MORGAN’S VALE AND WOODFALLS PRIMARY SCHOOL

MORGAN’S VALE AND WOODFALLS PRIMARY SCHOOL Governor development event Saturday 8th September 2012

STRUCTURE • National context • Academy facts • Why have some schools converted? • Academy pros and cons • Implications and considerations

NATIONAL CONTEXT • Downloadable, along with many other useful documents, from www.thegovernor.org.uk • DfE website – search for “Academies” (www.education.gov.uk) • NGA Q and A on Academies (www.nga.org.uk) • Local Schools Network • www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk • Anti-academies Alliance • www.antiacademiesalliance.org.uk • Useful resources: • Academy conversion decision-making toolkit (NCOGS 2010) • Academies: research into the leadership of sponsored and converting academies (NC 2011) • Becoming an Academy (DfE) – heads talk about how they did it • Plan A+ Unleashing the potential of academies (Schools Network/Reform) • The growth of academy chains: implications for leaders and leadership (NCSL)

THE MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLE • LAs declining but not at same rate everywhere – year on year budget cuts; focus on weakest schools • Local collaborative arrangements – education trusts, federations, partnerships • More Academies and Free schools outside LA control – responsible to Sec of State • New executive agencies • Academy chains growing; varied approaches • Private companies providing services – for and not for profit • For profit companies running schools – Social Enterprise schools?

AUTONOMY AND CHOICE • “The new theology of the Coalition government is autonomy and choice…Governors are more important in a more autonomous system. Their ability to challenge and lead is the key.” • Sue Hackman • Chief Adviser for School Standards, DfE • 13.10.2011

STRUCTURAL MODELS (1) Single schools This is the standard model with one school, one Headteacher and one governing body but shared headship is increasing as a new model of leadership. Academies These schools are independent of local authority control. ‘Sponsored’ Academies are expected to have innovative leadership structures to help them tackle underachievement. ‘Converting’ Academies are expected to work with other schools to help raise standards. Collaborations This is a formal partnership model using the using the collaborative regulations to establish a strategic group across a number of schools. May share roles. Federations This is where two or more schools are governed collectively under a single governing body. Often share Headship, may share other roles. Mixed Federations and Collaborations This is where groups of schools apply both sets of regulations according to their local circumstances.

STRUCTURAL MODELS (2) Trusts This is a strategic model encompassing one or more schools with partners (educational and non-educational) to deliver improved outcomes. Partnerships Increasingly, groups of schools and academies are establishing a wide range of formal and informal agreements to work together outside the constraints of the current statutory framework. Chains of Schools / Multi-Academy-Trusts These may be academies, federations or other providing bodies where successful schools formally support others to develop improvement systems. They are already in existence and expanding. Locality Clusters and Companies (also Umbrella Trusts) Joint working may be secured through the creative use of the Limited Company Model, Partnership Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding to deliver services across a range of schools. Free Schools (also Studio Schools & UTCs) These schools are created by Academies bill and therefore independent of local authority control. They will be sponsored by parents, teachers, community groups and others. Studio Schools are for 14-19 and have specific local business engagement. UTCs are co-sponsored by a University

OPINION: POOR GOVERNANCE LED TO ACADEMIES • "If local democracy had worked, if local governing bodies had worked in the most challenging schools and for the most disadvantaged children, we would never have needed academies" • "Often governing bodies are the problem, actually“ • Sir Michael Wilshaw

FACTS: RECENT HISTORY • May 2010 Labour gov’t had established 203 sponsored academies • July 2010 Academies Act becomes law • Sept 2010 First 32 “converting” academies established • March 2011 195 “outstanding” schools had converted to academies

FACTS: CURRENT SITUATION • As of 1 July 2012 there are 1957 (or 2150?) academies open in England • In perspective: • there are 3127 secondary schools and 16971 primary schools in England • 10.7% of all schools are academies • 42% of secondary schools are academies • 3.3% of all primary schools are academies

FACTS: WILTSHIRE • Wiltshire has 25 secondary schools; 196 primary and 6 special • 14 secondaries are academies (56% of sec) • 8 primaries are academies (4% of pri) • 1 special school is an academy (17% of special) • 10% of all Wiltshire schools are academies • (as at 1st July 2012)

FACTS: MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES • LA Maintained schools are those funded by the local authority • community • foundation • voluntary aided • voluntary controlled • Academies are ‘independent’ state schools • charitable companies limited by guarantee • funded by and accountable to the Secretary of State • have an Academy Trust which is responsible for the school’s land and assets • expected to support another school or schools

