"Academies are all failing schools". is this true?

jog

When the current government came in they changed the criteria for becoming an accademy, as Charlieann said initially it was just the 'Outstanding' schools that were invited to become accademies, however, this has now moved on to other schools being invited to apply, it is my understanding that schools have more or less been told that they will all have to become accadamies over the next few years, and that any schools who don't wish to do so will eventually end up being managed by schools who are. This is of course assuming that there isn't a change of govd policy at some stage. The head and goveners at my son's school felt that there was a lot of pressure to become an accadamy before they were told to do it anyway, and they felt that getting in at the start gave them access to more funding that they otherwise could access.

My understanding is that this takes a lot of control away from the LEA's and that in time these departments will end up being reduced in size, although they will still oversee special needs and some more specialist areas.

gregg1

charlieann wrote: »

Schools which have become academies with the new government had to achieve an outstanding ofstead in order to apply. jog is right that they are more self-managing and are more independant from the LEA.
Schools which became academies with the old government were failing schools that they were trying to turn around.

That is completely incorrect.

maman

I don't know all the details but schools who have 'voluntarily' become academies or were 'invited' by this government mostly did it to gain extra money and to make the point that they were so good they would be fine without the support of Local Authorities. So all the government money is given to them directly and they buy in a minimum of HR support, legal advice etc. so leaving them more spare cash.

The 'sponsored' academies (I think that's the difference) are failing schools who have the support and funding from a group/trust who assume they can do better than the Local Authority did previously. A very few are even sponsored by public schools.

If it bothers you then you're right that Conditions of Service for teachers may be worsened. They already have had the go-ahead to employ unqualified people and existing teachers are likely to have hours changed etc.

apesxx

i think it is a mixture of outstanding and failing schools that are becoming academies. My DD's primary school has recently become an academy and it is ofsted outstanding and very over subscribed every year. In fact the only children admitted are the ones who's parents attend church regularly.

littlerat

My old secondary school became an music + english academy when I was there and definitely wasn't failing - it's been Ofsted Outstanding for years and has well above average numbers for A*-C grades.

Best to look at the schools as individual schools, not based on which happen to be academies.

marie-20

My children both go to our local academy school which was rated outstanding by Ofsted both before and after transferring over to an academy.

They transfered from a non-academy school (that used to be rated as outstanding but now above average) and they have come on leaps and bounds with their writing and math skills.

I do think that it depends on the individual schools rather than a blanket of academy schools are bad schools.

luxor4t

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

It was mentioned that academies are able to employ unqualified teachers -is this true?..............

Yes http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19017544

DianneB

My local high school was failing, went into special measures and there was talk of it becoming an academy, not sure what's happening now.

maman

littlerat wrote: »

My old secondary school became an music + english academy when I was there and definitely wasn't failing - it's been Ofsted Outstanding for years and has well above average numbers for A*-C grades.

Best to look at the schools as individual schools, not based on which happen to be academies.

I think that's a different initiative. Prior to academies, schools were able to apply for Specialist status (music, Pe, technology etc). Just like the academy thing, it was attractive to schools as it was a way of getting more money.

pulliptears

Both academies local to me were previously failing schools. The one that took academy status first has actually come on in leaps and bounds since the change. Probably too soon to comment on the second.

Worth noting that both of these schools had catchments in quite poor areas of the city.