Remit
The commission will address two principal questions:
What are the implications of complete academisation for school improvement and pupil attainment? How can improvement and attainment best be secured within an academised system?
Commission remit
The commission will examine the model and incipient outcomes of academisation from a school improvement perspective, focusing on issues of accountability, governance, due diligence, and outcomes for pupils.
It will highlight emerging trends, risks, and related questions, concentrating on public interest.
It will also draw on international examples of similar systems and cases, to inform and compare analyses.
It will not rehearse debates about the decision to develop the academies programme, but will focus on the consequences of this programme in terms of outcomes for children and young people and for the education system as a whole.
Particular attention will be given to the key issues of
a) accountability including processes via which schools are held accountable; the role of the sponsor; commissioning of services; governance; operation of local markets; due diligence (e.g. what happens when performance worsens or fails to improve under a particular sponsor or chain?)
b) educational outcomes and how to lever school improvement in an academised system, given school autonomy
This is cool!
I hope the Commission will look at the school system as a whole. Don’t restrict your analysis to the impact on the schools that convert, but also consider those left within the Local Authority maintained structure. Even with the increased pressure on primaries to convert I suspect the majority will remain maintained. What will be the impact on an authority if just a small number of secondary schools remain part of the LA?
Hi Alex. We will indeed. This is a really important point. You will see from the five questions that structure our enquiry that we are interested in outcomes and implications not just for children, young people and parents in those schools that convert but also those in schools outside of the academies programme. We are also interested in looking across different local areas including those where there has been a significant uptake of academy status among most local schools, and those where few schools have converted and the different issues in these areas. Thanks for your interest.
What about all the children with additional needs ie those with learning disabilities in Area Resource Bases(ARBs)? With the points system in place no-one wants to take our children on board.
Also, there’s the problem that provision ends at 16 in ARBs and these children, who are to stay in education to 18 (19 with additioal needs) are not being given the CHOICE TO STAY IN SCHOOL, in their ARBs and need bespoke programmes suited to their individual needs. These issues require UGENT ATTENTION. Thankyou.