THE LATESTNEWS ANDINFORMATION ON ACADEMIES, FREE SCHOOLS AND PRIVATISATION ISSUES FROM THE NUT’S PRIVATISATION IN EDUCATION UNIT
NUMBER 24, MAY 2012
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ACADEMIES CAMPAIGNS
Parliamentary briefing on forced academies
A joint NUT and NAHT briefing on forced academies was held in Parliament on 24 April. The briefing was hosted by City of Durham Labour MP Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods.
Speakers at the briefing were the NUT DGS Kevin Courtney, the General Secretary of the NAHT Russell Hobby, Downhills parent Susan Moyse and Mike Barnes, Head Teacher of Flakefleet Primary School in, Fleetwood, Lancashire.
Russell Hobby argued that academies were not a “silver bullet”solution to educational problems and that improving schools were being forced to convert to academy status. He described the experience of Percy Shurmer Primary School in Birmingham, which had gone from 22 per cent achieving the expected level in KS2 maths to 60 per cent over a couple of years, but was forced into becoming an academy.
Kevin Courtney pointed out that there was no evidence for the success of academies in general but it was even more questionable whether the model would work with primary schools. The Government was using flawed evidence to justify the drive towards academy status in primary schools. He emphasised the need for greater Parliamentary scrutiny of the Education Secretary who was acting like an elected dictator.
Susan Moyse, who is taking legal action against the Education Secretary, described the huge opposition at Downhills primary in Haringey to attempts by the DfE to force the school to convert to academy status. She pointed out that an Ofsted monitoring inspection in September 2011 had “noted the school was making satisfactory progress and had the capacity to improve”. On the 28th January, 1,000 people protested over the change in status at Downhills and 91 per cent of parents had voted against Downhills becoming an academy.
Mike Barnes described how the DfE was trying to force his school to convert to academy status despite an excellent record of improvement. The school had come out of special measures in 2009 and by July 2011 was rated good with outstanding features by Ofsted. Yet just two weeks later he was told the school was deemed to be in the bottom 200 schools and must convert to an academy. Despite several subsequent meetings with DfE officials the school had received no paper work and all references to the forced academy being “by word of mouth”. He reported that governors present at the meetings had described the DfE officials as being “aggressive”.
The briefing was attended by MPs who spoke of the need for a more co-ordinated opposition and support and advice for school Governors faced with having their school forced to adopt academy status.
Pool Academy TUPE win
The NUT has secured a six-week pay award for 24 teachers in Cornwall after the authority breached its duties under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (‘TUPE’). Pool Business and Enterprise College - a community school maintained by Cornwall County Council - was converted to an academy in April 2011.
The employment tribunal ruled that the authority failed to provide information to the appropriate parties in accordance with the regulations and failed to inform the Union of the legal and social implications for teachers of converting a local school to an academy.The authority should have informed the Division Secretary and the Regional Secretary of the likely impact of the transfer on continuity of service, should any teacher return to work for the authority.
The authority should have informed the NUT's officers that the transfer would remove statutory protection of teachers' statutory terms and conditions which would become contractual upon transfer. Finally, the authority should have informed the NUT that transferring teachers' terms and conditions, and other non-contractual terms, would no longer be, or would only partly be, determined by national and or collective agreement. It was not enough to say that the academy governors had no intention to make any changes. The obligation was to provide information on how these terms and conditions would be negotiated in the future.
NUT General Secretary Christine Blower has written to Education Secretary Michael Gove urging him to consider whether a fuller explanation of the duty to inform, as provided by TUPE, can be publicised on the DFE website. (NUT press release 10.04.12)
Concluding, Dr Blackman-Woods asked organisations to organise a co-ordinated grouping to defend schools so a launch at Parliament could be organised.
Support Downhills Newspaper
Haringey Anti Academies Alliance has produced a ‘Support Downhills’ newspaper as part of its campaign against the Government’s attempts to force local primary schools into academy status. The paper includes articles by local Labour MP David Lammy and parent Susan Moyse, who is mounting a legal challenge against the decision to sack the Downhills’ governing body replacing it with an interim executive board.
The newspaper can be downloaded here:
Bristol school converts despite massive opposition
Governors at Nailsea School in Bristol have voted to apply for academy status despite the fact that an overwhelming majority (73 per cent) of teachers voted against the plans in an NUT-organised ballot.Head teacher David New claimed that parents were supportive of the proposal, even though only around 30 turned up to a consultation meeting to discuss the change.
