AET shuffle

David Triggs has stepped down as chief executive of Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) and Ian Comfort will stand in as interim CEO

http://www.southendstandard.co.uk/news/echo/10667514.Top_head_quits_role_at_academy_trust/?ref=nt

see:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jul/20/education-school-academies-michael-gove

The country's largest taxpayer-funded academy chain, which was recently criticised for its poor performance in managing schools, has paid nearly £500,000 into the private business interests of its trustees and executives.

Academy/free school news

A further tranche of 102 free schools has been given permission to open their doors to pupils from next year - 46 of them in London (one in Hackney - City Gateway Hackney): http://www.building.co.uk/gove-approves-102-new-free-schools/5055215.article



Lancashire remains neutral on academies:
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/education/education-chiefs-told-to-leave-schools-alone-1-6042698

Cllr Matthew Tomlinson said: “ The DfE wrote to me again expressing disappointment at the number of academies we have in Lancashire and asking for a meeting. “My view is that there is no need. As far as I am concerned Lancashire schools are doing well and perfectly happy to stay in with the county. “ If they want to meet, I will meet them but I have nothing to say. At the end of the day individual schools decide what they want to do and it is certainly not for us to say they should or shouldn’t become academies. Our job is to support them. “They choose to stay within the control of the county.”

 Gove on Bradford:

“I will do everything possible to ensure that I, or another minister, visits Bradford as soon as possible. It is instructive that, in Bradford, politicians of every party – including Respect – apart from Labour, are backing free schools.” http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10664112.Education_Secretary_Michael_Gove_calls_for_free_schools_U_turn/

Nut free academy in the US: http://alhijraacademy.com/al-hijra-is-a-nut-free-school/ 

Essex multi-academy trust proliferation

http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/schools-staff-sent-improve-performers/story-19785472-detail/story.html#axzz2emWO93MW


Tomorrow (Friday) sees the launch of the county's latest trust set up by Powers Hall Academy in Witham.

Similar trusts have been set up in Wickford, Harlow, Notley, Rayleigh, Saffron Walden and Colchester.

Joe Figg, head teacher of Purleigh Primary School now executive head teacher of Meadgate Primary School – the first venture of the Purleigh Link Academy Trust established this summer - admits the move to set up an academy trust at Purleigh came about when he and the governors were looking for a new challenge after the school was rated outstanding by government inspectors last year.

He told This is Total Essex: "It will be like a mini authority with our own experts in school improvement, behaviour management, financial management, and every other aspect that schools need. It just makes so much sense to pool our resources – this is the way forward."

More detail in This is Total Essex link above

Hackney free school given council go ahead

http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2013/09/10/hackney-new-school-planning-application-approved/ 

From the Hackney Citizen
Hackney New School


Plans for new school buildings were approved at last night’s Hackney Council planning subcommittee meeting despite concerns about overcrowding on the school’s site in De Beauvoir...

http://newschoolfinance.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/independent-93-flavours-of-free-schools.html 

Comment and other news

FT: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5a235bb2-118d-11e3-8321-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2eaKihS5u

Discusses loss of ability to plan from the top down due to independent free schools and academies.

"Critics of the free school reforms argue that since these are demand-led, local authorities and ministers cannot direct the creation of schools where they are most needed. This pitfall is evident in the newest wave of 93 free schools that opened this month. None of the London boroughs most affected by the shortage of places – Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Waltham Forest – have a new primary school on this list."


Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/09/harris-academy-education-news-in-brief 

Includes a look at Harris Academies

Teacher training being done in schools rather than university via the School Direct programme

Kent academy in special measures

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway_messenger/news/grammar-becomes-second-in-britain-5756/

Ofsted inspectors blamed hugely variable teaching and failed leadership for their verdict on Chatham Grammar School for Boys. The official report means the school, which became an academy in 2011, could be shut down if it does not improve. It is now under temporary leadership from the neighbouring Rochester Grammar School, an academy, and has been told not to hire any newly-qualified teachers.


Furness Academy in Barrow, put into special measures in June 2013

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-22999991

 BBC: In March, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act found that Furness Academy had the highest number of exclusions among academies in England during the year 2009-10. The academy is due to move into a new £22m building by September.

