Academies | Keen2Learn Blog

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Academies Could Prove The Educational Breakthrough Schools Need

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Poor schools face the sword of Damocles; buck up or become an Academy. If this is the salvation why aren’t the majority of schools operating as academies and why is there such a fuss over the conversion? The department of education seem hell bent on switching as many schools as possible over yet the teaching resources at affected schools tend to resist the move at all costs.

Michael Gove, secretary of state for education is to brandish a new sword and forcibly remove school governors based at a failing school who resist the conversion to become an academy. Around 200 schools are in his sights. And he is not stopping there. He also intends to take on 10 local educational authorities who have a high number of failing primary schools.

The transfer of education into a quasi-commercial standing holds some merit. If bound by the need to make a “profit” through the achievements of the school the convention of religiously following the dictat of the DfE could be tempered by the mission of the individual school. How long have we heard of educational initiatives which have introduced operational chaos before being abandoned.

Maybe the reluctance of some schools reflects the nervousness of teachers to convert to the isolation of independent management. The real world operates in the face of growing competition and a primary function of our academia is to prepare children for adult life. Greater freedom for schools in this quest must be a good thing. It generates the features and benefits of the school that will attract the future client base through the brand image of the Academy.

Teaching staff must also match the task presenting the opportunity to maintain quality by weeding out poor teachers. Unfettered by over protective terms and conditions this must grant the Head teacher the ability to hire and fire staff. Maintaining the employment of a poor teacher is a dreadful slight on the children he or she is teaching.

Michael Gove may not be the most popular Educational secretary. But his proposals, providing they are part of a well thought out strategy; a first for someone in this position, could be a real winner. Breaking the mould takes a brave man. If future academies and free schools prove to be the making of our educational system, and not just a recessionary cost cutting exercise, we could see a remarkable boost to our schooling in a hugely competitive global market.

Tags: academies, Gove to take on failing schools, teaching resources
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Academy Groups Scooping Up Failing Schools

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

Michael Gove’s plan to transfer failing schools to become academies has a sting it its tail. Whereas the treat was thought optional the transfer may be enforced. The Marlowe school in Ramsgate is such an example. This failing school was amongst the worst performing secondary schools in the country. When the Head teacher resigned last years it was thought a replacement was to be found. Instead the school was promptly transferred into an academy and run by one of the big academy chains.

In theory the Academies Education Trust who sponsor 14 other schools in England have been tasked with running the school for the next year. They will also be responsible for appointing new head and deputy head teachers. This activity has come as shock to many schools who claim that since the standards have been raised academy groups have been waiting in the wings ready to scoop up any ailing schools more…more..

Tags: academies, DfE assessements, failing schools, school achivement tests, teaching reources, teaching standards
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Educational Secretary Pushes For More Schools To Become Academies

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

The secretary of state for education, Michael Gove is stamping renewed vigour into his policy to sack governors of failing schools and had them over to academies. His current target, Downhills Primary school in North London are attempting to resist being taken over by an academy sponsor after years of poor performance. Academy Groups Scooping Up Failing Schools.

The school is one of many who are in the sights of Michael Gove who wishes to remove poor performance in school. The announcement last year that over 200 primary schools will be placed into academy status remains at the forefront of his quest to improve schooling standards. Speaking at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College he said “For years hundreds of children have grown up effectively illiterate and innumerate. In one of the most disadvantaged parts of our capital city poor children have been deprived of the skills they need to succeed.”

The transfer to academy status is certainly forefront in the sights of the Educational secretary. He has the option to utilise his intervention powers within the Academies Act to push failing schools to switch to academy status. But there is opposition from concerned schools, educational authourities and the National Union of Teachers they he will need to overcome.

Tags: academies, Downhills Primary school, Michael Gove, NUT
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UK Education Fails to Match Progress in Science and Technology

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

One of the most startling revelations of modern Britain is the overall decline in educational achievement. Whilst science and medicine expand their horizons our teaching resources in both primary secondary state schools continue to fail to thrive. Despite the investment of billions of pounds by successive governments the department of education has become a very poor example of educational achievement on the world stage.

