Academies conference July 14th
26 May 2011
I'm chairing a conference examining the future direction of academies - 'Academy status - exploring the vision' - in London on July 14th.
The day will look at issues pertinent to schools weighing up whether or not to convert and also for those already embarked on the process. There will be case studies from a primary and a secondary school, examining their journey to academy conversion, as well as presentations on the role of the YPLA and on the role of federations and 'brands'.
There are also workshops looking at practical issues such as the legal framework, HR issues and charitable accounting.
Full details of the programme are at: www.national-training.com/events/conferences/academies/index.php
'Early bird' prices are available until 3p.m. on 27th May.
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Rebecca Hanson - 28 May 2011
Cockermouth School Rejects Academy Status.
Unlike some local schools, Cockermouth School has gone through a professional and extensive consultations process regarding Academy Status. Some of this can be seen in the open discussion on the parents page of their website.
Essentially it seemed that changing to academy status wouldn't change much for the school, except for the finance and the governors facing more responsibility and less support if things go wrong.
They will have their budget cut by 10%. If they had voted for academy status they would have been able so offset most of this for at least two years by clawing back their LA grant which currently disproportionately funds schools in challenging areas (which are usually not full and so are more expensive to run per capital than Cockermouth which is always full).
Hence the schools which face the toughest challenges would have had to face huge budget cuts (both their 10% and their loss of their extra LA funding) to fund Cockermouth's financial stability.
Last night Cockermouth School voted AGAINST academy status and will therefore face substantial staff cuts.
Rebecca Hanson - 28 May 2011
More on Cockermouth School
Wow - that's an interesting 'response?' from the staff (see Cockermouth Teachers on youtube) ???!
Rebecca Hanson - 29 May 2011
Cockermouth School update
It seems the driving force for a no vote came from the staff, who had their own vote which, although it didn't count, sent a strong message against academy status.
I suspect this is a rarity - given that the option is either vote for academy status or 10% of you will be sacked this summer. But they've done it none-the-less.
It's even more surprising given that the LAs record on secondary education is very poor.
But, as I said, in most schools round here there is no proper consultation. It's just being shoved through. I suspect the governors see it as being their duty to prevent 10% of their staff from being fired.
The horrors which happened with the previous round of 'academyisation' in Cumbria don't seem to have been directly relevant as the key problems occured where mergers happened, but they may have made staff a little more probing and resiliant in their questioning of the 'facts' they were presented with.