Free schools: problem openings

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/education/pupils-miss-start-of-term-as-sunderland-s-first-free-school-fails-to-open-on-time-1-6030827

HUNDREDS of pupils at Sunderland’s first free school will start this year’s term late after a £3million extension wasn’t finished in time. (Grindon Hall Christian School, in Pennywell.)

Parents of more than 500 children who attend the school were told about the decision in a letter. Pupils will now return on Monday, September 23.


http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/east_london_science_free_school_opens_with_no_playground_1_2373706


A new free school opened in east London today where the children have to be kept in at break-time because they don’t have a playground, East London Science School is being housed in temporary accommodation.

Building freedom for academies and free schools

http://www.building.co.uk/two-schools-of-thought/5060248.article 

By Richard Hyams

It is ironic that the government that is funding standardised buildings, where the end user is “advised” of their school design, is also the one encouraging free schools, where the end user has ultimate veto on the design. Is this one great big social experiment?

But not much money is being spent per project: http://newschoolfinance.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/free-schools-low-cash-levels-for.html

Pupils on free school meals can jump admissions queue

Daily Mail: 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415333/Grammar-schools-bribed-ministers-let-poorer-pupils-jump-queue-oversubscribed-places.html

In Buckinghamshire, Aylesbury Grammar, Aylesbury High School and Sir Henry Floyd Grammar are giving priority to children granted free school meals because their families are on benefits or earn less than £16,190.

FT - free schools good or bad?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3d446498-15be-11e3-b519-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2eOuLpQzp

By Warwick Mansell

Liz Coatman, state schools specialist for the Good Schools Guide, says most free schools are heavily oversubscribed, with three applicants on average per place.


Laura McInerney, a former teacher who writes on free schools, believes they may be an educated gamble for parents.

Margaret Tulloch, secretary of Comprehensive Future, a school admissions lobby group, dismisses free schools as the latest example of a system whose complexity can be distracting for parents

FT - Diverse education market stretched

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a0ed7c74-0334-11e3-9a46-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz2eOuLpQzp



Helen Warrell ... most surprising, perhaps, has been the effect that reforming education has had on the state’s links with the private sector. Increasingly, it seems, alterations to the schooling landscape, combined with the purse-tightening effects of austerity, have led to a blurring of the traditional divisions between state schools and their independent counterparts...

Mentions Kings School in Tynemouth and Wellington College and Academy and Durand Academy

academies: opportunities for the construction sector

http://www.building.co.uk/professional/legal/the-new-state-schools/5059797.article

Some points from a piece in building.co.uk by Peter Hill: senior associate in TPP Law’s property practice

3,000 academies and over 170 free schools are open as of September 2013. 130 further academies plus 250 or more free schools in pipeline. Free schools are set up from scratch, the start-up process can take up to 18 months.

Once approved by the Department for Education, it has the opportunity to identify its preferred site. Funding for acquisition alterations or works before opening via the Education Funding Agency (EFA).

Ofsted encourages local authority soft power over academies

http://www.lgcplus.com/briefings/joint-working/education/ofsted-chief-urges-academy-intervention/5062916.article?blocktitle=Latest-Local-Government-News&contentID=2249

"At London Councils we want to have the statutory right to serve notices to improve on academies as well as our own schools,” Cllr John said. “But he [Sir Michael] said, well I would just serve a notice anyway and copy it to Ofsted and DfE.” Cllr John said Sir Michael told him that if he was concerned about the performance of an academy or a free school he should “just do it [i.e. issue a notice], shame them and use your ‘soft power’ effectively”.

Free schools - low cash levels for building

http://www.building.co.uk/news/sectors/education/are-free-schools-too-cheap-by-half?/5059998.article


The days of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, in which up to £35m was spent on individual schools, are long gone. Given these limited resources - the average construction cost for the 23 schools that have reported back is just over £3m - most are not being set up in purpose-built premises.

Chris Bowmer is associate director at Gleeds, which is on the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) free schools consultants’ framework, and has worked on a range of projects. “Whether you accept this [standard of school] entirely depends upon your aspiration. Times have undoubtedly changed since BSF. But these free schools meet basic standards.”

