My daughters school is becoming an academy. How much do I need to worry?

[killer b]

everywhere is going to be an academy soon enough, so while you should worry I don't expect there's really an alternative.

 

[May Kasahara]

Yes, lots of schools are jumping (into a MAT of their choice) before they're pushed (into a bunch of shitbirds like the Harris chain)

 

[spanglechick]

everywhere is going to be an academy soon enough, so while you should worry I don't expect there's really an alternative.

some of us are holding out.

 

[Mattym]

I work in one & seem to be asking more & more 'What good has academy status brought us?'
Absolutely bollock all!

 

[Flipstick]

i work at an academy too. I don't think that pupils have seen immediate changes but the teaching staff certainly feel undervalued and underpaid. It really rubs our noses in it when the head and his cronies keep changing the boundaries of what they expect us to do to get a measly pay rise but give each other a pat on the back and an extra 10k no questions asked. The ethos has certainly changed over the last decade as education has become a profit making business for the leaders of the academy (old boys club).

 

[Mattym]

i work at an academy too. I don't think that pupils have seen immediate changes but the teaching staff certainly feel undervalued and underpaid. It really rubs our noses in it when the head and his cronies keep changing the boundaries of what they expect us to do to get a measly pay rise but give each other a pat on the back and an extra 10k no questions asked. The ethos has certainly changed over the last decade as education has become a profit making business for the leaders of the academy (old boys club).

I teach humanities in a London academy & a friend from another nearby academy told me this story the other day-

'We were told the other day that we are a 'not for profit organisation'. Yet, the head of the academy conglomeration has been earning around 180 grand per year. Slightly contradictory I find & disgusting!!! The whole driving force over the last couple of years has been to achieve economies of scale & the resulting profit, by driving up class sizes, getting rid of staff as a result & then trying to get rid of the more expensive older staff/ any dissenters & then bring in non-qualified staff (on cheaper contracts) or use existing staff to teach outside of their subject specialisms, where there are gaps in the timetable due to staff redundancies. The curriculum has been streamlined- or dumbed down, again to keep staffing down to a minimum. There is no drive to give pupils a decent future, it's seen as great if that happens as a by-product, but what really matters is that they leave here having achieved their target grade, according to their predicted 'flight path'. All pupil groupings are generated by an obsession with levels or reading ages, thus meaning that our & other schools have taken their eyes off that all-important thing-behaviour.
The staff has had no professional development since becoming an academy, due to unions & the academy conglomerate failing to reach an agreement over the number of permitted lesson observations each year. The trust arguing that this can be as many as it sees fit- so my colleagues & I have not received any of the most recent training, especially in terms of the new curriculum.
We became an academy in economic hardship, with the promise that this would be eased over the coming years. This hasn't happened, so we are now taking in all pupils that wish to have a place & due to the increased class sizes, there is not always somewhere to place them. So you have pupils starting a GCSE in year 11, having never studied that subject before. Not to mention those pupils who have been permanently excluded/ Managed moved from other schools.
It's akin to working under the worst of the austerity-driven tories, with the worst of the Nazi party- where nobody is allowed to be different & everybody is trying to impress the great leader.
In all fairness, many of these things are happening in many other places, but we never used to be like this a few years ago.'

I didn't no what to say to him in response!!!

 

[baldrick]

I teach humanities in a London academy & a friend from another nearby academy told me this story the other day-

'We were told the other day that we are a 'not for profit organisation'. Yet, the head of the academy conglomeration has been earning around 180 grand per year. Slightly contradictory I find & disgusting!!! The whole driving force over the last couple of years has been to achieve economies of scale & the resulting profit, by driving up class sizes, getting rid of staff as a result & then trying to get rid of the more expensive older staff/ any dissenters & then bring in non-qualified staff (on cheaper contracts) or use existing staff to teach outside of their subject specialisms, where there are gaps in the timetable due to staff redundancies. The curriculum has been streamlined- or dumbed down, again to keep staffing down to a minimum. There is no drive to give pupils a decent future, it's seen as great if that happens as a by-product, but what really matters is that they leave here having achieved their target grade, according to their predicted 'flight path'. All pupil groupings are generated by an obsession with levels or reading ages, thus meaning that our & other schools have taken their eyes off that all-important thing-behaviour.
The staff has had no professional development since becoming an academy, due to unions & the academy conglomerate failing to reach an agreement over the number of permitted lesson observations each year. The trust arguing that this can be as many as it sees fit- so my colleagues & I have not received any of the most recent training, especially in terms of the new curriculum.
We became an academy in economic hardship, with the promise that this would be eased over the coming years. This hasn't happened, so we are now taking in all pupils that wish to have a place & due to the increased class sizes, there is not always somewhere to place them. So you have pupils starting a GCSE in year 11, having never studied that subject before. Not to mention those pupils who have been permanently excluded/ Managed moved from other schools.
It's akin to working under the worst of the austerity-driven tories, with the worst of the Nazi party- where nobody is allowed to be different & everybody is trying to impress the great leader.
In all fairness, many of these things are happening in many other places, but we never used to be like this a few years ago.'

