![View_of_Skinners'_Kent_Academy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/View_of_Skinners%27_Kent_Academy.jpg)
An academy school in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
is a
state-funded school which is directly funded by the
Department for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
and independent of
local authority
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements.
Most academies are
secondary schools
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
, though slightly more than 25% of
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
s (4,363 as of December 2017) are academies.
Academies are self-governing
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
charitable trusts and may receive additional support from personal or corporate sponsors, either financially or in kind.
Academies are inspected and follow the same rules on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions as other state schools and students sit the same national exams. They have more autonomy with the
National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...
, but do have to ensure that their curriculum is broad and balanced,
and that it includes the core subjects of English, maths and science. They must also teach relationships and sex education, and religious education.
They are free to choose their
specialisms.
Types
The following are all types of academy:
* Sponsored academy: A formerly
maintained school
English state-funded schools, commonly known as state schools, provide Education in England, education to pupils between the ages of 3 and 18 without charge. Approximately 93% of English schoolchildren attend 20,000 or so such schools. Since 2008 ...
that has been transformed to academy status as part of a government intervention strategy. They are consequently run by a Government-approved sponsor. They are sometimes referred to as traditional academies.
* Converter academy: A formerly
maintained school
English state-funded schools, commonly known as state schools, provide Education in England, education to pupils between the ages of 3 and 18 without charge. Approximately 93% of English schoolchildren attend 20,000 or so such schools. Since 2008 ...
that has ''voluntarily'' converted to academy status. It is not necessary for a converter academy to have a sponsor.
*
Free school: Free schools are new academies established since 2011 via the Free School Programme.
From May 2015, usage of the term was also extended to new academies set up via a Local Authority competition.
The majority of free schools are similar in size and shape to other types of academy. However, the following are distinctive sub-types of free school:
**
Studio school
A studio school is a type of specialist secondary school in England that is designed to give students practical skills in workplace environments as well as traditional academic and vocational courses of study. Like traditional schools, studio sc ...
: A small free school, usually with around 300 pupils, using project-based learning
**
University Technical College
A university technical college (UTC) is a type of specialist secondary school in England that is led by a sponsor university and has close ties to local business and industry. These university and industry partners support the curriculum developm ...
: A free school for the 14-18 age group, specialising in practical, employment focused subjects, sponsored by a university, employer or
further education college
Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...
.
**
Maths school
A maths school is a type of specialist free school sixth form college in England which specialises in the study of mathematics. Each maths school is sponsored by a university and, frequently, also a nearby established sixth form college or mult ...
: A selective sixth form free school for those with significant mathematical aptitude, specialising in mathematics. They are sponsored by a selective mathematics university.
* Faith academy: An academy with an official
faith designation.
*
Co-operative academy
Co-operative schools are characterised by the co-operative values and principles which underpin the practice of all co-operative organisations.
In England and Wales, around 850 schools currently use co-operative values to support the curriculum de ...
: An academy that uses an alternative
co-operative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
academy agreement.
An academy trust that operates more than one academy is known as a
multi-academy trust
Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or school trust is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local autho ...
, although sometimes the terms academy group or academy federation are used instead. An academy chain is a group of trusts working together under a shared management structure.
Features
An academy is an independent state school governed by the Academy Agreement it makes with the
Department for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
, and at that point it severs connections with the local education authority. The current advisory text is the ''Academy and free school: master funding agreement'' dated March 2018.
The governors of the academy are obliged to publish an annual report and accounts, that are open to scrutiny and inspections.
All academies are expected to follow a broad and balanced curriculum but many have a particular focus on, or formal
specialism in, one or more areas such as science; arts; business and enterprise; computing; engineering; mathematics; modern foreign languages; performing arts; sport; or technology. Although academies are required to follow some aspects of the
National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...
,
they are otherwise free to innovate; however, as they participate in the same
Key Stage 3
Key Stage 3 (commonly abbreviated as KS3) is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14. In Northern Ireland the ...
and
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
exams as other English schools, they teach a curriculum very similar other schools, with only small variations.
Like other state schools, academies are required to adhere to the National Admissions Code, although newly established academies with a faith designation are subject to the
50% Rule requiring them to allocate at least half of their places without reference to faith.
In terms of their governance, academies are established as
companies limited by guarantee
In British, Australian, Bermudian, Hong Kong and Irish company law (and previously New Zealand), a company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of corporation used primarily (but not exclusively) for non-profit organisations that require legal pe ...
with a Board of Directors that acts as a Trust. The Academy Trust has
exempt charity An exempt charity is an institution established in England and Wales for charitable purposes which is exempt from registration with, and oversight by, the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Exempt charities are largely institutions of furth ...
status, regulated by the
Department for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
.
