All schools being privatised under Tories

[ROSM]

Academies have their place in the education system.. But to have the ability to opt out of the national curriculum framed as a 'benefit' is largely ironic surely?

My school is a good school as recently assessed by Ofsted. There are teachers and other staff who are patient and committed. There is a board of Governors who are unpaid but give time and effort to the school. Governors aren't supposed to get involved in operational matters, but they do if they have expertise of time, do so. And they are as rigorously assessed by Ofsted as the education elements are.

My fear is that making all become academies will ensure that the poorer schools get poorer and the better schools coral up the best resources

And to me, that's immoral. There are a limited number of philanthropists out there to support education

 

[Stato]

Why is there more accountability if it was run by the local authority. I personally would prefer my kids school to be run by people who work in education and have the best interests of the children at heart as opposed to some local council civil servant who just sees a school as a budget line.

Ho-pefully you'll be relieved to hear that schools are already run by the people who work in education; head teachers and governing bodies. Schools recieve their funding direct from central government.

Local councils provide support in the form of building management, HR, Legal, accountancy, Health and Safety, Admissions management, transport support, training etc. Schools can currently choose to purchase these services from local authorities or from anyone else who will offer them the service for the price they want to pay. Many schools have chosen to continue to buy these services from LAs because the services offered are good and competitively priced. A lot of smaller schools also feel supported through being able to call upon expertise in areas like law and property management that it would be difficult to maintain good in-house expertise in on such a small scale.

Taking schools away from LAs and forcing them into academy chains will remove the current freedom to choose who to buy these services from. The services will be bought from the chain.

As far as accountability is concerned, it seems useful to apply Tony Benn's five questions when faced with power holders:
What power do you have?
Where did you get it?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
How can we get rid of you?

Benn said that "Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system."

Head teachers can answer: The governing body can remove me.
School Governing bodies can answer: The Local Authority can disband us.
Local Authorities can answer: You can vote in another administration.

Under the proposed system, head teachers and governing bodies can give very similar answers. Academy chains cannot.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

..As far as accountability is concerned, it seems useful to apply Tony Benn's five questions when faced with power holders:

What power do you have?
Where did you get it?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
How can we get rid of you?

Benn said that "Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system." ..

No wonder he disliked the EU so much.

 

[Mellotron]

Ahh shit, good point. Maybe they should hold a big vote and let the public decide who they want In charge.

Cat bothering moron.

We tried that. It didn't work. Only 23% of the population voted Tory, and somehow we ended up with a Tory government.

 

[Geestar]

All this talk about Ofsted....the definition of a waste of time!

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

So more shareholders out to make loads of money dear o dear.... We're so going down the wrong path in this country.
Doubt it'll be funded by the local authorities solely.

Not quite sure what you are getting at, but this is part of a long-standing (since time immemorial) Tory dream of taking education away from Local Authorities. Schools for a while have been being forced in to becoming academies whether they like it or not - and I do mean forced when sometimes they would have preferred to stay under the Local Authority Control.

And the Local Authority would usually be a County Council unless, as with Brighton and Hove, it is a unitary authority. So the ownership of the property would just be being transferred, I guess, from the LA to the School.