Response to Consultation about conversion to Academy

All schools in Richmond which are not yet academies are consulting about converting to academies. Here's my response:

I can no longer find details about the academy consultation on the school website. I think there was an FAQ issued after the single open meeting which I was unfortunately unable to attend but cannot locate it or the questionnaire. Although you put a link to the DoE website for the information in support of academies you have put no links to organisations who are against academies  or even just trying to ascertain the facts ( like Local Schools Network, the Anti Academies Alliance or the NUT). The law requires that "Adequate information should be given to enable consultees properly to respond" (Lord Justice Stephen Sedley QC, in the Court of Appeal) and this has not happened and is not happening.

Will  the collated results of the consultation be made public, i.e. numbers for and against, with arguments and comments made public. If stakeholders cannot be made aware of other people's arguments during the consultation period, how can they decide whether they are important or not. There is no way back as the conversion is irrevocable so governors, staff, parents and children must be sure and how can they be sure when the facts aren't made available to all the stakeholders.

Again, I cannot refer back to the website, but who is considered a stakeholder, who is being consulted? It's not just the current parents but also the existing staff and parents of primary school children as well as the local community and council.

The principle argument for conversion seems to be increased finance but it is unclear, once all the changes in provision of services have been sourced and budgeted, whether any financial benefit is either real or long lasting. As a parent I cannot judge this and so cannot make a reasoned decision. The NUT says "The government has confirmed that academy status should not give schools a financial advantage".

What is the evidence for any claim that the school will be better funded as an academy?
Does any such claim take into account the fact that we will be unable to achieve the economies of scale possible for the local authority? If so, how has this been assessed?
How do we know the school will be better funded when we don’t know details of the future academy funding changes planned by the Government?
Is there a business plan that has been put together by the head and governing body, to show how our finances will be affected in the short, medium and long term?

I note that all the secondary schools in Richmond are either converting to academies or consulting on converting.
What changes will be made to the services offered by the borough if all schools convert?
What is the long term impact?
What happens to those specialist services like SEN needs and all the other support services for vulnerable children?
In the long term, funding is shifting towards academies rather than local government support services. This is quite simply unfair and amoral.

How will we ensure that the school is able to access support services of a similar quality to those provided by the local authority, given that the private market for such services is undeveloped?
How can we be sure that, in an undeveloped market with few providers locally, we won’t be tied in to a poor deal with one provider?
How long will any fixed price contracts with a service supplier last and what guarantee will there be against future price rises after any loss-leading period is over?
What plans have been put in place to ensure that we can replicate the services we currently receive from the local authority?
Has a needs assessment been made of services that we will require in the future, including details of how we can access such services outside the local authority family of schools?

The facts, as they are to date, speak of academies quietly getting rid of, or not admitting those children with statements of special need; academies are no longer representative of the community. How will they be protected and what recourse will parents have?

Does the governing body have the technical expertise or the time it will need to take on its new responsibilities to protect the school in areas such as finance, the law, personnel and other technical areas?

Who will pay for training of the governing body once conversion has happened. What will be the constitutional change; how will the role and responsibilities of the governors change?

If parents are not satisfied with the governors after conversion, what recourse do they have as the council is no longer able to step in?

While the school guarantee not increasing costs of items like school meals once it has the power to do so? What other hidden costs may rise?

There is no evidence that academies deliver higher standards of education.

With the council no longer acting as back up in case of emergencies, what happens in case of major fire for example, how would the school cope.

What information is there about the insurance costs we will face as an academy to cover the significant risks posed by potential emergencies such as fire, flood, pupil accidents, major crimes etc?

Won’t our insurance costs be higher, either in the short or longer term, once we move out of collective insurance arrangements for the local authority family of schools?

What start-up costs will the school face on transfer to academy status?

Teachers will no longer be protected by national collective bargaining and will not have the same rights in terms of working hours, maternity and leaves of absence. New staff joining the school will have different contracts to that of existing staff. How does conversion affect their pensions? Will you guarantee to maintain the same rights and rates of pay as stated nationally? How will this affect your ability to recruit and keep experienced staff?

How will academy status affect our ability to mentor and support NQTs? Will the school take on fewer such staff?

In addition to all these practical queries, I think the further stratifying of the school system does nothing to improve English education as a whole or community cohesion. There has not yet been time to show useful data about the impact of academies on non-academy schools. There is already a total lack of choice re secondary schools, even in London with its greater density of schools. Furthermore if I had know this consultation was planned I would have thought harder about sending my children to [my schoool] .The short of it is that I am against the principles of academies and would rather not convert.

If we want to really improved the quality of education given to children we need to improve the resources available, from finance to staff across all different types of schools, not change the type of school.

I appreciate that I have asked a substantial number of questions, but these all need answering before a reasoned decision can be made. I do not have the specific technical expertise, let alone the time, to research all the information and data available. In essence, I feel I'm being asked to buy a product because the box is pretty, and I don't do that.

I am also publishing these questions on my blog to increase awareness of these issues.

Selecting Secondary Schools: The Illusion of Choice

Having a child in year 6 means you have about six weeks to go round visiting secondary schools and finding six that your child doesn't object going to and preferably wants to go to and then putting them in order and submitting the form by October 22nd (or 31st if you're submitting it online). This is the third time we've been on this merry go round and it doesn't get any easier, with school visits taking up a good 3 hours and both evening and daytime visits recommended.

