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Academies are state-maintained independent schools set up with
the help of outside sponsors, to replace failing schools in struggling
authorities. A private organisation, such as a faith group, puts
in £2m and the Government gives £20m. The private organisation
then runs the school outside the LEA's funding control, but still
sticks to all the national requirements for curriculum and standards.
There are 50 'live' academies to date (17 of these are already open),
and Labour plans to have 200 academies by 2010.
Foundation Schools, which replaced grant maintained schools,
are those which attain such a high level of performance that they
are largely free from local authority supervision. The schools governing
body will own the land and buildings and be able to borrow for investment.
Independent specialist schools. To qualify as specialist,
a school must prove it excels in a certain subject, then raise £50,000
which the Government tops up. Such schools are supposed to use their
specialist subject (ie sports, IT) to drive up standards across
the curriculum. The idea is that if pupils feel good about their
school, it will rub off more generally.
The Times has reported on an accusation by the Liberal Democrats which uses figures to show that the Government is 'starving' mainstream state schools of cash while spening millions on city academies. They said that the cost of building one academy was in some instances more than some local authorities had to spend for capital projects on their whole secondary school estate.
(The Times, 6 August 2007)
The Prime Minister has set his successor a target to double the
number of academies. The academic achievements of these schools
are still unclear but Mr Blair and his advisers have defended their
performance. The Prime Minister has said he wants 400 academies
to serve struggling areas - an increase on the previous target of
200 - by 2010.
It would mean one in 10 secondaries would be an academy, with
a nationwide increase in the involvement of business and faith-group
sponsors of state education. Firms such as Unilever, Microsoft and
Exeter University would fund the new trust schools, which have similar
freedoms to the academies on curriculum and staffing.
(TES, 1 December 2006)
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has conducted
research into whether the Government's flagship new academies have
avoided the temptation to choose their pupils through covert selection.
It has given the academies a clean bill of health, despite one of
the main complaints from opponents of the scheme that it will lead
to a two-tier education system with academies selecting the brightest
children from the many who apply for places.
The NFER research appears to show that the opposite is in fact
the case, that the academies are selecting more than their share
of pupils on free school meals in the neighbourhoods in which they
have been set up. They are also accepting a smaller percentage of
pupils who have reached the required standard in English and maths
tests for 11-year-olds than in the communities they serve. This
can be explained by the fact the academies have avoided any attempt
to raise standards through trying to skew their intake.
(Independent, 21 September 2006)
Secondary schools will be told the names of their brightest pupils
and warned they will be held accountable if those students do not
get three As at A-level under a scheme to be introduced by the Government's
specialist schools trust. The plan will also make it much easier
for universities to latch onto bright pupils before they reach their
teens.
To improve the standard of secondary schools and make sure that
state school pupils get to university, the Specialist Schools and
Academies Trust (SSAT), which is part funded by the Department for
Education and Skills, has identified 180,000 bright children aged
between 11 and 17 by looking at their key stage 2 test results.
The names will be given to schools to ensure that the students fulfil
their academic potential. If parents give the school permission,
the names of bright children will then be passed on to universities,
who can encourage applications from them.
The move is likely to be welcomed by universities, many of which
are under pressure to change their admissions standards so that
state school students are more equally represented. But many Labour
MPs and critics feel the Government is becoming obsessed with selection
and fear that the plan will lead to universities 'cherry picking'
the most gifted children when they are just 11.
It is not clear how schools will be held accountable, by Sir Cyril
Taylor, head of SSAT, has made his feelings on the matter plain,
saying:"It is an outrage that we have 20,000 very able children
in comprehensives who don't get the three As at A level that they
should do." The SSAT website says that the trust exists,"to
give more young people access to a good secondary education by building
networks, sharing practice and supporting schools. The trust's way
of working is based on the principle 'by schools for schools'."
(Guardian, 27 February 2006)
Research has shown that specialist status itself is not improving
secondary schools. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has used the apparent
success of specialist schools to justify his plans for further school
reforms. But the research, published by the Research and Information
on State Education trust, states that: "Much of the evidence
provided by the Government has been inconclusive or methodologically
suspect".
It continues: "It is clear that the majority of specialist schools
are highly effective, four-fifths were judged to be so by Ofsted.
But whether this is due to their selection practices (overt and covert)
or to their being already highly effective in order to obtain specialist
status is not clear. There is no proven causal link between the improved
performance of these schools and their specialist status."