The trustees are legally, but not financially, accountable for the operation of the academy. The Trust serves as the legal entity of which the school is part. The trustees oversee the running of the school, sometimes delegating responsibility to a local governing body which they appoint. The day-to-day management of the school is, as in most schools, conducted by the
head teacher
A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...
and their senior management team. In Sponsored Academies, the sponsor is able to influence the process of establishing the school, including its curriculum, ethos, specialism and building (if a new one is built). The sponsor also has the power to appoint
governors
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...
to the academy's governing body.
History
The
Labour Government under Tony Blair established academies through the
Learning and Skills Act 2000
The Learning and Skills Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made changes in the funding and administration of further education, and of work-based learning (or apprenticeships) for young people, within England and Wale ...
, which amended the section of the
Education Act 1996
The Education Act 1996 is Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It led to the establishment of special local authorities, who for example would identify children with special educational needs
Special educational needs (SEN), also known ...
relating to
City Technology College
In England, a City Technology College (CTC) is an urban all-ability specialist schoolWalter (2007), p. 6 for students aged 11 to 18 specialising in science, technology and mathematics. They charge no fees and are independent of local authority ...
s. They were first announced as part of the
Fresh Start programme
The Fresh Start programme, also known as the Fresh Start scheme, is an educational initiative in England, Wales and Northern Ireland introduced by the first Blair government in 1998. The programme aims to improve underperforming schools in inner ...
in a speech by
David Blunkett
David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...
, then
Secretary of State for Education and Skills
The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the Ca ...
, in 2000.
He said that their aim was "to improve pupil performance and break the cycle of low expectations." As of 2018 many academies are struggling financially and running deficits.
The chief architect of the policy was
Andrew Adonis
Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, (born Andreas Adonis; 22 February 1963) is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State ...
(now Lord Adonis, formerly Secretary of State at the
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
) in his capacity as education advisor to the Prime Minister in the late 1990s.
[
]
Academies were known as City Academies for the first few years, but the term was changed to Academies by an
amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...
in the
Education Act 2002
The Education Act 2002 (c.32) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave schools greater autonomy to implement experimental teaching methods.
Main provisions
The act significantly amended legislation relating to academies, publ ...
. The term Sponsored Academies was applied retroactively to this type of academy, to distinguish it from other
types of academy that were enabled later.
Sponsored academies
Sponsored Academies originally needed a ''private'' sponsor who could be an individual (such as
Sir David Garrard, who sponsors
Business Academy Bexley
Harris Garrard Academy (formerly Business Academy Bexley) is a 4–18 mixed, all-through school and sixth form with academy status in Thamesmead, Erith, Greater London, England. It was established in 2002 and is part of the Harris Federation. ...
), organisations such as the
United Learning Trust
United Learning is a group of state-funded schools and fee-paying independent schools operating in England. United Learning is the trading name for United Church Schools Trust (UCST) and United Learning Trust (ULT). It is one of the largest 10 ch ...
, mission-driven businesses such as
The Co-operative Group
Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care.
The Co-op ...
or
outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
for-profit businesses such as
Amey plc
Amey plc, previously known as Amey Ltd and Amey Roadstone Construction, is a United Kingdom-based infrastructure support service provider.
Amey was founded by William Charles Amey in 1921. The firm grew rapidly during the Second World War via g ...
). These sponsors were expected to bring "the best of private-sector best practice and innovative management" to academies, "often in marked contrast to the lack of leadership experienced by the failing schools that academies have replaced" (known as predecessor schools).
They were originally required to contribute 10% of the academy's capital costs (up to a maximum of £2m). The remainder of the capital and running costs were met by the state in the usual way for UK state schools through grants funded by the local authority.
The Government later removed the requirement for financial investment by a private sponsor in a move to encourage successful existing schools and charities to become sponsors.
Sponsored Academies typically replaced one or more existing schools, but some were newly established. They were intended to address the problem of entrenched failure within English schools with low academic achievement, or schools situated in communities with low academic aspirations. Often these schools had been placed in "
special measures
Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards.
In education (England and Wales)
Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...
" after an Ofsted inspection, as has been the case for schools in the Co-op Academies Trust (one of the larger business-supported trusts). They were expected to be creative and innovative because of their financial and academic freedoms, in order to deal with the long-term issues they were intended to solve.