NUT national executive member for North Somerset Anne Lemon had previously highlighted the lack of proper consultation: "We are also concerned with the level of community and parent consultation. There has been one poorly attended meeting for parents and no real effort to involve the local community. We consider this is vital because conversion to academy status means a brand new £30 million school will be taken out of the ownership of the local community and put over into the hands of a private trust. (Bristol Evening Post, 14.04.12)
NUT to consult on academy strikes
Delegates at the NUT’s annual conference have backed a resolution calling for indicative ballots in schools planning to become academies. Members would be balloted on the change of employer resulting from academy status and where the new employer proposed a change of terms and conditions.It was also announced that staff at Downhills primary school in LB Haringey would beballoted over potential changes to staff pay and conditions if the school does become an academy. (Guardian 8/9 April 2012)
ACADEMIES
Academies numbers – April 2012
- There were a total of 1,776academies open as of 1 April 2012.
- From 1 March to 1 April 2012, 141 new academies opened and 143 new applications were received from schools (these included the first group of six ‘alternative provision’ academies including at least one Pupil Referral Unit).
NUT Region / Secondary academies (converter & sponsored) / Primary academies (converter & sponsored) / Others / Total Open
Yorks/Midlands / 168 / 81 / 7 / 256
South West / 161 / 113 / 11 / 285
South East / 165 / 56 / 4 / 225
North West / 96 / 24 / 3 / 123
Northern / 63 / 22 / 8 / 93
Midlands / 158 / 41 / 8 / 207
London / 175 / 45 / 13 / 233
Eastern / 234 / 81 / 39 / 354
TOTAL / 1,220 / 463 / 93 / 1,776
NOTE: The others includes all age, 14-19, all through, middle deemed secondary and special school academies etc.
The cost of academies and free schools
An NUT report published at annual conference revealed that the Government has spent £337.2m in support of the academies and free schools policy since the general election in May 2010. The figures were based on analysis of payments released under the "open government" commitment, under which individual payments of £25,000 or more by the DfE and its agencies are published.
The analysis showed that:
- In total £36.7 million was paid out in the form of converter grants of £25,000 for each new schools converting to academy status since the May 2010 election.
- Partnerships for Schools (PfS) made payments totalling £22.3 million for free school capital costs as well as technical, legal and property services relating to these schools between January 2011 and February 2012
- The 24 free schools that opened in September 2011 also received £9.3 million in the five months July to November 2011 in the form of start up grants and revenue funding from the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA).
- Some of the largest single YPLA payments were made to former private schools that converted to free school status. In total five former private schools between them received £4.26 million. These include payments of £2.1 million to Sandbach School (Cheshire); over £1 million to the former Batley Grammar School (West Yorks); £803,000 to the Maharishi School (Lancashire); £189,000 to Moorlands Free School (Luton, Bedfordshire); and £88,000 to The Priors School (Warwickshire).
- The annual cost of salaries for the free school team almost doubled to £6.15 million (6.73 per cent of all DfE salaries) in 2011 from £3.93 million the previous year (3.94 per cent of all DfE salaries). At the same time, overall spending on salaries in the Department went down, from £99.76 million in 2010 to £91.36 million in 2011.
Commenting on the figures General Secretary Christine Blower said: “It is hard to see how the Education Secretary can justify spending tax payers’ money in this way. Evidence does not show that academies or free schools will raise standards.” The press statement and a copy of the report can be found at
News International considered sponsoring academy school
The Leverson enquiry into media culture and practices has shed fresh light on News International’s interest in setting up academies and free schools. The inquiry requested information about the interests of News Corporation, News International’s parent company, in the UK education sector, “including but not limited to any interest in the establishment of one or more free schools.” As a result, a series of emails between the DfE and News International have been made publicly available which show that the corporationexpressed an interest in applying to set up a free school after plans to establish an academy in east London fell through.
The exchange involved a discussion of the potential routes for setting up an academy and the school’s potential capital allocation from the London Borough of Newham’s overall budget. When the academy plans stalled, a representative of News International asked about the process for a free school. At no point in the exchange was the question of educational vision, the needs of local children or local demand for such a school discussed.
Commenting on the exchange NUT General Secretary Christine Blower said: ““These emails clearly expose the lie that free schools are ‘parent led’ schools, established in response to parental demand and local need. They reveal the extent to which the Government is pursuing an ideological educational agenda that has nothing to do with meeting the needs of local families and everything to do with promoting its own vanity projects and those of its corporate supporters.
The emails can be viewed at the following address:
Plans to force PRUs to become academies
The Government’s adviser on behaviour Charlie Taylor has suggested that so-called “failing” pupil referral units (PRUs) should be taken over by successful units, alternative providers or academy providers. According to the TES he said that underperforming PRUs should be removed from council control “where possible” and closed “where it was not”, arguing further that by 2018, PRUs should only be run by a council if this “added value”.