Researchers Frances Castle and Jennifer Evans, of London University's
Institute of Education, acknowledge that the three-quarters of secondary
schools which now have specialist status are getting better GCSE results
than the remainder.
However, their report notes that schools can only get specialist status
if at least 25% of pupils are already gaining five A* to C grades.
It said that research was needed to find out if specialist schools
were cost-effective, as a typical school in the programme can receive
around £600,000 extra over a four-year period. It also said
that too little was known about the impact that specialists have on
neighbouring schools, as there were "indications of increased
social polarisation in some areas".
The report, Specialist Schools - what do we know? is available
from www.risetrust.org.uk
(TES, 24 February 2006)
Only 6% of headteachers support Tony Blair's controversial plans
to build more city academy schools, according to an EducationGuardian/ICM
poll. The findings come after the prime minister brushed aside criticism
of the £5bn academy programme, insisting "parent power"
would fuel its expansion.
Mr Blair wants to see 200 of the publicly funded independent schools,
to which private sponsors contribute £2m for a say in the
curriculum, ethos and staffing, opened by 2010.
In a speech to the City of London academy in Southwark, south-east
London, the prime minister also proposed that successful schools
should be enabled to expand, despite the physical constraints of
their building, through formal collaboration with other schools
in groups or "federations".
But Mr Blair's personal appeal to headteachers to help "reshape"
the school system will be undermined by a Headspace poll, carried
out for Education Guardian and EdComs by ICM. It found that 57%
of headteachers in England believe the Government listens to few
of their needs, while 27% say the Government does not listen at
all.
The poll also shows that only 6% of headteachers support academies,
with 43% opposed and 40% unsure.
(Guardian, 13 September 2005)
Salman Rushdie has condemned the Prime Minister's staunch support
of Muslim faith schools. The author of The Satanic Verses warned
that increasing the number of children attending such schools would
not tackle Islamic extremism. And he said he feared that Tony Blair
was courting the wrong leaders from the Muslim community in the
fight against terrorism.
"If you look in the papers right now you have a two-thirds
majority of the British people objecting to the introduction of
faith-based schools and yet that is an absolutely central plank
of the Government's policy," he said. "If he thinks that
more religion is going to solve the problem, then not only in my
view is he wrong, but he is also seriously out of step with the
country."
Mr Rushdie criticised the Government for pigeon-holing Muslims
for their beliefs alone. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme,
"It is important to see that for most people of Muslim belief
or Muslin origin in this country, they have a range of political
and social interests, which have nothing to do with whether or not
they are religious."
He also criticised the Muslim Council of Britain, calling its leaders
"minority figures claiming to be important". He said,
"I think what really needs to happen is that the very large
majority of British people of Muslim origin who don't want to be
just defined in terms of their religion start speaking up and creating
a genuine voice, which represents the majority."
(Daily Mail, 30 August 2005)
Plans to offer state funding to "alternative" schools
that value creativity over academic achievement and regard national
tests and exams as superfluous were unveiled by the Government in
June 2005. A study of Steiner schools commissioned by the Department
for Education concluded that they had much to teach mainstream schools
even though "the consequences of successful Steiner education
may take many years to unfold in a person's life". The department
said it would be prepared to fund such schools if enough parents
wanted them. It was also looking into the feasibility of allowing
the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship to sponsor and run an academy
in Hereford.
The report said the "popular" view of Steiner education
- that it was part of a religious cult and indoctrinated children,
that pupils chose whether or not to attend lessons, that the curriculum
consisted mostly of art and that it was the last refuge of children
who had failed elsewhere - were all misconceptions. It said Steiner
education's most distinctive feature was that it was based on "anthroposophy",
a theory of the three stages of child development - willing, feeling
and thinking - identified by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an educational
philosopher who believed in re-incarnation.
He said children learn by imitation and play up to the age of seven,
when formal learning begins, through their aesthetic senses up to
the age of 14 and through reason from then on. It concluded that
Steiner education created "eager, confident and curious students"
who tended to know less than their peers and might find it harder
to get into good universities.
(Telegraph, 1 July 2005)
Academies have succeeded in attracting middle-class children but
failed to raise standards faster than schools in similar circumstances.
