Academisation Phase 3 is on its way

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan will preside
over the third phase of academisation,
releasing all schools from  local authority control.

All schools are to be converted to academies by 2020 and then will be asked to join an "Academy Chain". That is the plan of the existing government, announced as a part of the budget on 16 March.

This move will effectively end the involvement of local authorities in school administration. Each academy takes a certain amount of its funding directly from central government. It is also free from the constraints of the National Curriculum and can set its own pay scales for its staff.

The first phase of "academisation" began before 2010. Failing and struggling schools were offered cash incentives to convert to academies. Outside sponsors provided some of the funding and because the schools were no longer constrained by external pay structures, could offer larger salaries to good staff, including to head teachers, to turn the school around.

After 2010, all schools were given the option to convert to academy status. Incentives were still available and a large number of state schools took up the offer. This was then education secretary Michael Gove's idea and they were known as "converter academies".

Phase 3 will see all schools being forced to take up academy status. Many have concerns about these plans, including the Labour Party, teaching staff and the unions. There will undoubtedly be extra demands upon central government and some suggest that the Department for Education is already unable to cope with its workload.

What do you think?
Do you think that academies have more freedom and flexibility to offer a better education to their students?
Do you think that effectively ending the National Curriculum in this way is a good thing?

Clegg Attacks Free Schools

Nick Clegg says that free schools
should work to the national curriculum
and hire only qualified teachers.

The debate over free schools has resurfaced with the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg now voicing his disapproval of the precise freedoms that they have. In particular, Clegg argues that they should not be allowed to recruit teaching staff who do not have a recognised teaching qualification. Additionally, he feels that these schools should be obliged to follow the national curriculum.

His comments come shortly after several controversial incidents at free schools. These include the now infamous Al-Madinah school in Derby, whose lessons were often failing to meet the requirements, according to a recent Ofsted report.

The Conservative part of the coalition government disagrees. It maintains that free schools have been outperforming schools in the mainstream state sector, and will continue to, simply because of the new freedoms they have been given. Education minister Liz Truss says that in the private school sector, appointments of non-qualified teachers has been the norm for "hundreds of years".

It is still early days for free schools. Some critics have gone further than Nick Clegg and suggested that academies and free schools are both stepping stones on the road to privatising education. Teaching unions have also voiced scepticism, suggesting that the government is trying to water down the status of professional teachers and discredit the teaching qualification.

Clearly it is possible for a school to use any freedoms in a positive and constructive way. On the other hand, without good leadership, a school that does not have the structure imposed by a national curriculum and the requirement to employ only qualified teachers, could find itself floundering, as has been shown.

What do you think about free schools? Let us know with your emails or comments.

Gove Allows Unqualified Teachers into the Classroom

Michael Gove outside the Palace of Westminster (Photo: Wikipedia)

In another move that has angered the teaching profession and its unions, Education Secretary Michael Gove has given the green light for academies to recruit unqualified teachers into teaching positions.

All new academies sign an agreement with the Department for Education. From now on, this agreement will state that the school has the right to recruit whoever it believes to be qualified for a teaching role, removing the condition that the recruit must have QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). Existing academies may apply to have the new clause inserted into their agreements with the Department.

Academies now account for more than a half of all secondary schools in England, although they are much less prevalent in other parts of the UK. The move brings new academies into line with private schools and the government's free schools.

The Department says it expects the vast majority of recruited teachers still to have QTS status, and that it is allowing more flexibility, by allowing schools to hire people from a broader range of backgrounds.

In contrast, the feeling among the teaching profession is that Michael Gove is trying to de-professionalise teaching. The general secretary of the NUT, Christine Blower, has described it as a cost-cutting measure and a clear dereliction of duty.

Unions point to the fact that Mr Gove has in the past praised the education system of Finland, where teachers are respected and paid accordingly. In other countries where the required level of teaching qualifications is being watered down, such as Sweden, educational standards now appear to be falling.

Teachers know how rigorous and valuable their training is. They know that pupils do not respond as well to untrained teaching and that this applies both to the academic rigour required and to classroom management.

Many teachers also suspect that this is one step of a plan for further privatisation of the education sector, eventually allowing private companies to run the academies for a profit and offering a cut-price education, to compete with neighbouring schools.

This is another move that the Education Secretary has attempted to introduce by stealth, as a part of his creeping revolution of the UK's education system. But proposals such as this, with such far-reaching consequences, will not go unnoticed by the teaching profession. There will be trouble ahead.