School governors and academies

Exactly parallel with care homes - they are all private now and staffed with the cheapest people they can get hold of in order to maximise profit.

Writing as a resident grandmother of a 3-generation family and as a parent governor when my two children were at school, my grandchild is now happily established at a free school and, parents and grandmother, we are highly delighted at the great quality of teaching and care. Our Local Authority let us down on finding a płace for our 4 year old, and we are grateful for a remarkably excellent alternative. Free schools are not a cause for despair or anger.

Writing as grandmother of four, ages ranging from 8 to 23, I am quite happy with all the local authority schools that my children and grandchildren have been to.
The only problem school was the academy.

Interesting thread. Feel much better informed. Thank you all.

It's not unheard, of when schools are given charge of their whole budget, for the staffing structure to be changed (including fanciful job titles and salaries to match for some) and existing staff made to apply for their own (or indeed others') jobs. I have witnessed term time senior staff jollies to the USA and Scandinavia to observe their school organisation (no change when they arrived back). Admin teams with no educational background are suddenly necessary and money is found to pay for them. Money is clawed back from the people who are supposed to be central to the existence of the education system - Yes! It's the children who lose out. I even know of a school that became a 'Christian' academy where money was saved by axing a number of special needs assistants. This was explained to the children by reassuring them that, if they had problems accessing the curriculum, God would help them!

Well God help us all!

politicalscrapbook.net/2016/03/why-the-government-quietly-buried-news-of-a-big-academy-schools-scandal-yesterday/

A link to some of the things that government would like to keep quiet about: financial corruption in consortia running schools. Well, what a surprise!

Nicky Morgan should listen to the teachers who know what they are talking about and not bring about these sweeping changes without listening to them. I retired from teaching in a comprehensive 15 years ago and the system wasn't perfect then, but the idea of academies seems completely bonkers to me.
My friend's grand daughter, who is just 13 and very bright but sensitive, moved from her nice little primary school to a huge academy. On her first day there, she was put in detention because she arrived late for a lesson as she got lost and couldn't find the room. She was very fragile anyway, because her parents had split up and she had two new little step brothers from her mother's new relationship. Her much-loved aunt had also recently died from cancer in her thirties. The detention was the last straw.
She is now in her second year and is unable to go to classes as she is so damaged by her experience on her first day, combined with the size of the school and the other things going on in her life. In getting on for two years, the school has not managed to sort this out and she sits in a room on her own and is set work to do. Nobody seems to be bothered about this, and in the meantime, her education is suffering.
Bring back the grammar schools! Schools now are far too big and sensitive children get completely overwhelmed. I went to a grammar school, but bright children from sec mods could transfer if they were obviously in the wrong place. Sec mods gave you an excellent education - in fact, my then boyfriend went to a sec mod and got exactly the same number of good O -levels as I did. He then went on to an apprenticeship and got a very good job.
This one-size-fits-all idea doesn't do anybody any favours!

Agree with Luckygirl post of 1010am
Am I right in thinking there do not have to be 12 Governors anymore?

None of the teachers I know want the grammar schools back, not even those who taught in them.
They want smaller class sizes, and the chance to teach, with less paperwork and less testing.
There was an article I read about the fact that there is going to be more testing, of a cohort of unknown size, age 14 to 16, if I remember correctly, in English and maths, because obviously there is not enough at the moment.

I also read that half teaching staff are planning to leave over the next five years. I hope they've factored that into their plans.
Half the teachers leaving, half the NHS staff leaving. That's going to be a problem for their employment figures.
I'm feeling quite happy that their chickens are coming home to roost.

schoolsweek.co.uk/teachers-band-releases-anti-academies-punk-single-nicky-morgans-eyes/

Eight out of 10 schools are good or outstanding Currently LAs retain some money devolved by the DfE to provide various support services to schools. This includes HR/payroll/legal and insurance/ professional development support/ attendance support/monitoring of standards etc . The rest of the money goes to schools to pay staff/rates/utility bills/maintenance costs/IT/books & paper etc.etc. Academies and Free schools still have to have all these services they just sort it all themselves. There have been at least 6 cases where an Academy trust /Free school CEO appears to have been paying companies that they are also involved in to deliver the services. So not only earning a fair whack as CEO but gaining from awarding work to their own company. This is public money!!! In one case a Dating Agency was being run from an Academy too and a principal's son was having his training paid for. Accountability is not good!