Recent developments at CERN indicate that science is constantly re-evaluating itself. The thought that Einstein’s theory where nothing can travel faster than the speed of light could be proven wrong may be unthinkable, yet science is now being turned on its head. Physics as we knew it is witnessing fundamental laws that are now being rewritten. Yet in the world of education and schooling practices over the same time frame we seem to have achieved so little.

In the last 10 years technology, the internet, mobile communications and computers have all established paradigm shifts in performance and applications whilst our overall achievement in state schooling has not. Certainly the skill base in teaching has remained intact but we haven’t seen the equivalent mould-breaking breakthrough in pedagogy. I believe there are parallels in medicine. Whilst medical science has progressed in research and treatments an article in the Times (12th Oct 2011) reveals certain breakthroughs in bowel cancer surgery established by a leading professor in surgery 20 years ago remain unadopted by the National Health Service despite the significant improvement in its success compared to current practice. Central government bodies are the common denominator both in the NHS and in state schools education.

Whilst constantly introducing bureaucratic controls from the top down, motivating inspirational development at the coalface is stifled. Teachers and head teachers appear emasculated in their very own area of expertise. The policy to apply singular focus on attaining targets has thwarted the radical developments that are needed. Even those external colleges deemed to be researching improvements in teaching concepts have to a large extend fallen by the wayside during the cost cutting culls of the new government.

As a control experiment the expertise in independent schools continues to set the pace. Apart from financial constraints in fees linked with the prevailing market conditions the independent sector is thriving in the quality of schooling offered to children.

The advent of free schools and academies will circumvent the controls of the department of education. This move, heavily promoted by the government and the Secretary of State for Education would seem on the surface to be a bold move to implement change. Freed of Government and local Authority intervention these new schools could provide the breakthrough in focus and practical application in teaching.

It also seems a retrograde step 24 years after the introduction of the National Curriculum and Tony Blair’s battle cry of “Education, Education, Education”. The UK’s approach to excellence is to now to leave schools to their own devices. If this were the case it would appear the better solution would have been to have avoided government intervention in the first place. UK schools, instead of constant criticism, pressure on teachers – many of whom have left the profession and the introduction of countless educational initiatives that have cost billions of pounds to little or no effect, we could have seen 24 years of actual development spearheaded by teachers.

The role of head teacher has largely become administrative dealing with Ofsted and finance. Applications for promotion to head teacher is seen as a retrograde step by many potential candidates believing the job too stressful. Ironically the teaching and motivational skill of the head teacher has been largely lost to administration at the very time it was needed most. If we are to adopt a paradigm shift and claw our way back up the OECD educational league table, where we currently languish in around 25th position in the world, we need some courageous moves by schools. The free schools and academies may show the way. If Eton and Westminster schools who started life as a schools for children from poor families can metamorphosis to their current position of learning excellence so hopefully can our state schools.

Tags: academies, failed goverment educational initiatives, freeschools, OECD educational league table
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Academies and Free Schools Escape Educational Dogma.

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

The clearest indictment that our schooling system is failing comes from the government. The introduction of free schools could be said to be a remedy for the malaise that our schools are facing. The National curriculum, unanimously voted by teachers as the curate’s egg; good in parts, has ailed and failed since its launch in 1987. Billions of pounds have been invested for scant return. But will new academies and free schools, unfettered by the national curriculum and government scrutiny, be the panacea our schooling system needs, or create confusion our schoolchildren will condemn for generations?

The uptake to seek free schools status seems grossly under-subscribed. Head teachers, hounded by Ofsted inspections, targets, budget cuts and endless government educational initiatives had been expected to grasp this ideal opportunity to opt out. But the flood of anticipated applications for free school status turned out to be a trickle. Just 240 schools applied from the expected two to three thousand. Many were late applications where teachers and school governors fought with the implications of academy or free school status. Clearly the freedom from government, Ofsted and local education authorities were a huge plus for the schools, but they are not exempt from performing and the thought of going it alone and failing must have been significantly daunting. Other schools hover on the touch line waiting to see how the first tranche copes. As the new academic year starts many schools are only half full raising concerns over their financial viability. The new free schools need to attract a minimum number of children to generate their operational budgets from fees paid by the government per child attending.

