Stories + Views: Academies

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sarah: School Improvement – Whose business is it?

The linked article draws attention to the creation of a new regional structure within the DfE which is apparently taking charge of school intervention work traditionally performed by local authorities as ministers respond to concerns about how they can possibly supervise thousands of newly independent academies. The DfE quietly set up last month what could be seen as a “middle tier” ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "When initiatives start, the people who run them are empowered to do what needs to be done. The have high caliber people, government attention, money and other resources. They learn from their mistakes and they lead, seed and ......"

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Henry Stewart: The Remarkable Research of Janet Downs

The FOI debate between Janet Downs and the Department for Education, over Michael Gove's mis-use of surveys to claim modern teenagers were ignorant, hit the headlines today. So far it has been covered in the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Huffington Post. Regular readers of Local Schools Network will know Janet's work well. She is renowned for digging out obscure facts ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Peter Prince: "It might aid the readership here if genuine FAQs were separated out from what appears to be a series of highly selective P.R. rebuttal briefing guides on various Education orientated reports. For example, the answer to the FAQ ‘What problems do ......"

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Janet Downs: LSN supporter and blogger elected to Lincolnshire County Council

Sarah Dodds, outspoken critic of Lincolnshire’s policy of advising all its schools to become academies and opponent of attempts to merge Louth primary schools into one academy, has won a place on Lincolnshire County Council. True blue Lincolnshire took a knock in the local elections with UKIP winning a large number of seats. But in Louth North UKIP was pushed into ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "Thank you for this Roger. It just hurts so much. There are so many things I wanted to do to build a better society and now I'm not in a position to do them. I've also given 100% to campaigning ......"

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Fiona Millar: Time to shine a spotlight on the academy brokers

There has been a lot in the news this week about academies and their funding. As we suspected all along,   DFE  management of thousands of schools has proved inefficient. Money ear-marked for school improvement has been squandered and while the government sprays money around with abandon on its favoured projects, other schools are facing cuts. One particular story caught my ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by For the Benefit of the Conservative Party – “FOR SALE – Local Hospital and Schools “: "[...] The Coalition’s practice to ensure privatisation  is to force schools to become academies, either by bribery of head teachers, of unjustified OFSTED criticism, claiming schools are failing.  [...]..."

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Henry Stewart: Academies: Where Did The £1 Billion Go?

When the National Audit Office revealed the £1 billion overspend on academies, many assumed this was caused by the incentives paid to individual schools to convert.  At the Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge noted (p28) that 78% of schools that converted did so because of the extra money available and quoted Christopher Cook's analysis in the Financial Times, which found ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Tubby Isaacs: "Not convinced by all of that. Not least because the DfE didn't say it, but muttered something about underspends elsewhere. Which LEA schools have no insurance? Isn't it compulsory? And even if there really are these unfunded liabilities, that's not how ......"

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Janet Downs: DfE touts around for new academy sponsors

The Department for Education (DfE) wants sponsors to come forward to take over “underperforming” schools. So schools minister Lord Nash has just announced the 2013-14 Sponsor Capacity Fund to act as encouragement. There’s money on offer for sponsors. So-called “Fast-track projects”, will receive up to £40,000 for each “underperforming” primary school or up to £65,000 for secondary schools. This grant is in addition ... read more and comment →

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Fiona Millar: Labour and schools

The Observer newspaper carried a couple of  articles at the weekend about an alleged mid-term wobble  for Labour. This seemed to be largely based on a slight drop in the opinion polls, a few attacks from  ageing Blairites and George Osborne's intervention in the welfare debate using the horrific story of the Derby benefit claimant who set fire to his ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Tubby Isaacs: "Indeed. Some of us might think the £300k Liddington paid himself was a bit like profit making...."

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Henry Stewart: Public Accounts Committee Produces Damning Report on Academies Programme

(Local Schools Network press release in response to Public Accounts Committee report, April 23rd) The Public Accounts Committee today reports that a £1 billion overspend at the Department of Education “has been caused by the excessively complex and inefficient academy funding system”. Despite having a majority of Conservative MPs, the Committee has delivered a report that is highly critical of the ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Michael Gove should be held to account over the crisis facing London’s schools: "[...] Public Accounts Committee reported last month that the government had overspent on the academies budget by more than £1bn as a result [...]..."

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LocalSchoolsNetwork: PAC Press Notice: Managing the Expansion of the Academies Programme

This is the press release issued by the Public Accounts Committee, after its report on the £1 billion overspend identified by the National Audit Office in the government's academies programme:   The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said: “Academy schools lie outside local authority control and are directly accountable to central government. It is therefore ... read more and comment →

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Janet Downs: Trouble at two academy chains: AET banned from expanding and E-Act gets a warning

“I believe that chains such as the Harris group, Ark or the United Learning Trust are doing an amazing job on the ground, working with local authorities and turning round schools in the worst condition. As far as I am concerned, they should grow at the fastest sustainable rate,” said Education Secretary Michael Gove in July 2011 shortly after ULT, ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "It seems that E-Act isn't too hot at comprehension either. E-Act’s Director General, Sir Bruce Leddington, wrote on E-Act's website: ‘The [Academies Commission] report is right to acknowledge “the overwhelming success” of the academies programme to date.’ http://www.e-act.org.uk/academies-commission-report/ But it ......"

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