Nicky Morgan stated that schools had improved since 2010. However, all the criteria have changed on which they are judged, so how does she know?

Nicky Morgan did not get it that the teachers were laughing when she said she wouldn't want to become a teacher.

On the latest list from DfE there are 150 named Academies that have recieved warning letters because the standards are deemed not good enough. We don't see this in the press.

phoebe It appears you think that only children who have the potential to pass the 11+ are "sensitive" and "bright".

Phoebe - she was very unlucky. Most secondary schools go to some trouble to ease the transition including understanding that Year 7 pupils are likely to get lost in their first few days. The giving of a first day detention sounds very harsh and must have rung warning bells about the school.

"Nicky Morgan justified the key elements of the Education and Adoption Bill, currently going through parliament, on the basis that no child should remain in an inadequate school for a day longer than is necessary. The DfE's own data indicates that, if forced academisation goes through, then many more children will remain in inadequate schools for longer than if they had remained maintained schools.

The numbers are not huge. The DfE figures indicate that just 66 secondary schools and 48 primary schools, that were converted while "Inadequate", have had an Ofsted inspection since the conversion. Surprisingly 82% of secondaries and 63% of primaries have not, according to this data, been reinspected. However this is the only data that exists on the effect conversion has on the Ofsted rating of underperforming schools. There is no data to support the Secretary of State's argument that becoming a sponsored academy accelerates a school's improvement. There is this evidence to show the opposite."

This is from this report on the DfE's own figures.

www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2015/07/dfe-data-sponsored-academies-lead-to-slower-school-improvement

The government has had a long time to read the department's figures and realise that making all schools academies is wrong and will do nothing to improve the education of pupils.

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/28/perry-beeches-academy-chain-stripped-schools-critical-finance-report

Hope that none of the previous governors/managers are on the new board.

"A Whitehall source said: “This shows the academy system is working, with the EFA identifying issues and regional schools commissioners intervening and rebrokering effectively, as part of a robust system of oversight.” "

They seem to be forgetting that it wouldn't have happened if the schools had still been local authority controlled.

Here is a very interesting link from MumsNet:

disidealist.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/the-mysterious-case-of-the-disappearing-schools-how-state-schools-will-be-privatised-without-anyone-noticing/

If someone has posted this before and I missed it, then I apologise in advance.

What the government or its reps. never seem to be asked is why, after so much investment is the National Curriculum not a "must"for Academy scools but is for LA schools? Either it is a "National"curriculum or it is not!! I know a curriculum is irrelevent for the gov. as they are relying on the SATs to drive what is taught. Times tables, phonics and old fashioned grammar!
All very useful in their place but that is not my feginition of a good education.

Good word that, Penstemmon. That's probably what the government call it, too.

Have you seen this from today's Guardian?

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/29/teachers-abroad-packing-recruitment-crisis-losing-staff

From April non-EU teachers who do not earn more than £35,000 will have to go home- to Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
I signed the petition and there was a government response. The only teacher I know who earns more than £35,000 has been teaching for over 23 years. Not that I know all their salaries, but I know those who say they do not earn that.

definition ..oops!

I saw the article. To be earning £35k would require a teacher to be very experienced /good and to be taking management responsibility for a subject area. Many hard working younger/less experienced class teaches earn under £30k. If will cause difficulties in some areas where reliance on overseas staff is essential to keep the school open. It also affects those Brits who marry foreigners. I have a friend who went to teach EFL in Dubai. She met and married a Pakistani guy and they have a daughter (6) They will probably never be able to live as a couple in UK as she is unlikely to earn £35k..the required amount now to bring a spouse to UK.

This is the government response to the petition, which got over 100,000 signatures.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/118060?reveal_response=yes#response-threshold

It looks like they can decide whether or not to allow a teacher to stay on a case by case basis.
I think once these teachers go back where they came from, they are not going to want to come back here when they have enough years behind them to qualify. Anyway, as the £35,000 is based on the median, that will go up as teachers pay goes up.
Nothing like shooting themselves in the foot.

The petition was debated in Westminster Hall. They do not get a vote. Parliament has debated this petition - that's all they said. They use these words to weasel out of anything that is controversial.