Official figures released to Parliament show most academies have
fewer deprived pupils than the schools they replaced and have persuaded
parents from outside their local area to choose an academy for their
child. Downing Street supporters of the programme see the potential
of academies to attract middle-class families to inner-city schools
as vital to breaking the cycle of urban underachievement.
One in 10 academy pupils comes from outside the local authority
in which the school is situated and only a quarter of pupils live
in its ward. But government claims that the multi-million-pound
independent state schools are doing better than "bog standard"
comprehensives have been undermined by figures that show other schools
in low-achieving areas are improving just as quickly - and with
fewer resources.
A recent evaluation of academies by PricewaterhouseCoopers found
only two of the three academies open in 2002-3 had achieved increases
of 4% in the proportion of pupils gaining five Cs or better at GCSE.
The other, Unity city academy in Middlesborough, failed to raise
standards and was recently failed by Ofsted.
(TES, 1 July 2005)
The controversial introduction of city academies is starting to
reverse decades of educational failure, a report has indicated.
Jacqui Smith, the Minister for School Standards, said that the report
showed the Government was right to press on with its plan to open
200 academies by 2010 at a cost of £5 billion. The report,
by the accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), will boost Tony
Blair's mission to reform the education system, He has urged ministers
to go on the offensive after an analysis of the first 11 academies
showed high levels of parental satisfaction with their children's
education, and improvements in discipline and attendance. Most of
the new schools are heavily oversubscribed.
The report also highlights the impact of private sponsors in raising
aspirations at academies, many of which replaced failing comprehensives
with a history of poor results. Mr Blair is a passionate advocate
of the academies and his former chief policy advisor Lord Adonis,
now an education minister, attracted unpopularity on the Left for
his advocacy of them. The report will be seen as a vindication of
his stance.
The report's assessment of academic standards is more mixed, however,
noting that while GCSE results since 2002 had improved in six academies,
they had not in the other five. The Department for Education and
Skills (DfES), which published the study, is also issuing a response,
highlighting the academies' record in national curriculum tests
of English, maths and science for 14-year-olds. This showed that
pass rates at the 11 academies were an average 9% better than those
of their predecessor schools in English and maths. Nationally, there
was an improvement of 6% in English and 7% in maths over the same
period.
- Academies are "independent state schools" set up to
end underachievement in areas of social and economic deprivation
- They are not bound by the national curriculum
- Private sponsors give around £2 million towards establishing
an academy and in return have a large say over the curriculum
and staff. The DfES meets the running costs
- The average cost of an academy is £25 million
- The Government aims to create 200 academies by 2010, at a cost
of £5 billion
(The Times, 15 June 2005)
Ministers are being accused of suppressing the facts about academies,
after a four-month delay in the publication of a report on the controversial
programme. There is confusion over why PriceWaterhouseCoopers' (PWC)
second annual report on the scheme, due to be delivered to the Department
for Education and Skills in December, has still not been published.
Both parties say they are waiting for the other to finalise the
work. The department chose not to release the consultants' first
academies report, which warned that the policy, designed to raise
standards in disadvantaged areas, could create a two-tier education
system based on social class.
It received the report eight months before announcing a £5
billion plan to have 200 academies in development by 2010. Since
then the latest test results for 14-year-olds showed nine out of
11 academies, independent state schools backed by private sponsors,
finished in the bottom 200 schools in England.
Ruth Kelly, Education Secretary, has told teachers that the Government
cannot afford to wait for further evidence on the success of academies
as children in deprived areas need a new approach now. Her department
said that at the 11 academies where pupils sat GCSEs last year,
the proportion gaining five Cs or better rose on average from 21%
to 30%.
But this claim is based in part on comparisons with predecessor
schools that do not all have the same intake. In March 2004, the
Commons education select committee said, "We fail to understand
why the DfES is putting such substantial resources into academies
when it has not produced the evidence on which to base the expansion."
(TES, 8 April 2005)
Schools for disruptive children are failing to provide an adequate
education for vulnerable young people unable to cope with life in
the mainstream, chief inspector David Bell has said. One in seven
schools for children with emotional, behavioural and social difficulties
inspected last year was placed in special measures. The figure is
four times the failure rate for all schools. Evidence from the Office
for Standards in Education shows that teaching is worse and achievement
lower in ESBD schools than in other specialist schools. This is
partly the result of widespread staff recruitment problems and insufficient
support by local authorities. Three-quarters of those schools placed
in special measures had difficulties in attracting and retaining
high-quality staff. Leadership and management is weak and the work
of governors is unsatisfactory in a third of schools.
