Excellent newsletter from @stephenkb.bsky.social this morning on the strange schools bill announced before Christmas. My question on the reduction in academy freedoms is "what problem is it trying to solve"? www.ft.com/content/221a... - ThreadSky

samfr.bsky.social • 47 days ago

Excellent newsletter from @stephenkb.bsky.social this morning on the strange schools bill announced before Christmas.

My question on the reduction in academy freedoms is "what problem is it trying to solve"?

https://www.ft.com/content/221aef6d-2aa6-4058-a6f4-026fafb10471

Comments

whatdomsaid.bsky.social•47 days ago

The compulsion to become an academy following a bad ofsted is an issue (see King Edward school Sheffield), the departure from the National Curriculum is also problematic, plus it’s not clear why a LEA couldn’t do the same or better than academy chains, albeit without six figure management salaries

samfr.bsky.social•47 days ago

Why is it problematic? What specific problems has it caused?

whatdomsaid.bsky.social•47 days ago

Why is what problematic forcing schools to change to something they don’t want or diverging from the national curriculum?
Why do you think things can’t be better with some structure around the system? without a curriculum it’s harder to roll out things like phonics and you have patchwork of quality

northofcam.bsky.social•45 days ago

LA officer get paid pretty well..:

whatdomsaid.bsky.social•45 days ago

They do and they should do - they don’t get paid as well as positions in some of these academy chains though, or anywhere near

ktmartin.bsky.social•47 days ago

It's also difficult to analyse and compare MATs or MATs and LA schools because of the very varied types of MATs - some focus on primary etc, some from nursery to FE. Also geographical distances- some have schools 100s miles apart, some in one locality. It makes comparisons really difficult

ktmartin.bsky.social•47 days ago

From my experience, it doesn't matter if the school is SAT, part of a MAT or LA school, what made the difference is proactive leadership with high expectations, good teaching and working with parents.
A real concern with MATs is the extra layers of management, less money on children. It matters

lenhampson.bsky.social•47 days ago

Well you would say that wouldn't you.

juneussell.bsky.social•46 days ago

He would indeed

seldon.bsky.social•47 days ago

It's what usually happens when process becomes more important than results.

seldon.bsky.social•47 days ago

It's something I've seen happen regularly in my commercial life. A general, legitimate concern arises, a degree of latitude is allowed to address the issue. Then bureaurocracy identifies best practice which morphs into rigid code bc it's easier to police than individual reaction to circumstance.

fieldbean.bsky.social•47 days ago

As a simple parent I never understood what problem academies solved.

samfr.bsky.social•47 days ago

It's academy trusts rather than academies. And the answer is scale: "how do you get struggling schools to do what better schools are doing?"

jayanne.bsky.social•47 days ago

Economies of scale ….what do you mean ?
Bulk buying paper ?
Bulk buying cleaning materials ?
Academy pay differential …bosses and staff ?
Better schools ? Catchment area considered ?

fieldbean.bsky.social•47 days ago

What can a trust that a LA could not?

samfr.bsky.social•47 days ago

Because trusts are not political and have more control/focus.

gplunk.bsky.social•47 days ago

More control and focus upon their own schools but with none of the statutory duties that LAs have and, sometimes, a complete lack of collegiality with regard to other MATs/schools in the same LA.

fieldbean.bsky.social•47 days ago

A matter of belief then

fieldbean.bsky.social•47 days ago

bittersweet73.bsky.social•47 days ago

The other thing it addresses is a lot of the chikd protection and safety recs made in Jay https://report.plus breakfast clubs

samfr.bsky.social•47 days ago

Yes no issue with the child protection sections. I'm talking about the academy freedoms bit.

bittersweet73.bsky.social•47 days ago

A standardised national curriculum. Academies have had the freedom to depart from it Also plan is to standardise pay and conditions.Also been using non qualified https://teachers.so

samfr.bsky.social•47 days ago

I know what it says I asked what problem it solves. Where's the evidence of the existing system causing issues?

bittersweet73.bsky.social•47 days ago

If you don't think having unqualified teachers is an issue I spose its fine

cactusmelon.bsky.social•47 days ago

The lack of any meaningful local accountability and the inability of a school to decide to leave a MAT that isn’t working for its community are fundamental flaws in the current model.

samfr.bsky.social•47 days ago

OK but this doesn't deal with either of those things.

cactusmelon.bsky.social•47 days ago

Not directly but it does start to reduce the degree to which MATs are a law unto themselves, and also chips away at the presumption that every govt-funded school will eventually be part of a MAT by compulsion or otherwise.

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