Mamie, I don't think people do realise what's going on. Where schools have chosen to become academies, it has been quite low profile and the result of consultation between governors and other interested parties. Also, in those cases where the school is judged successful, there is often no sponsor involved and the school itself may become a non-commercial sponsor of other schools. But Gove set a target of schools converting and when it appeared this target wasn't going to be met through volunteers, brought in this dreadful alliance between Ofsted (supposed to be independent body) and the DoE to find schools failing and force them to become academies. It's only the fuss about Roke that has made this process public. In my local area, one of the schools that became an academy in the Labour wave was failing twenty years ago and in spite of new buildings, is still in trouble. The school I attended - was grammar, then comp - converted without fanfare, was doing very well, is still doing very well, has been doing very well for a 100+ years.....the whole thing would be laughable nonsense if it weren't for the effect on a generation of children.