Academies

I don't really like the idea of them anyway, but at least when Labour did it, it was for the worst schools and to an extent it did help them. The Tories now want to do it for effectively only the best schools. What an awful idea, it'll just create a two tiered system as the best schools just suck up all the resources in sight.

Not only this, but it appears that all the schools will be directly answerable to the Education department rather than local authorities. It's a bit worrying the amount of control this will give Michael Gove.

You obviously don't understand the proposal

1) Under this scheme the schools will be removed from the control of those nasty, commie, LEAs, who top slice 99% of the education budget to spend on junkets and mayoral Jags.

2) The schools will have more control over teachers pay & conditions, reinforcing the ability of the better schools to siphon off the more capable staff - after all, those chavvy council estate scum don't want to learn, so why should good teachers have to waste their time trying

3) The schools can 'opt out' of the national curriculum, and can choose which qualifications are most appropriate for their pupils. Without any comparative measure to determine between schools, as each follows it's own ideas, we can then do away with league tables, as they will be even more meaningless than they are now

On a more sensible note : If the schools are out of LEA control, who deals with school admissions, and who mediates disputes and over-subscription ?

Also there's the question of economy of scale. At the moment, all the Hants schools payroll, purchasing etc are dealt with centrally at Winchester.

Will all the opted out schools employ their own payroll clerks and buyers?

Who does buildings maintenance, cuts the grass etc. It's more cost effective to buy these services in bulk.

As the local authority will presumably will need less money for education, will my council tax go down?

As the local authority will presumably will need less money for education, will my council tax go down?

Probably not - school budgets are provisioned by central funding, and most LEA direct support functions are funded by 'top slicing' or charging, so when the school has a fully devolved budget, the LEA funding goes if the school sources services elsewhere.

This is a purely dogmatic policy, based on Tory conceit & prejudice. It will not improve standards, but will lead to an educational 'social apartheid'.

The original idea has been, IMHO, successful despite my initial misgivings.

However, this new idea seems to be nothing to do with the original ethos behind academies and simply a way of stripping away LEAs.

God forbid that they all go down the Thomas Telford route! No doubt those who have no idea how education works will think it's all rosy and good but, on my initail reading on the subject, I have major concerns regarding a two tier system.

I'd be more interested in how they are going to deal with the failures of primary schools in poor white areas which then feed into the secondary school sector. I'd like to think they'd have the sense to bundle in adult and family learning in these clusters as that approach is starting to have real results.

I also don't like the idea that all schools could under this be run for profit and have to produce business reports and stuff. A school is a place of learning, not a profit making machine. We should not be playing business with children's education.

I seem to remember a BBC radio report during the election that said the Tory policy was based on something they do in New York - and that 50% of new schools set up in this way as 'free' of local government control fail in the first 3 years, and have to be adopted by the state, and by 5 years it's about 90%.

So that works ;-)

I seem to remember a BBC radio report during the election that said the Tory policy was based on something they do in New York - and that 50% of new schools set up in this way as 'free' of local government control fail in the first 3 years, and have to be adopted by the state, and by 5 years it's about 90%.

 

So that works ;-)

Exactly, you need the local control to make sure schools stay on the beat and relevant. If you are trying to run them all from Whitehall it's just not going to work. Add to this the fact that the Tories want to only make the best schools academies, it looks like a typical Tory policy, once again forgetting the most vulnerable people and only serving those who already have it the best.

So the lefties arguement seems to be that these were a good thing when Labour set them up, but a bad thing now because the Tories AND Lib/Dems are prepared to embrace them?

So the lefties arguement seems to be that these were a good thing when Labour set them up, but a bad thing now because the Tories AND Lib/Dems are prepared to embrace them?

It's not shock to anyone that you're wrong.

Academies were being set up to replace failing schools; to drive up standards. Not for profit and tied into Building Better Schools For The Future

Academy status is now being aimed at the very best schools ahead of the others.

Even someone as limited as yourself should be able to understand that, but I doubt it.

I thought Gordon Bean preached "fairness" for all and equal chance for "every" child. Allowing every child to benefit from Academies is surely the right thing. There are 2 sides to this arguement, you are either against them, or for them.You seem to be for them for some and against them for others.

Oh by the way, Tony Blair, who set these up was quoted thus "In a few years time when all schools will be academies, we'll see a transformed education system."

http://www.northampton-academy.org/news/tony-blair-visits-northampton-academy

Do you know more than the bloke whose Govt set them up?

Yeah, because parents are going to know how to set up and run their own schools... DIY education generation!

I thought Gordon Bean preached "fairness" for all and equal chance for "every" child. Allowing every child to benefit from Academies is surely the right thing. There are 2 sides to this arguement, you are either against them, or for them.You seem to be for them for some and against them for others.

 

Oh by the way, Tony Blair, who set these up was quoted thus "In a few years time when all schools will be academies, we'll see a transformed education system."

 

http://www.northampton-academy.org/news/tony-blair-visits-northampton-academy

 

Do you know more than the bloke whose Govt set them up?

But every child won't benefit from academies!! It is only the outstanding schools that can automatically become academies, the rest of us have to apply. Therefore, while the best schools will get even MORE funding, the average/worst schools (who could easily be rejected from becoming academies) will be left to rot and die.

The original idea was that the WORST schools become academies so that they get the extra funding, and therefore a fairer system.