Originally all Sponsored Academies had to have a curriculum specialism within the English
Specialist Schools Programme (SSP).
However, this requirement was removed in 2010. By May 2010 there were 203 Sponsored Academies in England.
Converter academies
The
Academies Act 2010
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
sought to increase the number of academies. It enabled all maintained schools to convert to academy status, known as Converter Academies and enabled new academies to be created via the
Free School Programme.
At the same time the new Conservative-led Coalition Government announced that they would redirect funding for school
Specialisms Technology_College_Status.html" ;"title="Technology College">Technology College Status">Technology College">Technology College Statusinto mainstream funding.
This meant that Secondary Schools would no longer directly receive ring-fenced funds of £130K from Government for each of their specialisms.
One way to regain some direct control over their finances and retain specialist funding was to become a Converter Academy and receive all of their funding direct from Government, with the possibility of buying in services at a cheaper rate.
This, along with some schools wanting more independence from
local authority
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
control, meant that many state secondary schools in England converted to academy status in subsequent years.
By April 2011, the number of academies had increased to 629, and by August 2011, reached 1,070. By July 2012 this number reached 1,957, double that of the previous year.
and, at 1 November 2013, it stood at 3,444.
Financial accountability
The
Education Funding Agency
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is an executive agency of the government of the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Department for Education.
The ESFA was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of the Education Funding Agency an ...
monitors financial management and governance of academies. In March 2016 the
Perry Beeches The Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust, was found to have deleted financial records for £2.5 million of free school meal funding, and that the chief executive was being paid by sub-contractors as well as by the trust. Its schools are likely to be taken over by a new trust.
In August 2016, the former principal and founder of
Kings Science Academy
Dixons Kings Academy is a mixed free school for pupils aged 11 to 16 located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The school opened as the Kings Science Academy in September 2011 and was one of the first free schools to open in England. It c ...
, the former finance director, and a former teacher who was the founder's sister were found guilty of defrauding public funds of £150,000.
In October 2017, the
Wakefield City Academies Trust
Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT) was a multi-academy trust (MAT) that managed 21 schools (14 primary and 7 secondary) across West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire. As an academy trust, it was an exempt charity reg ...
collapsed, and ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' reported that "Wakefield City Academies Trust now stands accused of 'asset stripping" after it transferred millions of pounds of the schools' savings to its own accounts before collapsing. On 8 September it released a statement announcing it would divest itself of its 21 schools as it could not undertake the 'rapid improvement our academies need' ".
In March 2022, a report by parliament's
Public Accounts Committee found that academy trusts paying a staff member more than £100,000 had increased from 1,875 to 2,245 in 2020-2021 from the previous financial year. A promised review of high pay by the Department for Education had not been published. The committee concluded that lack of financial transparency undermined parents' capacity to hold school leaders and the funding agencies to account.
The converting procedure (2018)
The
governors
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...
of a school are persuaded to consider academy status, perhaps in response to an approach by a multi-academy trust (MAT). They have two choices: remain with their current
local authority
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
, or join a multi-academy trust; converting to be a stand-alone trust ceased to be an option prior to 2018. If they were only given a 'satisfactory' (now referred to as 'requir
ngimprovement')
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
rating, they don't have the power to make the decision. The governors assess the MATs available and willing to take them on. Ethos and values, geographical mix of schools and practicality, how individual schools have succeeded in retaining their identity, value for money, and the trust's capacity to support the development of schools and staff are all factors that are compared. The governors then select a partner trust.
They then register interest with the
DfE
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department f ...
and inform the Regional Schools Commission. Governors open consultation with parents and staff, and with this information make a decision as to whether to proceed. Assuming they do, the
Regional Schools Commissioner
Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or school trust is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local autho ...
approves the decision to join the selected trust and the
Secretary of State issues an academy order. The school staff to are transferred to the MAT in accordance with
TUPE
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 known colloquially as TUPE and pronounced , are the United Kingdom's implementation of the European Union Transfer of Undertakings Directive. It is an important part of UK la ...
regulations, and land and commercial assets are transferred from the local authority. The school can change its mind until documents are sent to the Secretary of State in order to be signed; this is usually around three weeks before the agreed conversion date.
There are legal costs involved, and £25,000 is given to a converting academy to cover these costs. The local authority must grant a 125-year lease to the academy trust for the land. School land and playing fields are protected under Section 77 of the
School Standards and Framework Act 1998
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 was the major education legislation passed by the incoming Labour government led by Tony Blair.