Mr Bell said, "Pupils with special educational needs have
a right to a good quality education no matter what type of special
school they attend. The weaknesses identified in many EBSD schools
must be tackled to ensure that this very vulnerable group of pupils
does not loose out. When schools for pupils with EBSD get things
right they can make a real difference to the lives of these young
people."
Ofsted inspected 39 of the 197 EBSD special schools in England
during 2003-4. Of these, six (15%) were put in special measures.
By contrast only 162 (3.7%) of the 4,443 schools of all kinds inspected
during the same period were judged to be failing. Although nearly
half of ESBD schools were judged to be good or better, inspectors
found them to be less effective than other specialist schools. They
account for about half the special schools judged by inspectors
to have made insufficient progress between inspections.
(TES, 18 February 2005)
Ministers have pressed ahead with a huge expansion of the academies
programme, despite an official report warning that it could fail
to meet a key objective.
Eight months before former education secretary Charles Clarke announced
plans for 200 academies, ministers were told of doubts about the
£5 billion scheme's ability to introduce more innovative teaching.
In a report commissioned by the Government, consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers
also said academies could lead to a two-tier system based on social
class and thwart the Government's policy of collaboration. Ministers
chose not to publish the 264-page document, the first of five planned
annual reports evaluating academies, the expansion of which was
announced in 2004. The report was given to ministers in November
2003 and obtained by the TES under the Freedom of Information Act.
It suggests that academies will not necessarily lead to the teaching
innovations that ministers have said are among their main aims.
The Department for Education and Skills said it did not publish
the report because only a small number of academies were open when
it was compiled.
The authors identify US charter schools as a "close parallel"
and note their innovative use of technology but say that, despite
their greater autonomy, innovations in teaching and learning have
been "modest". When given greater autonomy and flexibility,
some schools return to traditional values and implement a curriculum
with a strong emphasis on "back to basics", the report
said. The report describes academies as the latest manifestation
of an attempt to create a "quasi-market" in UK state education,
which it says could have a detrimental impact and help develop a
two-tier system, dividing pupils by social class.
(TES, 18 February 2005)
Specialist schools sponsored by business are raising exam results
faster than other state secondaries. But teaching in modern language
and arts colleges needs to be improved, according to inspectors.
An evaluation by the Office for Standards in Education found there
was "an impetus and climate for improvement" in schools
that received private backing and extra government funds in exchange
for developing expertise in one or two subjects.
Teaching unions and Labour MPs have been suspicious of the policy,
which originated during Baroness Thatcher's premiership, believing
it would lead to a two-tier education system. But they have been
placated by the decision to give specialist status and the extra
funding that accompanies it to any schools that can demonstrate
its ability to develop an area of expertise and share it with other
schools in the locality, and to raise standards across the curriculum.
Specialist schools now account for over 70% of all secondary schools
in the state school system.
Inspectors said 16-year-old pupils in specialist schools had performed
significantly better in exams compared with the rest of the state
system since 1998. It also said the rate of improvement in results
was faster, and pupils were being offered more choices. In 2003,
58.9% of pupils in specialist schools gained five good grades at
GCSE compared with 50.2% in other comprehensives and inspectors
said the attainment gap was widening every year.
(FT, 16 February 2005)
A research study published by the DfES suggests that specialist school
status has a strong reinforcing and positive effect on a school's
ethos, is a powerful lever for school improvement associated with
rising academic performance and can impact positively across the school.
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RB587.pdf
(November 2004)
Tony Blair is to meet headteachers from dozens of independent schools
to try and persuade them to back the Government's flagship city
academies. The Prime Minister wants to create 200 academies by 2010
to replace failed comprehensives.
Leaders of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conferences (HMC)
and the Girls' School Association (GSA), representing nearly 500
independent schools, will be among those expected to attend Downing
Street talks. About 50 heads and governors are expected to attend
the meeting with Mr Blair.
Many in the independent sector suspect that fee-paying schools
may come under pressure to help run academies as a way to retain
their charitable status, which depends on their providing a "public
benefit". Academies are classed by the Government as state-funded
independent schools, free of local authority influence. Many in
the Government see them as a way to persuade urban middle-class
parents to use the state system.
