School governors and academies

So much for her "No reverse gear" - silly moo.

When does she leave?

I quite fancy Hunt leaving the NHS role, and Nicky being put in charge of that.

You have noticed, of course, that she says they will still all become academies; there just will be no law to force them. I wonder how they will force them instead.

She'll put on her mad rabbit stare and frighten them into academies.

She is aware that the evidence of failing academies is stacking up: 150 received improvement notices in one month recently!

Not quite the cure all she thinks...and now Toby Young has admitted (good) that he was arrogant to think running schools was easy!
He is leaving leading the Free School trust he set up.....

Did you notice what TY wrote about the SATS strike?
All parents who took their kids out of school are selfish.
"Thousands of parents get to indulge in a day of virtue-signalling while schools are left to pick up the pieces. Are the organisers aware that if unauthorised absences at a school exceed a certain threshold, that school is ineligible for an Ofsted outstanding grade?
Schools live or die by their Ofsted rankings."

So that explains it. I thought the Sats were all about the kids, not the schools, or so they tell us. He's let the cat out of the bag.
Of course, it was okay for the schools to be closed for voting yesterday.

The fire school that TY set up,has had at least 4 head teachers and lots of complaints from staff/ parents. Not exactly a success story.

Free school! Though fire school may be a good description.

TY has got his facts wrong. If the pupils usually have good attendance, one day won't make much difference.

The Conservative policy Room 101 must be full by now!

Surely there might be room for a few people in there, not just policies daphne - I am happy to make suggestions.

"On the day of election declarations across the UK, the Department for Education (DfE) said that plans to force through the policy by 2022 would not now be included in the forthcoming Queen’s speech, arguing: “It is not necessary to bring legislation to bring about blanket conversion of all schools to achieve this goal.”

In a statement on Friday, Morgan said: “I am today reaffirming our determination to see all schools become academies. However, having listened to the feedback from parliamentary colleagues and the education sector, we will now change the path to reaching that goal.”

Instead, the new legislation will include sweeping powers for the DfE to force schools in “underperforming” local authorities to convert to academy status. Those councils with successful track records will be able to continue to maintain their local schools.

The abrupt change was praised by Conservative-led local authorities which had been vocal critics of the original plan."

This is the plot. They are still going to make all schools become academies, but only those in underperforming - i.e. Labour controlled - authorities will be taken away from authority control. Tory councils will be okay to run schools, but obviously they want all theirs to be academies anyway.

Perhaps those Labour-controlled councils should stop "underperforming" and have a go at making their schools perform better, then.

I think you will find that it is a bit more complicated than that, DJ and Elegran.
Some underperforming schools will be in LAs where there are high rates of poverty and unemployment; some of these areas will be in Labour controlled councils. Many underperforming schools are in the "coastal fringe" areas which may be Labour or Conservative controlled. Some Conservative controlled rural schools and LAs will be underperforming, even though they have reached the "floor" targets.
London has many schools in areas of social deprivation where standards have improved enormously.
The data tells us that underperforming schools improve just as well (if not better) in LAs and academisation does not necessarily help.

In addition DJ Conservative controlled Hampshire and Oxfordshire have been hugely influential in changing the policy on forced academisation.

Everything is more complicated than appears at first glance! There is no black and white dividing line between LA's which are wildly "successful" and ones which are "underperforming". Thee are are all shades in between, and the reasons for them struggling vary.

As Mamie says, the party politics of the LA don't control how well their area is doing, or the quality of their education, and blanket application of party differences axchieve nothing. "Underperforming" is a term which implies that whatever decisions and efforts a particular LA has made are not sufficient. They need either to change their policies and priorities, or to be helped to be more effective - whether that involves money , advice, or practical assistance in the form of training or monitoring.

Taking away their autonomy over academies is a last resort - threatening it is to hold a sword over their heads. In some cases, who knows, that may be the trigger that makes them rethink their plans and come up with one which is more effective - in others, that is impossible. Diagnosing exactly what the factors are could pinpoint what action will change things, not following a party line, whatever that party.

To be honest Elegran I think that people wildly over-estimate the amount of influence that LAs have over school improvement now. When I was an LA inspector I worked in a team of over 30 inspectors and advisers. I believe there are now fewer than 10 left from that team. The government talks drivel about "freeing schools from LA control", but in practice their powers are now very few. Most of the people I worked with are now independent and providing school improvement services to LA schools and Academy chains. They are still good, effective professionals, but I don't think it helps anybody to lose the support of a team working together.
The fact that LAs are no longer able to open new schools is causing immense problems in admissions.

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/may/06/government-backs-down-over-plan-to-make-all-schools-academies
I get told off for doing this, but this is the full article.
It is not a proper u-turn. They are still going to do it, but it will not be in the queen's speech.
That's all the Tory councils did, make them back down on it being included in the queen's speech, because they did not want to be forced to do it.

That is the same article that I posted on this thread yesterday DJ.
It will not be in the Queen's speech and they will not force all schools to convert. In practice many secondary schools are already academies but the vast majority of primaries are not and do not want to be.
They will be able to force "failing" schools to convert, but then they can already do that. They may, of course, lower the bar to force more schools to "fail", but I suspect that it is mostly a face-saving exercise and will be quietly dropped.
i wasn't in the least surprised to see the reaction from Hampshire. They have a huge number of highly successful schools and would be horrified to lose them.

Sorry, Mamie, hadn't realised.

In a statement on Friday, Morgan said: “I am today reaffirming our determination to see all schools become academies. However, having listened to the feedback from parliamentary colleagues and the education sector, we will now change the path to reaching that goal.”

This is the important paragraph, as far as I can see.
It says all schools, not all secondary schools.

Yes I read her weasel words, but I still think it is face-saving drivel.
Last week she said that nothing would make her change her mind, ever.
One issue is that they will never find academy sponsors for the small rural primary schools beloved of the Tory shires.
Of course it was never her policy in the first place it was Osborne's.

Academy chains are not in a position to give the kind of support LAs used to give (and it was support, not control)
Local federations based around secondary academies are not a lot better as the leaders will not understand a lot about primary education.
LA teams varied in quality but they were an effective way of supporting schools in my experience .

Small rural primary schools are often real gems - the sort of places and education that we might all wish for our children: peaceful, like a large family, caring..........but these things are not measured by OfSted. They do not fit easily into the MAT picture. Several small primaries here have gone down that route and they have lost a great deal in the process - the children are being bused around to different venues; the parents have no point of contact as the executive heads are 20+ miles away; the absence of a real head who has a finger on the pulse is felt etc. It is all a big shame - taking the best on offer and slowly chipping away at it until its best qualities are lost.

Our head is out there when school ends each day, chatting to parents, being visible and approachable.

There are four schools in Weardale that were going to be closed, but the council has now decided to keep them open with a shared head.
That's a problem, too. From that happening at schools that I know of, the head is never in the places/he is wanted.

This is brilliant.

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/yesterday-was-one-of-the-worst-day-of-my-life/

By Toby Young and what he said about free schools.
Now he knows what Jeremy Corbyn feels like every day. Except he will not realise it.

He deserves it even more because he thinks that Zac Goldsmith has nothing to be ashamed of. Toby Young's dad would be ashamed of his own son.