This Act:
* imposed a limit of 30 on infant class sizes.
* abolished grant-maintained schools, introducing ...
. The school pays a proportion of its central funding to the MAT for shared services but can in theory take better measures to ensure best value.
Support
Whilst still in the fairly early stage of development, supporters pointed to emerging data showing "striking" improvements in
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
results for academies compared to their predecessors,
[
] with early results showing that "GCSE results are improving twice as fast in academies as in state schools".
In an article in ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', that regarded many of the Government's claims for academies with scepticism, journalist
Geraldine Bedell
Geraldine Bedell is a British novelist and writer for ''The Observer''.
She drew wide public attention when she claimed she had been disinvited from a planned appearance at the first International Festival of Literature in Dubai, because her no ...
conceded that:
:They seem, so far, to be working – not all as spectacularly as Mossbourne, but much better than most of the struggling inner-city schools they replaced.
[
]
The article singles out the cited academy,
Mossbourne Community Academy
Mossbourne Community Academy is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located near Hackney Downs off the A104 road, in the Lower Clapton area of the London Borough of Hackney in England.
Buildings
The school w ...
in
Hackney, as "apparently the most popular
choolin Britain – at least with politicians" and "the top school in the country for value-added results".
Criticism and opposition
Academies have continued to be controversial,
[
] and their existence has frequently been opposed and challenged by some politicians, commentators,
[Roy Hattersley, ''The Guardian'', 6 June 2005]
"And now, over to our sponsors"
teachers, teachers' unions,
[Polly Curtis, ''The Guardian'', 1 November 2004]
and parents.
Even after several years of operation and with a number of academies open and reporting successes,
the programme continues to come under attack for creating schools that are said to be, among other things, a waste of money,
[Rebecca Smithers, ''The Guardian'', 31 August 2004]
"Flagship schools attacked over costs"
selective,
damaging to the schools and communities around them,
forced on parents who do not want them,
and a move towards privatisation of education "by the back door".
Opposition within Labour
The introduction of academy schools was opposed, notably by teachers' trade unions and some high-profile members within the Labour Party, such as former party leader
Lord Kinnock.
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
criticised the academies scheme saying that they were a "distortion of choice" and risked creating a "seller's market" with "schools selecting parents and children instead of parents selecting schools".
Education Select Committee in 2005
The
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
Education and Skills Select Committee
The Education & Skills Select Committee was a Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The official name was the ''House of Commons, Education and Skills Committee''.
The committee was abolished as a result of the ...
reported in March 2005 that it would have been wiser to limit the programme to 30 or 50 academies in order to evaluate the results before expanding the programme, and that "the rapid expansion of the Academy policy comes at the expense of rigorous evaluation". The Select Committee was concerned that the promising results achieved by some academies may be due to increased exclusions of harder-to-teach pupils. They noted that two
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
academies had expelled 61 pupils, compared to just 15 from all other secondary schools in the borough.
Criticism of choice of sponsors
The programme of creating academies has also been heavily criticised by some for handing schools to private sector entrepreneurs who in many cases have no experience of the education sector: such as the
Evangelical Christian
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...
car dealer, Sir
Peter Vardy, who has been accused of promoting the teaching of
creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...
alongside
macroevolution
Macroevolution usually means the evolution of large-scale structures and traits that go significantly beyond the intraspecific variation found in microevolution (including speciation). In other words, macroevolution is the evolution of taxa abov ...
in his
Emmanuel Schools Foundation
The Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) is a charitable trust which has been involved in education since 1989.
ESF currently run six schools. The four original members of the ESF are: Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead (opened 1990), Th ...
academies.
This is also linked to the wider debate in the education sector as to the benefits or otherwise of the growing role of religion in the school system being promoted by the
New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...
government in general, and
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
in particular, with many academies (one estimate puts it at "more than half") being sponsored either by religious groups or organisations/individuals with a religious affiliation.
A parliamentary report in 2015, entitled "Free Schools and Academies", recommends that "In the meantime the Government should stop exaggerating the success of academies and be cautious about firm conclusions except where the evidence merits it. Academisation is not always successful nor is it the only proven alternative for a struggling school". In 2016 a major study by the
Education Policy Institute
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) is an education policy think tank that aims to promote high-quality education outcomes through research and analysis. It is based at 150 Buckingham Palace Road, in central London.
History
It was formed in 20 ...
found no significant differences in performance between academies and local council run schools.
