Takeover by Academy Chain

[gingergingerginger]

My DS' school is about to be taken over by an academy chain due to recently getting a terrible ofsted. The takeover will probably commence in September.

What are people's experiences of this in a practical sense? Will the uniform be suddenly changed or will it be a phased change? Will subjects be binned? Can they do that in the middle of a course? What experiences do people have of their DC's schools being taken over?

The chain itself seems pretty hot on strong discipline and branded uniform, and that's about all I know so far.

Look at the schools within the chain. Do they all have similar uniform and discipline policies? Then expect that sort of thing to be implemented fairly quickly (maybe not for Y11).
Subjects may be binned, but probably not for kids in the middle of the course.

If the school got a terrible Ofsted then you should expect some rapid changes (including staff).

Hi ginger,
My Dc school was offically converted on October 1st 2018, after never been rated above satisifactory and in its last ofsted it got inadequate.
We where taken on by a local academy chain. We have a new name, same uniform but new badge, all pupils got free one to sew on. New pe kit, but year 11 and 10 can keep their old ones, rest just buy new as needed.
We have lost head teacher, only in post 18 months and most SLT. We have lost some teachers too. The chain put in an excutitive head.
There have been timetable changes, new opening hours, new rewards scheme and punishments.
We havent lost subjects yet, but there are new priorities and lot more student support for Dc in year 11, then when Dc1 was there.

Teachers havent changed alot, but where we are there is a massive recruitment problem, even for the best schools.

Its a new start which hopefully will improve the school, unfortunately too late for our Dc, but good news for neice and nephew.

Hope that helps, not sure many mumnetters kids go to schools like ours, most seem to send their kids private to avoid poor state schools.

Good luck to your Dc education, hopefully the school can only get better.

DS's school was converted to an academy before he started. Last year, that academy went bump so they have moved over to another chain.
The new academy took over about June time but have only just officially taken over if that make sense?
There was a change to the tie and there have been many different things changed but they all involve things like discipline, and they have signed up to loads of online teaching resources for homework.
The school were listed in the recent worst performing schools in the country so all of the changes they have made are hopefully for the best.
There is better communication, and you can see that they are hoping to turn things around. DS is in year 9, and they have said his year will hopefully be the turning point in Gcse's. They have started to offer more, for example current year 10s are now offered Further Maths, they have ensured that they have a full, permanent teaching staff (DS had 7 different Maths and 14 different Science teachers in years 7 & 8 because they were all on temporary contracts).
Looking online, it seems this new Academy chain is one of the better ones so I have high hopes.
Which academy chain is it?

Well no, "most" do not send their children to private schools. The majority on MN do not. However this is a fairly middle class forum but you get all sorts of parents with differing income levels. However many look to high performing state schools and are willing to move to get them!

My DNs go to an academy that changed to this whilst they were there. Again, many years of poor teaching and standards (50% supply teachers at one point) and useless leadership. Nothing but good has come of the change to an academy. The chain just has local schools and they have high expectations but are accommodating of all. Yes the uniform is a faff (from one shop across the other side of the city!) but in general they have recruited well and now it is a good school. It is well led and teachers actually want to teach there. That should be the main difference. Good leadership, a new dynamic and better teachers. No subject changes have been made (they did not have a huge choice anyway) but they are now doing 3 year GCSE so less "education" in the broadest sense.

However, some academy chains are not good. I think there was a report on the least good but I cannot remember who did it. Ofsted maybe? If you like the look of the schools the Academy chain runs, then they should have a clear understanding of what is required to turn the school around. I think sometimes small is better? More attention to detail and a knowledge of each school helps prioritise what is required.