It’s all academic - but what are the Government’s new academies?

Under new laws brought in by Education Secretary Michael Gove, 22 of Warwickshire’s 34 secondary schools have signed up to become academies, among them Campion School, Myton School and Aylesford School.

Academies were created by New Labour as a means of raising standards. The Coalition’s reforms mean academies are funded directly by the Government not by Warwickshire County Council. Accountable to the Secretary of State, they can depart from the National Curriculum and teach beyond normal school hours and term times.

Mark Gore, the county council’s head of service for learning and achievement likened academies to publically-funded independent schools.

Mr Gore said: “It’s more a state of mind than anything. Our academies have said they are not changing because they are under burdensome control, it’s just a statement that they are masters of their own destiny.”

Under Conservative control, the county council has encouraged schools to become academies, some would say against its own interests. Academies receive extra money to pay for services like human resources and IT that might previously have been provided by the authority, as well as £25,000 to cover the legal costs of changing. Nonetheless Michael Gove has made clear schools will not gain financially by becoming academies.

Mr Gore said schools are already able to buy services from elsewhere, but predicts academies will be more likely to ‘flex their muscles’ and look around.

With little of the adverse press suffered by health service reforms, few parents object and when one school becomes an academy, others follow.

So what is the difference for pupils?

Mr Gore said: “The hope is that the experience for parents and pupils isn’t substantially different and the additional freedoms the schools have give them additional chances to improve.”

It may mean more children benefit from better schools. Several Stratford grammar schools are taking advantage of freedom from admissions policies and restrictions to take on extra classes.

Mark Gore said: “It is reducing the role of the local authority, big time.

“The stance we have taken is that we are not too worried about them becoming academies. If they want to, that’s fine. We are committed to working with them.”

The change is not necessarily a matter of choice. Like New Labour, the Education Secretary can require schools which have been ‘failing’ to become academies, possibly in partnership with others that are. There can also be academy ‘chains’ - groups of schools operating under a board of trustees which operates above governors.

Not everyone is comfortable with the implications. Academies need not recognise unions, and can deviate from some nationally-set pay and conditions requirements so they can offer classes at 4pm or during the holidays, provided staff are happy to take jobs doing so.

There are also fewer parent governors, although schools may set up other bodies in which parents have a voice.

As long as the school is led by an active headteacher, with engaged governors and well-motivated management there should be few problems, says Mr Gore. But with a bad leader, someone distracted by personal troubles or poor health, the hitherto jilted education authority must step in.

Mr Gore said: “Standards at a school can change very quickly if there’s a change of leadership, staff leaving or somebody takes their eye off the ball.

“There is still said to be a role for local authorities as champions of learning. Where we are aware that young people are not getting a good deal, we can challenge that.”

Campion School was made an academy on January 1. For headteacher Mark Feldman, the difference is like going from renting a house to owning it.

He said: “They become responsible for the future of that building. When it needs a new roof it’s not a question of waiting for a landlord to get it done. The key long term benefit is that of the school’s long term mentality. It becomes an organisation that is responsible for its own long-term destiny.”

Mr Feldman believes the philosophy of self-reliance and responsibility is what will filter down to pupils and parents in the long term. He said: “For some schools having a faith is important, for others having a specialism is important. For an academy the essence is that the whole organisation is centred around creating its own destiny.”

Before it changed, Campion held a consultation with parents, pupils and staff and unions, which Mr Feldman said was “overwhelmingly positive”. Despite rumours of teaching until 5pm, Mr Feldman said there were no plans to extend terms or school days and no plans to depart from national pay agreements, adding teachers would not come if there were.

In fact, he argues many of the apparent freedoms already existed, albeit through negotiation with the local authority, and stressed the school maintained a “strong” relationship with the county council.

More than half of schools nationwide have opted for academy status, and Mr Feldman acknowledges a Government strategy to make councils ‘commissioners’ of education services and ‘champions’ of educational rights, a process he says began under Labour.

Unions and some teachers view the move as privatisation by stealth. There have been strikes in Birmingham and Staffordshire and some say academies erode local accountability.

But Mr Feldman described the fear as “mistaken”, adding: “It’s using greater freedom not to make economic gain but to make educational gain.”

Nonetheless, National Union of Teachers’ Warwickshire branch president Andy Summers said academies “drive a wedge” into state education, and are part of a strategy to privatise and divide the education system.

He said that as funding went directly to schools, the county council would have less to spend on its services and the remaining schools it ran, resulting in “huge” inequality.

He added that schools would no longer be obliged to recognise unions, and teachers could be forced to work extra hours with no extra reward, or accept conditions that the union had negotiated to stop in the past.

Mr Summers even said academies might not be obliged to employ qualified teachers, a situation he likened to being operated on by an unqualified doctor.

Despite schools such as Myton College saying they would not become selective, Mr Summers said some schools already used parental interviews as a form of tacit selection, while others would become “massive superschools” taking on pupils purely for financial reasons.

He added: “It’s ripped away funding from local authorities, who are no longer able to provide as much special needs support. Many academies are coming back asking for help and being surprised when they realise the local authority no longer has the money to provide it.”