Expense and diversion of funding
The original City Academy programme was attacked for its expense: it cost on average £25m
to build an academy under this scheme, much of which was taken up by the costs of new buildings. Critics contend that this is significantly more than it costs to build a new local authority school. Some operators are paying senior staff six-figure salaries, partly funded by central government.
In December 2012, the
Public Accounts Committee of the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
questioned Henry Stewart, of the Local Schools Network, and Rachel Wolf, of the
New Schools Network
The New Schools Network (NSN) is a United Kingdom-registered charity and former think tank which formerly supported groups setting up free schools within the English state education sector. History Early years
The New Schools Network was found ...
, on accountability and funding of academies and free schools. The Committee was review a report by the Auditor General, ''Managing the Expansion of the Academies Programme'' (HC 682), which had identified that in 2011-12 £96,000,000 had been diverted from supporting under-performing Local Authority schools to the academies programme, followed by a further £400,000,000 in the financial year 2012-13.
The Committee also questioned
Chris Wormald
Sir Christopher Stephen Wormald KCB (born 30 October 1968) is a British civil servant serving as Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care since 2016, having previously served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Educ ...
, then
Permanent Secretary
A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...
at the
Department for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
, who admitted that the Government had deliberately chosen to remove money originally allocated to support under-performing schools. Chris Wormald stated, "The Government took a very conscious decision that its major school improvement programme was the academies programme."
Effectiveness
In December 2018, the Sutton Trust published a report on the effectiveness of MATs in improving the performance of disadvantaged children, with its authors noting that "Our five-year analysis of sponsor academies' provision for disadvantaged pupils shows that while a few chains are demonstrating transformational results for these pupils, more are struggling."
Party policies, and developments since the end of the Labour Government
The
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
has supported the academy proposal from its inception but wants the scheme to go further. This accord was reflected in a remark made by Conservative spokesman
David Willetts
David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts, (born 9 March 1956) is a British politician and life peer. From 1992 to 2015, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Havant in Hampshire. He served as Minister of State for ...
in 2006:
In 2004, the
Liberal Democrats were reported as being "split" on the issue and so decided that academies should not be mentioned in the party's education policy.
The position of
Phil Willis
George Philip Willis, Baron Willis of Knaresborough (born 30 November 1941, Burnley) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrogate and Knaresboroug ...
, the education spokesman at the time, was summarised as:
In 2005, Willis' successor,
Ed Davey
Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 t ...
, argued that academies were creating a "two-tier education system"
and called for the academy programme to be halted until "a proper analysis can be done". At the subsequent election, Academies were supported by all three main political parties, with a further cross-party initiative to extend the programme into primary schools currently being considered.
In 2010 the
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats coalition government announced plans to expand the academy programme with the
Academies Act 2010
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
. In May 2010 the then Education secretary
Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...
wrote to all state schools in England inviting them to opt out of Local Authority control and convert to Academy status. Gove also stated that some academies could be created in time for the new Academic year in September 2010. By 23 July 2010, 153 schools in England had applied for academy status, lower than the prediction that more than 1,000 would do so. In spite of the expanding Academy programme, in August 2010 Gove announced that 75 existing academy rebuild projects were likely to be scaled back. Nevertheless, by September 2012, the majority of state secondary schools in England had become Academies. Monthly updated information on existing academies and free schools, and applications in process, is published by the Department for Education.
Comparisons
The city academy programme was originally based on the programme of
City Technology College
In England, a City Technology College (CTC) is an urban all-ability specialist schoolWalter (2007), p. 6 for students aged 11 to 18 specialising in science, technology and mathematics. They charge no fees and are independent of local authority ...
s (CTCs) created by the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
government under
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
in the 1980s, which were also business-sponsored. From 2003, the Government encouraged CTCs to convert to academies; did so (for example, Djanogly CTC is now
Djanogly City Academy
Djanogly City Academy City Academy secondary school in Nottingham, England. It has been open since 2003, when it replaced the oversubscribed Djanogly CTC, a City Technology College, ) was a 2003 conversion.
Academies differ from CTCs in several ways; most notably, academies cannot select more than 10% of pupils by ability , whereas CTCs can. Academies have been compared to US
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...
s,
[Rebecca Smithers, '']The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 6 July 2005
"Hedge fund charity plans city academies"
which are publicly funded schools largely independent of state and federal control.
s
A number of private and charitable organisations run groups of academies, known as Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). These major operators include
ARK Schools
Ark or ARK may refer to:
Biblical narratives and religion Hebrew word ''teva''
* Noah's Ark, a massive vessel said to have been built to save the world's animals from a flood
* Ark of bulrushes, the boat of the infant Moses
Hebrew ''aron''
* ...
