ACADEMIES – Information for Teachers from the National Union of Teachers

The Academies Initiative

Academies are independent schools run by private sponsors using public money. The Government plans to open 200 Academies at a cost of £5billion. The Government’s policy is based on the notion that to close a school and re-open it as an Academy automatically improves the education being offered. There is no evidence that such improvement is achieved.

The NUT believes that schools require highly qualified motivated teachers and staff, working in a supportive environment to ensure high quality education. The Academies initiative threatens the comprehensive education system.

A Threat to the Teaching Profession?

Academies can establish their own arrangements for teachers' pay, conditions of service and working time. The encouragement by Government for Academies to ‘innovate’ has led to arrangements which are in some cases very different from those in Local Authority maintained schools. While teachers transferring from the previous school are protected under TUPE, newly appointed teachers can be employed on entirely different contracts with inferior pay and conditions and longer working hours. Experience shows that having employees working on different contracts in this way leads to a divided, two-tier workforce and threatens the position of the transferred employees.

There is evidence to suggest that the ‘innovative’ approach taken by Academies can lead to bias in appointing staff.

Last year the Times Educational Supplement reported that Kings Academy in Middlesbrough, sponsored by the Vardy Foundation, appeared to be making staff appointments biased towards those with Christian beliefs.

The intense work required by the staff involved in launching an Academy will undoubtedly divert attention from teaching and learning, which is required to raise standards. There are also unrealistic pressures on teachers to deliver ‘quick wins’ in terms of increased test and exam results. Reports of high turn-over among staff in some of the Academies already in operation seems to be an indication that retention of teachers, and thus the destabilising effect on pupils’ education, is a cause for concern.

Academies have in some cases refused to recognise the NUT or other teacher unions for collective bargaining.

Accountable to Who?

Academies operate outside many of the regulations that state schools abide by, including the composition of the governing body. In Academies that have opened governing bodies are largely made up of persons appointed by the sponsors.

Teaching staff are not included on the governing board of Walsall’s Academy; they have a non-teacher governor to represent their interests. Teachers need to apply through the head teacher if they wish to approach the chair of governors.

The Best Education?

Academies threaten the entitlement of children and young people to a broad and balanced curriculum. The Government has said that Academies can introduce greater flexibility into the curriculum, the sponsoring bodies will therefore have the power to influence the curriculum received by pupils. In many cases the sponsors that run Academies have limited or no experience in education.

The Emmanuel Foundation, part of a charitable trust run by Sir Peter Vardy, operates Academies at which pupils are taught that the Old Testament view of the creation of the world in six days is just as valid as Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Equal Opportunities?

Government policy allows Academies to select up to 10 per cent of their intake of pupils. Academies can set their own priorities for selection and can refuse places to local children. Thus the fairness of local authority admissions criteria is undermined. In some cases there may be other ‘back door’ means of selection. Many young people will be rejected. Schools will choose pupils rather than be chosen by parents.

Pupils with special educational needs, those who are learning to speak English as an additional language and those whose home circumstances are difficult, could be further disadvantaged in these situations.

In Bristol, where the St George Community College reopened as an Academy, glossy leaflets were distributed advertising the new school but these were only distributed in the more affluent areas of Bristol.

Academies can be Stopped

In recent months parents, governors and teachers in Doncaster and Waltham Forest have successfully campaigned to prevent their local schools being turned into Academies. As a teacher you are in a position to influence Academy proposals. By working with parents and governors you can help prevent councils from following the “Academy” route.

What to do if an Academy is Planned in your Area

  • In the first instance, contact your NUT Division/Association or the Regional Office for further information.
  • Look at the Privatisation section of the Union’s website at for further information.
  • For further advice contact the NUT Regional Office.

TEACHERS’ ACADEMIES FLYER_LC114 November 2005