FACTS: ACADEMY FREEDOMS • adapt the national curriculum to suit the needs of pupils • set own pay and conditions for staff • change the duration of terms and school days

Converter FACTS: ACADEMY TYPES Sponsored led by sponsors from a wide range of backgrounds (eg, business and voluntary sector, Dioceses, other academies, Academy chains) new buildings (pre-Coalition gov’t) • not required to have an external sponsor (the academy trust delegates management of the school to the GB) but may do

FACTS: ESTABLISHED SERVICE PROVIDERS • Multi Academy Chains, such as.. • AET - Academies Enterprise Trust (24 +?) • E-ACT (18) • Kunskapsskolan / Learning Schools Trust (3) • Schools Partnership Trust (14 + 11) • Oasis (14) • ULT - United Learning Trust (19) • Kenmal Academies Trust (17) • ARK - Absolute Return for Kids (11) • Ormiston (18) • Aldridge Foundation (5) • Sponsoring weaker schools / partnering with converter schools • Education and support services • Multi Academy Trust Providers/Clusters/Umbrella Trusts such as.. • Haberdashers / Askes (3) • London / Kent • Grace (3) • West Midlands • Cabot Learning Federation (5 +1) • Bristol / W-S-M • Also working closely with primaries • Primary Academies Trust (11) • Devon • Harris (15) • London • Diocese groups – umbrella trusts • Some local groups have ‘transferred’ their academies to the big chains

FACTS: NEW SERVICE PROVIDERS • New providers in 2011/12 • Elliot Foundation • Navigate Trust • EMLC Academies Trust (NPAA) • Active Learning Trust • Education Fellowship • Predominantly looking to work with the primaries as sponsors or support partners • Range of existing academy converters looking to create local chains/support other schools, such as.. • Pickwick Learning • Barnfield College • FE colleges and Universities • A market Economy ? • Collaborative Academies Trust (Edison) • US Charter schools profit based company • Track record of support >100 UK schools • 3 schools joining in Sept 2012 • International English Schools (IES) • 10yr contract to run a Suffolk Free School • 19 schools in Sweden • Policy Exchange report – ‘John Lewis model’

general annual grant (GAG) funding based on the level of LA funding already calculated for the school prior to it becoming an academy grant payments to academies to replace LA services depend on the level of central spend in the LA as LAs cut expenditure on central services, the amount schools receive may reduce FACTS: ACADEMY FUNDING

FACTS: WHO CAN BECOME AN ACADEMY? • “outstanding” and ‘good with outstanding features’ schools • other schools need to apply in partnership with an existing academy or join an existing academy trust with a proven record of school improvement in order to apply for academy status • special schools and PRUs • underperforming primary schools will be forced to become Academies • free schools are Academies • any new school built by a LA must be an Academy • schools failing to meet floor targets are forced to become academies

Converting FACTS: GOVERNANCE Sponsored managed by academy trusts, companies limited by guarantee with charitable status. A trust may include one or more academies a GB governs the academy on behalf of the trust. Articles of Association determine the GB constitution sponsor appoints the majority of governors the GB should include an LA representative, the principal in an ex-officio capacity, and a parent • not required to have a sponsor but GB has to comply with legislation and take on trust status • Articles of Association determine the GB constitution • GBs need to ensure necessary challenge is generated either internally or by buying in external support so that educational standards continue to remain high

FACTS: GOVERNANCE • A multi-academy or umbrella trust has one overall governing body • Each academy within the trust has a “local governing body” • A local governing body is essentially a teaching and learning committee – not a GB as we know it

GOVERNANCE • “The establishment of academies and trusts has moved the governance of schools away from a stakeholder model…a corporate sector model is becoming more prominent and whilst there are still places as of right for parents, the governing body has taken on a more non-executive role, with individuals recruited for their expertise and experience” • NC 2011

GOVERNANCE • Since converting to academy status and experiencing reduced involvement of the LA, governors are expected to take on more responsibility (eg, for buildings and other assets) • One governor explained this as “the buck now stops with us” • Need for additional training, in particular relating to the new responsibilities and accountabilities that academy status brings • “The governing body is now running a small organisation. The school took advice on risks which are perceived to be different, but not more serious.” (Academy senior leader)

WHY HAVE SCHOOLS CONVERTED? • Independence and autonomy are key motivating factors in themselves for both sponsored and converting academies, but for different reasons: • Money: financial autonomy and increased funding enabled converting academies to achieve better value for money and better student outcomes • Standards: primary motivation for independence in sponsored academies was to use their independence to help raise standards rapidly • NC 2011

