Failing Academy Schools

In February, the Prime Minister, David Cameron promised an 'all out war' on mediocre schools, removing the schools from local authority control and forcing the them to become academies.  This was echoed by the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, a couple of weeks ago on the Andrew Marr show.  The presumption seems to be that the failing schools are all under public sector control.  But what if the failing school in question is already an academy?  Will the new legislation provide 'fast-track' measures to change the senior leadership of academies that are unable to reverse their decline in a reasonable timescale?

I was generally supportive of the creation of academy schools, mainly on the basis that an academy gets its hands on 100% of their school's funding, rather than having 20% siphoned off by the local authority.  The theory being that schools are better placed to spend their funding more efficiently than the local authority, making available more funds to support learning and improving facilities at the school.

The experience so far, it appears to me,  does not support that theory.  Academies can be just as profligate, if not more so,  than local authorities.  I believe that the creation of more academies and new measures to expedite the removal of headteachers of failing schools should not occur before a Government review into the efficacy of the existing policy is undertaken. 

 

According to Ofsted, more than a third of sponsored academies are failing or are rated as requiring improvement - a higher proportion than local authority schools.  In my region (the North East), there has been a number of such schools, including at least three secondary schools since the beginning of this year (Durham Free School, Grindon Hall Academy, Thorp Academy). 

The another failing primary academy (Redby, Sunderland) was previously rated as “good” by Ofsted as recently as 2010, but was deemed inadequate, following an Ofsted inspection in November 2013, and placed in special measures.  The headteacher was given barely two months to turn things around before she was ousted in what appears to be a “palace coup” by her deputy and assistant headteachers, supported by an executive headteacher from Wearmouth Learning Trust (a trust set up for the purpose). 

Whilst I accept that the ultimate responsibility for the academy's failings lies with the former headteacher, it seems that those currently charged with improving the standards at the academy are those who have presided over its three-year decline, and who have failed in their attempts to get the school out of 'special measures' over the last 18 months.

This has not only been detrimental to educational standards at the academy, it has also been costly.  The school's annual report shows an ex-gratia payment to an employee of £47k (£3k short of the figure requiring DfE approval), a £43k payment to the governing body, Wearmouth Learning Trust, and a £161k increase in staff costs - despite losing many full-time teachers in the academic year ending July 2014.

To prevent the academy conversion process being nothing more than a mechanism for transferring public funds to private trusts, the academy trusts must also be subject to greater scrutiny.  This would encourage good governance, reduce profligacy and help to ensure that the additional funds available to academies are used to raise standards, which I believe was the original intention of the Government's policy.