I didn't no what to say to him in response!!!

Where I work is becoming an academy in April. We are already seeing some of this happening. Middle leaders are leaving in threes and being 'replaced' by people on secondment from elsewhere in the trust. Some subjects have hardly any specialist teachers.

We spent Monday at an expensive conference with the other 6 schools in the trust, a month after loads of support staff redundancies were announced because apparently the school has no money due to falling roll.

 

[Mattym]

Where I work is becoming an academy in April. We are already seeing some of this happening. Middle leaders are leaving in threes and being 'replaced' by people on secondment from elsewhere in the trust. Some subjects have hardly any specialist teachers.

We spent Monday at an expensive conference with the other 6 schools in the trust, a month after loads of support staff redundancies were announced because apparently the school has no money due to falling roll.

I don't like it one bit baldric, just showing a bit of support.

 

[not-bono-ever]

primary school in peckham has just moved out of a federation setup back into LA hands after governor vote. the federation walked as soon as the announcement was made, rather than see out the term, taking the federation staffers with them - like 30% of the staff I think.

no idea of background or motivation in this but its going to be a shitty few months for the school and kids

 

[sim667]

primary school in peckham has just moved out of a federation setup back into LA hands after governor vote. the federation walked as soon as the announcement was made, rather than see out the term, taking the federation staffers with them - like 30% of the staff I think.

no idea of background or motivation in this but its going to be a shitty few months for the school and kids

A lot of academies are mismanaged financially, I bet the federation setup was out of odds very much with the governors.

 

[killer b]

primary school in peckham has just moved out of a federation setup back into LA hands after governor vote. the federation walked as soon as the announcement was made, rather than see out the term, taking the federation staffers with them - like 30% of the staff I think.

no idea of background or motivation in this but its going to be a shitty few months for the school and kids

have you a link for this?

 

[not-bono-ever]

nopes.cant see anything on the net and I am loathe to disclose school or federation until it is made public

 

[sim667]

primary school in peckham has just moved out of a federation setup back into LA hands after governor vote. the federation walked as soon as the announcement was made, rather than see out the term, taking the federation staffers with them - like 30% of the staff I think.

no idea of background or motivation in this but its going to be a shitty few months for the school and kids

Is it a Harris one? They seem to be good at secondary, but piss poor at primary.

 

[killer b]

For certain values of 'good'

 

[sim667]

For certain values of 'good'

In the context of an OFSTED "good"

Considering OFSTED's sole purpose is to make teachers despise their jobs, the Harris academies must have a large amount of unfulfilled teaching staff.

 

[spanglechick]

Is it a Harris one? They seem to be good at secondary, but piss poor at primary.

Orly?

You might want to look at their comparative staff turnover figures... They are horrible exam factories with no passion or life, and a culture of forcing staff to fit their stepford mould (seriously, Harris teachers even almost all look alike), or bullying them out.

 

[sim667]

Orly?

You might want to look at their comparative staff turnover figures... They are horrible exam factories with no passion or life, and a culture of forcing staff to fit their stepford mould (seriously, Harris teachers even almost all look alike), or bullying them out.

Post #45

 

[stethoscope]

Fucks sake.

Every English school to become an academy, ministers to announce

Every English school to become an academy, ministers to announce

Legislation to turn every school in England into an academy independent of local authority control will be unveiled in the budget on Wednesday.

Draft leglislation, to be published possibly as early as Thursday, will begin the process of implementing a pledge made by David Cameron in his conference speech last autumn.

The prime minister said his “vision for our schooling system” was to place education into the hands of headteachers and teachers rather than “bureaucrats”.

The move follows criticism of the government for going into stasis during the referendum campaign. Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, are keen to show that they are in charge of a “reforming” government.

Sources told the Guardian that the plans would be a key part of Osborne’s budget on Wednesday in order to start the process before officials are forced to shut down work because of the purdah ahead of the May elections and EU referendum.

As the chancellor prepares to announce his budget against the backdrop of a deteriorating economic outlook, the government is keen to show that it is pressing ahead with reforms, despite the looming referendum.

The chancellor has faced claims of backing away from major reforms after he dropped proposals for a radical overhaul of tax relief for pension contributions.

Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, who has been touted as a potential rival to Osborne for the Conservative leadership when the prime minister steps down, is expected to give more details of the plan for the education shakeup when she opens the House of Commons debate on the budget on Thursday.

She will also appear on the BBC’s Question Time programme on Thursday evening. The Treasury refused to comment.