The Education Secretary already has powers to direct a local authority to close a failing PRU. Nowa DfE consultation has said that PRUs should be “treated in the same way as underperforming mainstream schools”, paving the way for the Education Secretary to intervene and force them to convert to academy status. From September the Education Secretary will be able to “direct” councils “to use their best endeavours to cooperate with the creation of an AP [alternative provision] academy” if they fail to co-operate. The changes also mean that if a local authority wants to set up a new PRU, it must first seek academy or free school proposals. (TES, 27.04.12)
Academies paid millions for ghost sixth formers
A TES investigation has found that academies and free schools were given more than £26 million for thousands of sixth-form students who were never enrolled. A group of academies and free schools, which are funded on the basis of predicted student numbers, received funding in 2011-12 for more than 4,700 students that they never taught. The DfE has admitted that not all the funding will be clawed back as individual academies’ contracts allow them to keep between 2.5 per cent and 10 per cent of excess funding. The Young Peoples’ Learning Agency (YPLA) also admitted that it does not know how much has been reclaimed. (TES, 07.04.12)
Academies employ more unqualified teachers
The DfE has released analysis of workforce data collected from schools and local authorities in November 2011 as part of the second annual School Workforce Census. The data shows that teacher numbers fell by 10,000 (2 per cent) from 448,100 in November 2010 to 438,000 in 2011. At the same time the number of full time teaching assistants increased almost threefold from 79,000 in spring 2000 to 219,800 in November 2011.
But the balance between qualified and unqualified teaching staff differs in academies and maintained schools by almost two per cent. Whilst only 3.2 per cent of the teaching staff in maintained schools were unqualified, the figure in academies was five per cent. The report can be downloaded from the DfE website:
Eight academies given improvement notice
Education Secretary Michael Gove has admitted that eight academies have been issued with pre-warning notices because they are severely under-performing. Mr Gove was responding to questions from the Education Select Committee whose members had raised concerns about the accountability of academies and mechanisms for investigating complaints against them.
The Chair of the Select Committee,Conservative MP Graham Stuart, pointed to confusion over whether it was the responsibility of the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA), which had its responsibilities transferred to a new executive body - the Education Funding Agency (EFA) - in April, to investigate such complaints.
He said: “we are told by the Special Education Consortium (SEC), among others, that their members frequently reported that when parents called the YPLA, they were advised that handling complaints against academies was not within their remit.”
As evidence that the YPLA and EFA were effective Mr Gove referred to eight cases of academies where “the level of under-performance has been such that my department has issued pre-warning letters. Warning notices may follow as a result of that and action will be taken.” (Independent, 24.04.12)
Old research used to justify academies
The Government’s claims about the evidence supporting the academies programme have been dealt a major blow. Professor Stephen Machin, professor of economics at UCL, and co-author of the 2010 LSE study on Labour’s sponsored academies (“Changing School Autonomy: Academy Schools and their Introduction to England's Education”) which is consistently cited to support the Coalition’s academy policy, has published an article in the Guardiancomplaining of the inaccurate way in which work is being used by government. The original study, though relatively favourable to Labour academies, claimed only that schools would see improvement a number of years after conversion and that this improvement was also partly attributable to a changing intake. In his Guardianarticle Machin says: “Our results showed a reasonably positive impact of the policy – under the last government. So we have been somewhat surprised to see it used extensively by supporters of the coalition's policy on academies… This seems rather hard to justify, given that the new academy programme is different in a number of ways.” Machin referred to the fact that Labour’s academies’ programme focused on schools that were considered to be “under-performing” rather than schools rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted. He also noted that the academies programme is now being extended to primaries saying that “drawing comparisons with the Labour academies is simply not comparing like with like”. (Guardian, 09.04.12)
Academies perform no better than maintained schools
The non partisan fact checking organisation Full Fact has confirmed criticisms of the way in which the Government has been using GCSE data to claim that sponsored academies have improved at twice the rate of other schools. Henry Stewart of the campaigning website the Local Schools Network had challenged the DfE’s analysis through a series of blogs and an article published in the Observer. He showed that when schools were compared like for like – i.e. schools with similar proportions of children eligible for Free School Meals – there was no difference between academies and maintained schools in terms of rate of improvement. Full Fact said that “The proportion of good GCSEs achieved at "failing" academies rose from 29 per cent in 2010 to 37 per cent in 2011, an eight per cent increase. The Full Fact report concludes: "Failing" non-academies' results increased from 30 to 38 per cent in the same period, a proportionally identical improvement.This suggests that over the period, secondary schools were - on average - capable of turning their fortunes around, regardless of whether or not they acquired academy status.” The analysis can be read at