HAVOC - Academies

One person's thoughts on Academies.

These are expressed in a series of e-mails by a member of HAVOC about Academies.

On the subject of all-through Academies (i.e. schooling on the same site from the ages of five to nineteen):

They'll end up like battery chickens - in one end of the shed and out the other, all cloned to produce a uniform product for the system!

e-mail to the Rt. Hon. Ed Balls, MP

Dear Mr Balls

I can only rejoice in the fact that Andrew Adonis and his crackpot idea of educational reform has been rejected. How can the following statement be true

"Academies work and are giving new opportunities to children in disadvantaged communities. Those with results for both 2006 and 2007 showed a rate of improvement at GCSE of over three times the national average. They are also popular with parents and are heavily oversubscribed."

Popular with parents! Heavily oversubscribed! Spin Spin Spin! Where are the figures? Who is being rejected due to the demand and on what priority?

There are no figures to prove it. Bland and crass statements such as this do no credit to the DCSF or its Ministers. Academies are not forced to show their performance figures to the public, so how can statements like this be accredited. It's like the answer to Life, the Universe and everything is 42. Where is the proof?

Academies will not and should not be forced upon the pupils of this country as a way of supplementing company training. Good teaching skills and commitment to education are paramount not company brainwashing.

This really shows the person's age! A follow-up e-mail to HAVOC read as follows:

Bit of a rant tho' it really incensed me, why do they expect people to accept statements without proof, GRRRRRR, the moon is made of cheese, there is a tooth fairy, I'm a dwarf!, academies are good, Serco have the educational interest of our children at heart, all bunkum, apart from the dwarf bit :-D

Then, on a different tack, to the Director of Childrens and Young People's Services SoTCC:

Hi Ged

It's been a while since we contacted each other. After seeing how close the vote was for a show of lack of confidence in Serco's handling of the educational affairs of this city, I would like to ask one serious question that I would like a definite reply to: " Does the funding of the BSF project depend on building the much hated academies". A straightforward yes or no would suffice. I see that the champion of academies Lord Adonis has been Hmmmm pushed to one-side - not exactly a vote of confidence in the academy system.

I await your reply.

(Name suppiled)
HAVOC, the people that do what it says on the can.

The reply to the above e-mail to the Secretary of State:

Thank you for your email of 7 November to the Secretary of State about Academies. I have been asked to reply.

The Academy building programme forms an integral part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. However, it is not the case that BSF funding is directly related to the number of Academies in any specified area. BSF funding is allocated to local authorities on the basis of set criteria for both Academies and other schools.

As you may know, sponsors are not allowed to make a profit from their Academy sponsorship. The sponsor appoints the majority of the governors, but it is important to point out that governing bodies are bound by law to act in the best interest of the Academy, its pupils and local community. Governors are responsible for employing Academy staff and appointing Principals in line with the requirements of their funding agreement. They do not have total control over the curriculum as all future Academies are required to follow National Curriculum programmes of study in the core subjects of English, maths, science and ICT. They do retain the flexibility beyond this to address the needs of particularly low achieving pupils

We know that parents are continuing to choose to send their children to Academies. The latest independent evaluation of Academies by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) confirms the findings of previous years that on average Academies received three applications for every Year 7 place available in 2007. Where Academies are oversubscribed, this is likely to be as a result of their popularity - over two-thirds of parents felt that the Academy their children attended was better than other local schools. It is not the case to say that there is not enough educational provision as the number of places available in Academies in 2007 (4,666) was much higher than the number offered by their predecessor schools in 2002 (2,869).

Where schools have improved their attainment levels, it is undoubtedly true that this could not have been achieved without the hard work of the teaching staff and pupils. With regards to Academies, the latest PwC report talks about ‘positive overall progress in securing improvements in performance’. In particular, the report notes that ‘when account is taken of the generally lower level of prior attainment and the adverse background of the pupil intake, many of the Academies performed better than the national average for progress from Key Stage 2 to GCSE’.

The Fifth Annual Academies Evaluation Report was published today and you can read the full findings on our website at: http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/academies/publications/

Yours sincerely

Alan Schneiderman
ACADEMIES DIVISION
Alan.SCHNEIDERMAN@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
www.dcsf.gov.uk
DCSF email logo

This series will be ongoing as this prolific e-mailer puts fingers to keyboard.
Some are absolute gems!