WHY HAVE SCHOOLS CONVERTED? • Schools Network and Reform survey 2012 • 478 academies responded • Funding:78% chose to become an academy for additional funding. 39%: main reason for their conversion • Autonomy:sense of financial autonomy (73%), educational autonomy (71%) and freedom to buy services from providers other than the local authority (70%). 57% wanted opportunity to innovate to raise standards; 51% wanted less LA involvement

WHY HAVE SCHOOLS CONVERTED? • www.education.gov.uk • short videos • Becoming an Academy : Heads of converted schools talk about how they made the change

FREEDOMS: FOR AND AGAINST • Raising standards • Funding and financial management • External support and challenge

STANDARDS:GUARANTEED IMPROVEMENT? • “Evidence shows that the academy programme has had a good effect on school standards” Michael Gove 16 June 2011 • National Audit Office report (NAO, 2010): most (sponsored) academies are achieving increases in academic attainment for their pupils compared with their predecessor schools • Although still below the national average, the proportion of their pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades at GCSE or equivalent is improving at a faster rate than maintained schools with similar intakes • a small number of (sponsored) academies have made little progress, particularly when English and mathematics are taken into account

DFE STATEMENT • for the 166 academies with results in both 2010 and 2011, the percentage of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs including English and maths rose from 40.6 per cent to 46.3 per cent, an increase of 5.7 percentage points • academies' GCSE results improved by nearly twice the level seen across all maintained schools

ACADEMY SCHOOLS “INFLATE RESULTS WITH EASY QUALIFICATIONS” • The Government's flagship academy schools have been accused of shifting pupils onto inferior courses to dramatically inflate their GCSE results. Research suggests academies are more likely to use “easy” vocational qualifications than ordinary comprehensives • ministers … have regularly used academies' results as proof that they perform better than the national average – a key plank of their drive to extend academy status to thousands of other schools • one of the government’s flagship academies was named as the worst performer: just three per cent of the 115 pupils at St Aldhelm's Academy in Poole, Dorset, gained five A* to C grades including English and maths. • Graeme Paton, Education Editor, The Daily Telegraph

SECONDARY SCHOOL RESULTS 2011 • Only one in 33 academy pupils achieved Ebacc – even though most of their pupils are not disadvantaged • On average, of pupils nationally who got 5A-Cs with English and Maths, 33% achieved Ebacc • In academies, the proportion is 12% • It is even worse (about 8%) once you remove academies which are former independent, grammar or other very high achieving schools • Dr Terry Wrigley, Visiting Professor, Leeds Metropolitan University • Editor Improving Schools journal

THIS YEAR’S RESULTS • Overshadowed by the controversy over shifting grade boundaries in English • No comment from DfE re academy results • “Some of Gove's favoured academies were…affected. Results at four schools run by the academy chain Ark were down on last year, out of five Ark schools with children taking GCSEs. At Burlington Danes academy in west London, regularly praised by Gove, 64% of students achieved five good passes with English and maths, compared with 75% last year.” Guardian 23.8.12

FUNDING • “Schools that do well, like ours, can get overlooked in funding discussions. Because we are not problematic and seem to be doing OK, resources are pumped elsewhere. We suffered underfunding over a long period and Academy status allowed us to take control, and hopefully make the right decisions.” • “We’re in a challenging area, so every penny of resource is important to us to make a difference for our pupils. Academy status enables us to put the money where it suits our needs.” • Heads quoted in “Becoming an academy” DfE

FUNDING • “We are saving a lot of money – for example, our new payroll system costs half what the local authority charged. We can plough that money back into teaching.” • “We have more control over the allocation of our resources to meet our own needs. So, not only do we not have to lay off any teaching assistants, we have employed an extra teacher and I’ve been able to promote our secretary to become a business manager, freeing up my time from office work.” • “We’ve been able to appoint an extra teacher and set up an extra class. As a result all our classes – which used to be about 28 pupils each – are now reduced to an average of 20. Every class now has a full time teaching assistant, which was previously not the case.” • Heads quoted in “Becoming an academy” DfE

PAYING FOR CONVERSION • Too much of a meal can be made of the difficulty of the paperwork involved, insists Jim McAtear, head of Hartismere school in Suffolk. He scrutinised the legal requirements carefully beforehand and decided a DIY approach was perfectly viable. "The way the DfE has set up the process actually strengthens the infrastructure of those schools," he says. "The difficulties entailed are largely illusory.“ • Lampton academy in Hounslow: schools are given £25,000 to effect the conversion: fortunate to have a governor whose hard work cut down their legal fees: a colleague in Brent without any expertise received a bill from the same firm of solicitors that Lampton used for less than £10,000 • Guardian 30 May 2011