The short summary of the situation in London is that if you can get in, you don't want to go there, and if you want the school, you can't get in. Hence the illusion of choice. I have a friend in another town who sums up her school situation as "well there are 2 secondary schools: one's very good; the other is s**t; we all apply for the former and hope we don't get the latter".

Two years ago we complained to the council about the lack of schools where we live. The result eventually moved from "there's no problem as there are enough school places in the borough" to "well maybe there's a bit of a shortage in your area". Last year we submitted a petition to the council saying please do something, to which their answer was "well we'll think about possibly doing something but it's not easy you know". Technically speaking there may be enough places in the borough but most spare places are at the other end of the borough or in schools that every one tries very hard not to get into.

The first school I visited 8 years ago with my first son and it was his first visit to a secondary school and he thought it was quite amazing. Until we got to the head teacher's speech. After a few minutes he turned to me and whispered 'she's nuts isn't she?' Considering I was wondering how to persuade him that this wasn't the school for him after the head opened her mouth that was a good result. Four years ago I visited with my second who took one look at the amazing art and said he wasn't going here. Not one for art, he isn't. However they had an emergency headteacher for 3 years to turn the school around and he did, along with seeking funding for a new building. I trotted along with my third son last month and they had a new head who seemed good and the new building was very spanking new and seemed well designed. I asked one art teacher how she found the new building and her reply was succinctly "well the roof doesn't leak". We liked this school very much. However we don't stand much of a chance getting in (Distance from school: 3.3 miles; last distance offered for Sep 2010: 2.2 miles).

School number 2 is where the older brothers go so the advantage is that unless there are over 200 siblings and children in care, which might happen, we're virtually guaranteed a place. So what's wrong with it? Well there's no sixth form, as there isn't in that borough, and I would not touch their local sixth form college. Also it's over 5 miles away which makes for a full hour's journey in the morning and a half six alarm call. Pick up the school, move it and add a sixth form and I'd be ecstatic. However the current head has certainly turned the school around. When I visited with number one son we both absolutely loved the then headteacher. He started in September and she left for medical reasons in December. The new head wasn't good enough, the school dipped and the current one took over. The dip was the reason I got son number two in as the gap in age was too large for sibling criteria. Now of course there would be no point in applying at this distance without a sibling in place.

The third school we visited is in the third borough we're considering. We applied for it last time and didn't get it. Very little chance of getting it this time either, but it's a nice school. It has enormous classes and a good feel to it, with improving results and the added benefit that in two years time it will have a brand new school built on the other side of the site. Not a new building but a whole new school. What a thought. Naturally there was some anxiety about whether funding would go ahead but it's happening. Bit of a trek but a hugely positive atmosphere.(Distance from school: 3.9 miles; last distance offered for Sep 2010: 2.2 miles).

We went to see the next school as so many parents got it last year who didn't put it on their form at all. Not a bad school; its results were dismal but are improving rapidly (partly because it's got such a long way to go) but it's by a town centre and has a terrible reputation for behaviour outside the school and on the buses. Not necessarily all the school's fault but it can be hard to see past the reputation. The school is slowly falling to pieces as it is on hold, having applied for trust status and not knowing what's happening with that, and having a new school promised them that is no doubt not going to be forthcoming. Rumours were flying about moving the school down our end but funnily enough a readily available site was not ready or available so that's gone down the pan. The school was certainly not as bad as its reputation but that's not a great endorsement (Distance from school: 3 miles; last distance offered for Sep unlimited).

As to the fifth, well we didn't visit it last time round. Again, the reputation wasn't very good and it had a new head who was rapidly improving the school but there were a lot of changes going on and the results weren't good. Another new head this term who made a terrible and overlong speech, talking only of the value of education in terms of getting a job. No reference to life long learning, personal fulfilment, joy of learning or anything like that. Nothing particularly wrong with the school but nothing right either, no 'wow' factor and not enough on the walls (Distance from school: 2.5 miles; last distance offered for Sep 2010: 2.0 miles).

The sixth and last school was a surprise. We went two years ago and weren't impressed. The buildings were nice. The layout was nice. There was nothing inspiring or exciting. The headteacher gave an adequate speech but not particularly encouraging. This time round, possibly due to the addition of a sixth form, there was a buzz around the school and some wonderfully enthusiastic teachers that made it very attractive indeed (Distance from school: 1.5 miles; last distance offered for Sep 2010: 1.4 miles).

So having visited all these schools we've plumped for the one that we know we can get into. We debated trying for the last one as it is so close but the chances of getting in are so dismal and the uncertainty of waiting lists so distressing that it's not really worth the effort.

The point here is that despite all that effort and research, all that talking to teachers, evaluating schools and looking at league tables, there is no choice. Once you've said no to single sex schools, no to schools over an hour's travel away and no to the ones that really are dreadful, there's not a lot left. Council admissions will tell you to not rely on distance offered last year as the number of applications can fluctuate wildly but the best schools offer places in ever decreasing circles.

And don't even get me started on faith schools.