(The Times, 25 October 2004)
Doncaster parents who forced a local council to drop plans for
a controversial academy sponsored by Christian fundamentalists,
are offering their help to other campaigners. Tracy Morton, their
spokeswoman, said: "Our message to other communities where
academies are planned is don't assume this is a foregone conclusion.
Now that people have seen that you can mount a campaign against
an academy proposal and win, they can come to us for help in doing
the same." She added that if there was a lot of activity against
academies they would consider setting up a national campaign.
(TES, 22 October 2004)
Foundation schools will face tough new rules on admissions unless
they are willing to take their share of difficult pupils. Ministers
will act to prevent popular schools dumping problem pupils on their
less successful neighbours. All secondary schools will be given
the chance to gain foundation status and take control of their admission
as part of the Government's five-year plan. Critics warn that allowing
all 3,400 secondaries to control their own admission arrangements
will lead to chaos. Each year 70,000 parents appeal against the
secondary place offered to their child. Ministers believe it would
be wrong to restrict headteachers' freedom without giving them a
chance to prove they can use their new freedoms responsibly. New
"Foundation partnerships" between schools will encourage
all to accept a wide range of pupils voluntarily, they say. Schools
will also continue to follow the existing code of practice, enforced
by the schools adjudicator, which prevents them selecting pupils
by interview. But ministers will step in if the system is abused.
(TES, 8 October 2004)
US charter school students are lagging six months behind pupils
in state schools, according to data that the Bush administration
is accused of trying to hush up. The findings pose awkward questions
for the White House, which extols charter schools as replacements
for the ailing state schools; and officials are scrambling to explain
why they have sat on them since last November. Just one in four
nine to 10-year-olds are proficient at reading or maths, according
to results from the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP), America's only nationally-administered exams. This contrasts
with 30% in maths among peers in comparable state schools. Overall,
the test scores equated to a half-year knowledge gap, said the American
Federation of Teachers, the US's second largest teachers' union,
which culled the charter scores from unprocessed official data.
The data offers the first US-wide comparison between charters and
education authority-run schools.
(TES, 27 August 2004)
Sir Peter Lampl says public money is being wasted on City Academies.
He questions the cost-effectiveness of the money being invested in
the programme, where results so far have been "mixed" and
where sponsors generally have no experience or track record in education.
In return for £2 million towards startup costs, sponsors can
appoint most governors and influence the direction of the schools.
But the taxpayer foots the rest of the bill and each academy typically
costs about £25m to build - more than double to cost of a comprehensive.
The Government has spent £425m on 17 academies so far.
(Guardian, 31 August 2004)
Ministers have been accused by MPs of supporting a growth of selection
in schools despite their public statements to the contrary. The
influential Commons Education Select Committee says Labour has presided
over "the continuing expansion of selection" in schools.
The Labour-dominated committee urges ministers to come clean over
their policies or continue to be seen as being "without principle".
The committee says that - by allowing new specialist schools to
select 10% of their pupils through aptitude and permitting the remaining
164 grammar schools to expand - Labour has shown itself to support
the policy.
"A government that permits the continuing expansion of selection,
by ability or by aptitude, can only be understood to approve of
both the practice of selection and its outcomes," the report
on schools admissions policies says. "The Government needs
to explain how it reconciles its insistence that there will be no
return to selection with its willingness to retain and increase
selection where it already exists."
Evidence placed before the committee showed the number of pupils
in grammar schools had risen by 22,029 since Labour came to power
in 1997. In addition, there are now nearly 2,000 specialist secondary
schools that are allowed to select 10% of their pupils through aptitude
tests. Ministers insist that selecting through ability and aptitude
are completely different - with the aptitude rule singling our pupils
who have a special interest in the particular specialism of the
school they have chosen. However, MPs say they can find no "meaningful
distinction" between the two words. They urge the Government
to scrap the test and refuse specialist schools permission to admit
pupils on aptitude. The MPs also urge ministers to scrap the current
system for allowing parents a ballot over ending selection in their
area - claiming the current rules make it almost impossible for
a ballot to succeed.
The report is equally scathing over moves to increase parental
choice - claiming that there are just not enough good schools to
meet their preferences. "The language of choice, as opposed
to the right to express a preference, in the context of school admissions
is inappropriate. For many parents there is little choice."
(Independent, 22 July 2004)
In 1986, the Conservatives proposed to create 30 city technology colleges.
The then education secretary, Kenneth Baker, announced that business
would pay 'all or most' of the estimated £10m cost of a CTC.
