade GCSE is possible?

Her science test this week she managed to get level 5l - her first level 5! But that is over half a term into Y9.

I don't think my goals for DD are over inflated, IF the school continues to help her in the same way they were in Y7 and Y8. However, if Academy status is going to affect the level of help they are going to give her, then yes, it is overambitious. It is all dependant on the amount of help she gets.

I dont think you need to panic about the Academy status. Our school has just converted and the only difference it makes is that we get more money - ie the £400k the LA used to cream off every year for the benefit of their virtually non-existent 'services' comes directly to us.

if they are converting now, it will be a 'second phase' conversion, meaning that it is NOT because it is a failing school, as many/most of the first phase were.

they are very unlikely to make any sweeping changes to anything to do with the day to day running of the school.

being in partnership with other local schools is a real benefit; dont want to out myself, but we are in a partnership with some others and it allows all the schools involved access to different areas of expertise, students can have more flexible options esp at A level, and down the line we can reduce costs on certain things through increased buying power.

I would just keep on top of the situation with your school and your DD, and it sounds as if you are doing that.

DCs school has also become an academy. I have seen little difference. It still has its specialist unit for SEN. As far as I can remember the schools have to work in partnership with at least one other school.
Also I would think from what you have said that Essex is struggling to recruit head teachers, and would move to a more federated model anyway (you don't have to be an academy to become a federation). I have seen this work well in one case locally, but it does depend on the heads involved. As far as I see it each school still needs their own headteacher, but they have an executive head for the federation.

As we were told at DC's school - " a consultation isn't a rolling ballot ,you can't just vote for what you want "
Indeed not .
94 % of stakeholders said that they didn't want Academy status .
We got Academy status ,and a completely different ,very changed school from the one we sent our children to .
Not better in any way ,worse in many .
IME consultations are just expensive ,legally required ,tick box exercises .

I have been looking into the arrangements for SEN support services in Essex. These do differ from LA to LA.

Some LAs provide all SEN support services centrally. The schools therefore don't receive any money for this but draw on the central support as required.

Most LAs provide little or nothing in the way of central SEN support services. Instead they expect schools to pay for such services out of their general budget. The funding per pupil for maintained schools in these LAs does not depend on the number of SEN pupils. A school with a high proportion of SEN children would therefore potentially be at a disadvantage, although they would receive additional funding for any children that need tailored services.

The last government encouraged LAs to move to the latter model, i.e. providing little or nothing in the way of central SEN support services. Essex is one of the LAs that works in this way. Your school is therefore ALREADY in the position that its budget is directly affected by the needs of pupils on SA and SA+, and it has been in this situation for several years. The more money they spend on these pupils the less they have to spend on other things.

You say that an academy has no obligation to spend any of the LACSEG money on SA and SA+ pupils. That isn't strictly true. The LA will monitor the academy to ensure that it is making adequate provision. More importantly, the school has been in that position for a number of years. It just gets a lump of money from the LA. No part of that money is designated for SEN support services (ignoring children needing tailored services). They are under no obligation to spend any of it on SEN support services provided the LA is happy that they are making adequate provision.

If your school converts to Academy status it will have slightly more to spend on SA and SA+ pupils - around £53 each. This figure is so low because that is all Essex provide in the way of central support services for SEN children. So, discounting this small amount of additional funding, your school will be in exactly the same position for funding SEN support services after conversion as it has been for the last few years.

If you have any questions to ask about SEN provision feel free to ask them here. I am familiar with exactly how SEN funding works in academies and who is responsible for what. Unfortunately some schools undergoing conversion don't understand how SEN provision will work and muddy the waters by giving incorrect answers. But don't let me stop you from asking them!

Just my pennyworth on Grade C GCSE because my daughter is a very hardworking borderline C/D student. She is in year 11.

She gained in her year 6 SATS :

English 3b
Maths 4c
Science 4c

Solid level 5's in year 9.

She has made excellent progress in English and has a target of C but actually achieved a D in year 10 (early sitting)
She has made good progress in Maths and is targetted a C but is currently working at C/D borderline level.
She struggles in Science. Her hardwork may bring her a C and a D in double science but, currently, I think it is more likely to be D,D.

Obviously support your child and aim for the best for her and ensure she has the help she needs at school. It's not all about help at school - it also depends on her ability as well and if she does anything out of school (they have a huge amount of time not in school). However, if she were my child, I don't think C's are realistic unless she hits solid level 5's in year 9 and has the capacity to continue to improve well right through to year 11. We ensured, for our daughter, that the strengths she shows are supported to the hilt, so she has that to fuel self esteem and maybe a future career.

As long as she scrapes a 'C' in Maths and English, I will be relatively happy. I KNOW she will get an A/B in Catering, (the area she wants to work in), and I think she should manage a 'C' in science - she is just getting Lvl 5's now, so I imagine she will be a secure lvl 5 at the end of Y9. I'm oping that when she chooses her options, the school will let her do resistant materials as well as catering - because that would guarantee her another 'C' grade. But that is timetable dependant...which is soooo frustrating. DD would be able to get many more 'C' grade GCSE's if she could take Catering, Resistant materials AND Textiles. She was working at level 5 at the end of Y8 in all those subjects - but the chance of her getting to do all 3 is non-existant, which is soooo frustrating.

And if she doesnt scrape a C in E, M and S? I personally think you should be happy for her if she reaches her target grades and very proud of her if she exceeds them, whatever they are.

Take a look at her schools stats for 5 A* to C in E and M because they are the best public statistic which indicates how many children actually nail both subjects. In our, pretty reasonable comprehensive, we have about 50-60% gain these grades in both subjects. There are a lot of children who do not manage at 16 to gain these grades.

I would be absolutely astonished if a student on a level 3 in Y8 in maths got a C at GCSE. It is unlikely that she will keep up the level of progress from y7 as to go up past level 5 will require algebra and a shift to more abstract thinking which can be too much for some.

You possibly need to manage your expectations in that area.