A further unease is whether the initial enthusiasm to break free prevails. If the right teaching staff are not recruited and retained the chances of a schools’ success will be severely impaired. From the teachers perspective they seek the better performing schools to provide job enrichment and career enhancement. There is a risk the brand new free school operating without a pedigree will only be able to recruit those teachers willing to take such a risk.

A huge benefit for children attending free schools is the amount of additional learning time involved in the school year. State schools are contracted to provide 38 weeks of schooling (196 days a year) a year. Free schools are able to provide up to 51 weeks a year. The additional learning time is further enhanced by a reduction in the time allocated to exams and the tutoring for exams that occurs generally in state schools preoccupied with the need to hit performance targets. State schools spend around nine weeks a year in exam tutorials. Parents may also welcome the longer teaching year giving them financial benefits from reduced childcare costs.

There is a lot of good that can come from the free school concept. Freed from government intervention and Ofsted policy they can invest more time to the learning process. Moving with the times rather than national curriculum could produce more rounded students better matched to the education demands of commerce and industry. But there is a high risk some will fail. The stand-alone structure may cause some to suffer withdrawal symptoms. This will be a catastrophe for the children involved.

Tags: academies, educational values, Free schools, National Curriculum, schooling year
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Schools Freed From Educational Authority Could Flounder

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

The economic situation is affecting the vast majority of commercial and public sector operations. Inevitable budget reviews by educational authorities have reassessed the funding and staffing levels associated with the teaching resources in our schools. Some new schools have the opportunity of self-control but whilst removing the essence of local education authorities allowing many schools to be in control of their own destiny may seem a positive move there is some concern as to how they will cope unaided in the wide world.

In the commercial world there are classic cases where a small company being part of a large group had failed to thrive in performance and profitability. The same company having been shed by the corporate group becomes in charge of its own destiny springs to the surface like a cork and suddenly enjoys resurgence with both enthusiasm and increased profitability. Can the same effect be found be enjoyed by these new schools? Certainly the sometimes arduous bureaucracy and target achievements demanded considerable focus from the head teacher, distracting them from taking a more parochial view of the needs of the school. The stories of stress and frustration are legion and the feeling of being remote to the needs of the school perhaps had a significant influence in the schools performance.

The many schools that now face the opportunity of reduced pressure and cost by their removal from local education authority control also face a mixture of opportunity and increased pressure to perform in their own right. But as schools gain greater independence there will also be a huge demand placed on school governors. These predominantly untrained individuals now face a whole new world of independence where their skill will be tested in the performance of the school.

Many of our schools could now enter a very confused period. After years of tight restrictive operational control they have the ropes removed. But the big question is whether the schools will cope? Have the years of bureaucracy prevented the nurture of skills required to manage themselves effectively? Ofsted the government schools inspection body has raised concerns about the quality of governance in schools and state that it is a common factor in schools that are under special measures.

Geraldine Hutchinson, assistant director of the Educational trust CfBT raises her concern. “Schools with governing bodies that are not up to the task can face serious consequences. Those schools that lack strong governance are at a significant disadvantage in terms of attainment and school improvement ”adding “This is particularly the case in primary schools which are a lot less robust than secondary schools I their ability to cope with change.”

The emergence of the academy and free school will place a demand for exceptional head teachers backed by effective school governors. Whereas it would be possible to recruit a head teacher from other parts of the country, although statistics indicate this is no easy task, the school will be a reliant upon local school governors. If this support is not available it bodes ill for the fortunes of that particular school. An area of encouragement is the number of people volunteering to become school governors has increased over the last few years. Although this may indicate a keen reserve of commitment they inevitably enter the role with little or no training. This places an awkward burden on the head teacher at the very point when they need an effective senior management team. Instead the head could be side-tracked into having to provide the on-site training for them.

The transition from the structure criticised over the years by teaching resources will be a travesty if another generation of children in our schools are hampered by ineffective control as they move into the new era. Maybe a better plan is the formal training and certification of school governors before the policy was introduced.

Tags: academies, educational authourities, Free schools, school governers
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