The plans are likely to be fiercely rejected by Labour, which argues that taking thousands of schools out of council control means that accountability and oversight falls on to Whitehall alone.

Lucy Powell, the shadow schools minister, said there was “no evidence to suggest that academisation in and of itself leads to school improvement”.

She pointed out that the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, had written to the secretary of state for education highlighting serious weaknesses in academy chains.

“How the government can plough ahead with the wholesale academisation of all schools in light of his evidence beggars belief. We want to see robust accountability and oversight of all schools regardless of type,” she said.

Powell accused the government of offering nothing new , saying ministers should focus instead on teacher shortages, school places and inequalities.

But the legislation is very likely to pass because the issue is widely supported by Conservatives, and the SNP would probably abstain on any votes affecting English education.

The white paper will come just days before the government’s education and adoption bill is made law.

That bill was introduced to “sweep away bureaucratic and legal loopholes” and speed up the process of academisation of failing schools by taking them out of local authority control and putting them in the hands of academy sponsors.

When the education and adoption bill was introduced, the government estimated that up to 1,000 “failing” schools would be turned into academies as a result of its provisions.
Of the more than 24,000 schools in England, about 5,000 are academies – 85% of primaries are still in local authority control – which gives some insight into the scale of the task ahead.

This latest legislation, however, takes the process further by putting into law the prime minister’s stated intention before the election to turn all schools – not just those that are failing – into academies.

The role of the local authority in the education of the nation’s children, which has been gradually eroded with the introduction of academies, will be virtually brought to an end by such legislation. More than half of secondary schools are academies, but most primaries remain under local authority control.

Schools and councils have been bracing themselves since the prime minister first outlined his education vision – they will be keen to know now the detail in terms of timing and process.

Former education secretary Michael Gove, who launched the Tories’ education plans, originally considered making all schools academies but pulled back at that stage because of the challenges it would pose.

Concerns have already been raised about whether there would be enough good sponsors to take on schools. With many more schools facing academisation, that task will be even greater at a time when some academy trusts are facing criticism for under-achievement.

MPs sitting on the education select committee announced this week they would be launching an inquiry into multiple academy trusts after a series of Ofsted inspections raised concerns.

Last week, the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, told Morgan that England’s largest academy chains had “serious weaknesses”, as bad as the local authorities they were intended to replace.

In a memo to the education secretary, he said: “Many of the trusts manifested the same weaknesses as the worst-performing local authorities and offered the same excuses. Indeed, one chief executive blamed parents for pupils’ poor attendance affecting pupils’ performance.

“There has been much criticism in the past of local authorities failing to take swift action with struggling schools. Given the impetus of the academies programme to bring about rapid improvement, it is of great concern that we are not seeing this in these seven MATs [multi-academy trusts] and that, in some cases, we have even seen decline.”

Teachers’ unions, who have been critical of the academisation process, said parents and teachers would be outraged. Kevin Courtney, the deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: “Finally the government has come clean on its education priorities and admitted that its real agenda all along has been that every school must become an academy.

“The fig leaf of ‘parental choice’, ‘school autonomy’ and ‘raising standards’ has finally been dropped and the government’s real agenda has been laid bare – all schools removed from collaborative structures within a local authority family of schools, all schools instead run by remote academy trusts, unaccountable to parents, staff or local communities.”

 

[killer b]

everywhere is going to be an academy soon enough, so while you should worry I don't expect there's really an alternative.

Like I said.

 

[spanglechick]

I'm struggling to articulate my visceral anxiety reading that. I haven't stopped crying yet. I feel... Panic.

 

[StoneRoad]

my sympathy spanglechick - my OH took early retirement after the new head (not sure if the school was an academy by then) developed what can only be described as a bullying culture.

 

[spanglechick]

my sympathy spanglechick - my OH took early retirement after the new head (not sure if the school was an academy by then) developed what can only be described as a bullying culture.

I'm 42. I have almost thirty more years. B

 

[Winot]

I'm struggling to articulate my visceral anxiety reading that. I haven't stopped crying yet. I feel... Panic.

Not sure if this will help, but one of the problems seems to be that there aren't enough academy chains to go round. So maybe this won't get off the ground or make much difference in practice.

 

[spanglechick]

Not sure if this will help, but one of the problems seems to be that there aren't enough academy chains to go round. So maybe this won't get off the ground or make much difference in practice.

Not all academies are chains, but anyway, in s London we have one of the most expansionist chains in the country.

 

[Winot]

Not all academies are chains, but anyway, in s London we have one of the most expansionist chains in the country.

Are you worried your old employer will take over your new school?

 

[spanglechick]

Are you worried your old employer will take over your new school?

Yes. Beyond words.

 

[Flipstick]

5 teachers write about their experiences working in academies in today's Guardo:
Five teachers reveal what it's like to work in an academy | Sarah Marsh