Gove's favourites

When my girls were younger they were lucky because being RC they could access a very good RC secondary. Unfortunately things were not so good for other children on the estate. They were supposed to have two schools to choose from. The first was a very successful school with excellent academic results. The second was what could only be described as a 'sink' school. Terrible results, lots of behaviour issues, difficulty keeping staff...the works. The first school was heavily over-subscribed so although the catchment area officially covered the estate the school sent out a second catchment area which cut the estate out completely. In fact the catchment area became an area near to the school that was very middle class where a lot of parents were professionals including doctors, university professors and teachers. This left the second school as the only choice for the estate children. A choice isn't a choice when you're told don't bother to choose it because you won't be considered due to where you live. Even the estate parents tried to avoid sending their children to the available school so they would apply to non catchment schools desperately hoping that their child would be one of the 'lucky' few. If they failed they knew their child would be allocated a place at the very undersubscribed local school. Education shouldn't be a post code lottery. All schools should be funded adequately and should not be allowed to use selection on the QT.

How very sad - and so exasperating. I too am a governor at a local school and we struggle to buy paper towels or toilet rolls. And here are these guys awarding themselves all this money. I do not know how they get away with it - at every meeting we start with declarations of interest, and yet here we have people who award contracts to their mates and pocket a bung. Does no-one scrutinise academy accounts or ask the right questions? Can they just do what they ant and get away with anything?

They all need to butt out and leave teachers to teach.

I don't think the concept of feeders exists where my DD lives. There are grammar schools, an academy and some church secondary schools with strict rules about regular church attendance for years. Some children go over the county border to comprehensives.
It is well worth looking at the small print of the school's selection procedures though.

Schools were often given no choice but to become academies and the large pots of money on offer provided an obvious inducement. One local school in an area of high deprivation had its excellent head teacher squeezed out and a super head imposed. The super head now has responsibility for two very large primary schools, both of which are achieving worse, not better academic results and where pastoral care is nothing like as good as it was.

I accept the local authorities weren't without fault but the way Gove forced his academy/free school programme wasn't the way to deal with those faults. Another hugely expensive change for the sake of change.

I hope that Theresa May and Co listen to the strong words from the current head of Ofsted, who is opposed to the reintroduction of selective education. Too much government interference in education, health etc.

Unfortunately it appears that the school to which I am referring takes the vast percentage of it's children from feeders. The rest are taken as siblings and looked after children.

They vary Gillybob, but yes they have had access to larger pots of money. My eldest GD is at an excellent academy, run by a small trust with strong historic links to education. They have a fabulous new building, excellent teachers and two consecutive outstanding grades from Ofsted.
The catchment area is mixed, but contains some challenging areas. The school has been so successful that I understand the catchment area is down to half a mile (not based on feeder schools).
Other academy trusts have had a much more chequered history and some schools have not performed well at all.
Overall they perform no better than LA schools.

I am just beginning to try and work out how this "academy" status works penstemmon . Two of the very best secondary schools in our area are academies and are without question way ahead of the other schools. Both have outstanding Ofsted reports. Is that because they have more money available to them? Is it because being so successful they can then cream off the best intake of children? Leaving the rest (the ones they don't want) for the other schools. I know they operate a slightly different admissions policy. I would be grateful for any information that might help me understand.