The Tories quickly found that business did not fancy paying anything
like as much, and were forced to drastically revise their expectations
downwards. Labour wants only £2m from its sponsors. What will
happen is what happens every time governments try to palm off the
cost of education on to business. It's what killed CTCs, as well as
David Blunkett's education action zones. Within a few months we will
hear that cash isn't required - contributions in kind will do.
For £2m, less than a fifth of the likely cost, the business
owns the school and gets the right to put its name and logo on it.
It gets to decide what specialism the school has and, within the limits
of the national curriculum, what subjects are taught. It can even
impose its own ideological slant on the teaching. Thus Sir Peter Vardy,
an evangelical Christian who believes in creationism and already controls
two schools, is to control at least two more. In his schools, he demands
that Darwinism be taught not as science, but as one theory of the
way the world came into being. Another equally good theory, the pupils
are taught, is that the world was literally created by God in six
days.
Ministers claim this gives parents a choice, but try telling that
to the residents of two villages near Doncaster - Conisbrough and
Denaby. They only have one local school, Northcliffe, and 150 out
of 180 of their children go there. Unfortunately for them, Northcliffe
is next on Sir Peter's shopping list. Some local parents do not want
children indoctrinated with his eccentric views on religion. But they
are going to be.
The 200 city academies will also have the right to pay their teachers
above the national rate. But in many secondary schools right now,
the salary budget does not stretch to putting teachers on as high
a salary grade as their experience and ability entitle them to. Teachers,
naturally, will go to the better-paying school, if they can get jobs
there. Other local schools will be staffed by teachers the city academy
doesn't want. So there will be two sorts of school - well-funded ones
and cash-starved ones. But surely, at least, poor children will have
as good a chance as rich ones of getting to the new academies? The
prime minister has promised. But already better-funded schools are
allowed to select 10% of their children by 'aptitude'. Parents who
can work the system always stand a better chance of getting places
in the desirable schools, and there are no measures are planned to
prevent this.
And many of the new academies will be run by faith groups. Confining
your intake to children of religious parents is a way of weeding out
many of the problem children, and forcing less well-funded schools
to take them. There are no plans to stop faith schools doing what
the London Oratory school does, which is to interview the child, with
both parents, and decide whom to accept.
(Guardian, 09.07.04)
Tony Blair should have waited for evidence that existing academies
raise standards before pushing ahead with a massive expansion, the
Government was told in July 2004. Education Secretary Charles Clarke
admitted to MPs that it is too early to say whether the first 12 academies
have succeeded, as they have not been open long enough to do a systematic
assessment, but said he hoped they would end decades of poor performance
in deprived areas. The policy would be reviewed in the light of future
evidence, he promised.
Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers,
has deep concern about more schools opting out of council services
by becoming foundation schools or academies. 'We think there are
real dangers here - this is a major undermining of the comprehensive,
locally-administered system of education,' he said. Mr Sinnott also
said the five-year plan seemed to undermine the Children Bill, which
aims to build closer links between education and other local public
services to improve child protection. Mr Clarke also admitted that
successful schools that need extra buildings would have to persuade
their education authority that they deserved funding more than schools
needing repairs. Speaking during Prime Minister's Question Time,
Tory leader Michael Howard said that just four of the country's
21,000 schools had so far taken up their existing right to expand.
(TES, 09.07.04)
Five-year strategy for children and learners is available
at www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/5yearstrategy
The City Academies initiative aims to use private funding to improve
inner-city schools. When the scheme was announced in March 2000,
the DfES intended that sponsorship would cover 20% of all costs,
but in October 2000 this was changed to a minimum of 10%. City Academies
were launched to replace underachieving schools or those in special
measures. They are to be run by a partnership of Government and
sponsors from business, church or voluntary sectors. According to
the TES in March 2000, however, unions and local authorities reacted
badly, claiming the then education secretary, David Blunkett, was
"rehashing failed ideas and panicking over the faltering of
the Fresh Start programme." Graham Lane, Labour Education Chairman
of the Local Government Association, said the scheme was borrowed
from the charter school movement in the USA, and was "the beginning
of the removing of education from local government."
The TES also stated that there was concern that new academies would
not be obliged to take troublesome pupils from the failing schools
they replaced, in order to avoid the problems that plagued Fresh
Start schools. However, the academies would have to find good alternative
places for the children they did not take.
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