,
Academies Enterprise Trust
The Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) is a multi-academy trust in England. It is a non-profit, educational charitable trust, which sponsors schools with academy status.
History
Formally established in 2008 by the Greensward Charitable Trust (est ...
,
E-ACT
E-ACT is a multi-academy trust responsible for 28 academies in England.
As an academy trust, it is an exempt charity regulated by the Department for Education.
E-ACT splits its 28 academies into two regional clusters called 'North' and 'South', ...
(formerly Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust),
Emmanuel Schools Foundation
The Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) is a charitable trust which has been involved in education since 1989.
ESF currently run six schools. The four original members of the ESF are: Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead (opened 1990), Th ...
,
Harris Federation
Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 52 primary and secondary academies in and around London. They are sponsored by Philip Harris (Lord Harris of Peckham).
Description
With 52 academies in London and Essex, the Harris Federation educates ...
,
Oasis Trust
Oasis Charitable Trust, commonly known as Oasis, is a UK-based Christian registered charity. It was founded by the Reverend Steve Chalke in September 1985. Chalke had been assistant minister at Tonbridge Baptist Church, Kent, for four years. He ...
,
Ormiston Academies Trust
Ormiston Trust is a charitable trust based in London, England. It is a grant-making trust that chiefly assists schools and organisations supporting children and young people.
The trust was established in the memory of Fiona Ormiston Murray who d ...
,
Tauheedul Education Trust
Star Academies (formerly Tauheedul Education Trust) is a Academy (English school), multi-academy trust (MAT) that operates 28 Free school (England), free schools and Academy (English school), academies. There are nineteen secondary schools and ni ...
and
United Learning Trust
United Learning is a group of state-funded schools and fee-paying independent schools operating in England. United Learning is the trading name for United Church Schools Trust (UCST) and United Learning Trust (ULT). It is one of the largest 10 ch ...
.
The Department for Education publishes a full list of active academy sponsors.
Concern about MATs taking over primary schools that are then rebrokered
In 2019 there were 5,539 primary academies in England, of which 514 were forced away from local authority control after being failed by
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
. The
Department for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
(DfE) paid out at least £18.4m to the academy trusts taking on these schools. The parents, governors and local authorities had no say in how this money was spent or how the assets were used.
Since 2013–14, more than 300 primary academies have been rebrokered (receiving government setup money again) or moved between trusts. In 2017–8, seven trusts running primary schools closed leaving all their schools in search of another sponsor. This leads to uncertainty and expense as the new trust will rebrand and parents must pay for new school uniform. New rules, staff and systems are set in place.
See also
* Academies Financial Handbook
* State-funded schools in England
* Specialist schools in the United Kingdom
Specialist schools in the United Kingdom (sometimes branded as specialist colleges in England and Northern Ireland) are schools with an emphasis or focus in a specific specialised subject area, which is called a specialism, or alternatively in t ...
* Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
SSAT (The Schools Network) Limited (branded as SSAT, the Schools, Students and Teachers network) is a UK-based, independent educational membership organisation working with primary, secondary, special and free schools, academies and UTCs. It ...
* University Technical College
A university technical college (UTC) is a type of specialist secondary school in England that is led by a sponsor university and has close ties to local business and industry. These university and industry partners support the curriculum developm ...
* Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...
* Foundation school
In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in community schools.
Foundation schools were set up under the School Standards and Framework A ...
* Grant-maintained school
Grant-maintained schools or GM schools were state schools in England and Wales between 1988 and 1998 that had opted out of local government control, being funded directly by a grant from central government. Some of these schools had selective ad ...
* Co-operative academy
Co-operative schools are characterised by the co-operative values and principles which underpin the practice of all co-operative organisations.
In England and Wales, around 850 schools currently use co-operative values to support the curriculum de ...
References
External links
Department for Education: Opening an Academy or Free School
SSAT (The Schools Network)
(formerly known as the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust)
Anti Academies Alliance
by a pupil at Greig City Academy
Greig City Academy is a mixed-sex secondary school in the London borough of Haringey. It has around 1,100 pupils on its roll.
As well as a busy main school, the Academy includes a thriving Sixth Form with links to Russell Group and other unive ...
, 12 October 2006.
*
Do academy schools really work?
, Lisa Freedman, ''Prospect magazine'', 24 February 2010.
*
*
*
*
Pearson Report 2013
Sutton Trust Chain Effects December 2018
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