FUNDING • A challenge for all academies in the future, is to ensure that their GB is sufficiently rigorous in how it spends public money • The Public Accounts Committee noted that in the past, many academies did not have adequate financial controls, and that the GBs of all academies should comply with basic standards of governance and financial management. This should include segregation of key roles and responsibilities, and timely submission of annual accounts • NC 2011

FEARS FOR ACADEMIES AFTER 8 NEED RESCUING • Eight academy schools in financial difficulty were rescued by a DfE quango over the past 18 months at a cost of £10.7m, intensifying concerns in Whitehall that state schools moving outside the local authority system were not being adequately supervised. • One accountancy firm, which declined to be named, found a school had been overcharged tenfold for laptop computers by a now-collapsed leasing company. • Financial Times January 8, 2012

EXTERNAL SUPPORT AND CHALLENGE • “Be careful not to present Academy status as anti-local authority. It’s about a school’s ability to review what we buy in. We still use some of the council’s services but where the provision is poor or inadequate to meet our needs, we don’t.” • “We were one of the first to convert and we found the local authority very slow to engage in the process. Our legal team had to push to organise the completion of documents. Having said that, we still use the buying power of the local authority for energy.” • Heads quoted in Becoming an academy

EXTERNAL SUPPORT AND CHALLENGE • “Schools take the role of the local authorities for granted. Cutting the apron strings is not a simple process and will require schools to adopt behaviours which are not natural to them.” • Philip White, chief executive of Syscap

CALLS FOR AN EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE • It seems preposterous that we have no organised supply of expert advisors to support improvement. • Recommendation: a new nationwide support system to facilitate advice, support and collegiate school-to-school learning. • RSA 2011 • "It is no good just relying on Ofsted to give the judgment. By that time, it is too late. We need some sort of intermediary bodies which can detect when things aren't going well, look at the data and have their ear very close to the ground to determine when there is a certain issue.“ • Michael Wilshaw HMCI • Guardian Dec 2011

REASONS FOR CHANGING • Money • Autonomy • Improved sustainability • Fear of being left behind or being forced • Dangers of isolation • Weakening of LA support/services • Diocesan favourable attitude to academies

REASONS FOR NOT CHANGING • How new are these “new freedoms”? • Freedom from LA control – LMS was established in 1988 • Set your own pay and conditions – but virtually no Academies have done it – risks disruption and inflation • Freedom from National Curriculum – NC is under review to reduce prescription • Change length of school day and terms – you can already change day lengths. Changing term dates likely to cause local difficulties, esp for parents of children at different schools

Moral issue OTHER REASONS Learn from the past GM status – some leapt at it, got most of the money; others pressurised to follow (domino effect), got less; most chose not to; new government reversed policy • If many become Academies, what happens to all the other schools? • Less money • Reduced services • Two-tier system

AND… • Very little research on converting academies • Academies don’t necessarily raise educational standards • What’s next – privatisation? • Locked in for 7 years • Insecure future funding and costs of services • Lack of open accountability • Accidents waiting to happen: indemnity insurance

IMPLICATIONS and CONSIDERATIONS • Reports that 300 pupil school groups are not sustainable – how does our school compare? • What will the new Ofsted focus and changing curriculum mean for us? • How will the changing financial situation affect our school? • What’s happening across our area re structural change and the Local Authority model - and how will that affect our school? • What will happen in our area if other schools start to convert or join chains? Is Strategic Partnership on the cluster agenda? • What impact will these changes have on our ability to attract and retain good teaching staff? • What is our Diocese’s approach to structural change? – What support models are available? • How will the changes in secondary level impact through to the Primary? • It will be critical to collaborate for buying power in the future – how will our school address this?

IMPLICATIONS and CONSIDERATIONS • What opportunities do these changes present? • If change is more about ‘When’ rather an ‘If’ – what factors are we monitoring to know ‘When’? • Do we know our strengths and weaknesses? • What is important to our community – what do they want? • Do we understand the opportunities open to the school and the threats it may be facing? • What is our experience in school collaboration – what have we learnt and how can it help? • Where is the capacity to lead and manage change? - How ready are we for partnership? • What are the benefits and challenges with each of the structural models and how do they meet our school’s needs? • How does any or all of this affect and benefit the children?

SOME QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION • Where are you now in consideration of Academy status? • What appeals to you about Academy status? • What puts you off? • What questions remain unanswered?

MORGAN’S VALE AND WOODFALLS PRIMARY SCHOOL