Forced academisation - any experiences?

[Chocovore]

This is a possibility for our primary now. Has anyone experience of this?

Also, are academies always bad news for the pupils and staff? Would be grateful for any insight.

[soapboxqueen]

It all depends on the sponsor. some sponsors are ok, I've heard the co-op are alright. Some are not so good.

In all honesty the children won't notice much of a difference at least initially except for possibly a name and uniform change.

Some sponsors will make big changes to staff contracts which may mean some leave. Some will come in and get rid of all staff and start again.

Almost every case is different so it is hard to tell how individual schools will be affected.

[Chocovore]

Thanks for that. The latter part sounds rather alarming. :-(

[manyhands]

Well, I'm not a supporter of academies because they can be run for profit and rather more alarmingly are under none of the same obligations that LA schools are for example they can select pupils based on ability and can refuse children in care or those with special needs. There explusion rates can be very high Wilmshaw (Ofsted head) excluded a huge number of children in his first year running his academy and you have to wonder if there results are as much to do with selection as management. Teachers also really loose out, losing many of the pay and condition rights they would have had previously.

[prh47bridge]

Well, I'm not a supporter of academies because they can be run for profit and rather more alarmingly are under none of the same obligations that LA schools are for example they can select pupils based on ability and can refuse children in care or those with special needs

None of that is true. Academies cannot be run for profit, they cannot select pupils based on ability and they cannot refuse children in care or those with special needs.

Some academies have had very high expulsion rates. The question (to which I don't know the answer) is whether that was necessary to sort out a pre-existing discipline problem or a way of getting rid of less able children.

Teachers do not lose terms and conditions immediately as they are subject to TUPE. Similarly I don't know any academy conversion that has got rid of all existing employees and started again. It is, however, true that academies can set their own terms and conditions for new staff.

[soapboxqueen]

They can set their own admissions criteria. A new academy is looking to open here for September and they are selecting 25 percent of their intake based on their subject specialism.Not entirely sure what it means but sounds like selection by ability.

[prh47bridge]

It isn't technically selection by academic ability. It is a continuation of the specialist schools set up by the last government that were allowed to select a proportion of their intake based on aptitude for the specialist subject. Having said that I'm surprised they are being allowed to select 25% - that is a lot more than is normally permitted. Of course, this is in the primary schools forum and a primary school definitely wouldn't be allowed to do this.

[soapboxqueen]

But if their specialist subject is a core subject then it sort of will be academic selection. The school I'm referring to will be a 3-18 academy.

[soapboxqueen]

Just checked and they have changed their criteria and have excluded the specialism criteria for the primary phase. The limit has been set at 10 percent for high school.

Maybe someone pointed out that they couldn't do what they had originally planned.