John Frankiewicz, chief executive of Willmott Dixon Capital Works - compromises are inevitably made when using existing buildings, all the work is done to a good standard. “You might prefer a new build, but this doesn’t mean the standard of work done on the refurbs is any worse.”

Strikes over pay

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/05/teachers-england-strike-pay-pensions

The dispute is over a series of disagreements connected to pensions, pay and conditions, including plans for performance-related pay and the associated end of national pay levels.

Research shows choice could mean segregation

The independent:


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/academies-increase-divisions-between-the-rich-and-poor-study-finds-segregation-made-worse-by-a-wider-choice-of-schooling-8797105.html

The research, led by Professor Stephen Gorard from the University of Durham, concludes there is a “stubborn” underlying level of segregation in UK schools – fuelled by successive governments’ attempts to widen choice in schooling. It says that the “converter” academies – those rated as “outstanding” by the education standards watchdog Ofsted and allowed to convert from local authority control to academy status by the Education Secretary Michael Gove – were found to have much lower rates of children eligible for free school meals than the national average. Large numbers of such schools in any given authority “tended to be associated with higher levels of segregation”, the study, to be presented today to the British Educational Research Association annual conference at Sussex University, found. The converter academies were not alone in having greater segregation than the average, the researchers found. The same was true of faith schools and the country’s 164 remaining grammar schools.


http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10651544.Education_expert_says_academies_make_social_segregation_worse/


and



While his overall research showed that the combination of immigration and the recession have combined to reduce the levels of race and class segregation between English schools in recent years, Prof Gorard also found that schools which had been allowed to convert to academies since 2010 now had much lower number of youngsters claiming free school meals compared to mainstream comprehensives still under local authority control.

Durand Academy directors face prosecution over delayed accounts

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/directors-behind-eton-of-the-state-sector-durand-academy-boarding-school-for-inner-city-pupils-could-face-prosecution-over-accounts-8795221.html

London primary school academy in Stockwell - State boarding school with £17m capital from DFE faces objection from villagers plus - plus National Audit Office objections:

The Independent Richard Garner

The directors of the company behind a proposal to set up a state boarding school in the heart of the Sussex countryside have been warned they could face prosecution for failing to file their annual accounts. the Durand Education Trust, set up by the Durand Academy, an existing primary school in Stockwell whose pupils will transfer to the new boarding school. The trust earns income from a health club, swimming pool and residential property near the site. Sir Greg Martin, the head of Durand Academy, said the costings were accurate...

LGA: free schools causing shortages

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/03/free-schools-open-pupils

BBC interview then reported in the Guardian:

Local Government Association

The LGA chairman, David Simmonds, said councils were facing "unprecedented pressures", leaving schools to face a "desperate shortage" of places in the near future. "The process of opening up much-needed schools is being impaired by a one-size-fits-all approach and in some cases by the presumption in favour of free schools and academies."

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/goves-free-schools-are-failing-solve-school-places-crisis

Head of wellington academy forced out by GCSE results

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/head-of-wellington-academy-forced-out-by-gcse-results-8793023.html


Andy Schofield, who helped to set up the academy which opened in 2009, was said to have paid the price for GCSE results in which the number of student receiving five A* to C grades dropped by 10 per cent in 12 months – falling from 47 to 37 per cent this year.

Eton school: http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/News/Areas/Bray-Holyport-Fifield/Holyport-College-unveils-new-school-logo-13112013.htm

Guardian: from politics to teaching

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/01/free-school-21-stratford-peter-hyman





I had left politics, where I had been a strategist to Tony Blair, between 1994 and 2003, and worked my way up from a teaching assistant. I left politics because I wanted something more, to be able to translate vision into reality, to do something where the difference could be felt and touched. What I enjoyed most in politics was what I enjoyed most in education, thinking about ideas, wrestling with the big arguments – what made a great school? What kind of person do we want coming out of schools at 18?

Population growth and academy chain in oxford

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/10639823.Population_growth_brings_major_changes_to_schools_in_Faringdon/


SCHOOL provision in Faringdon is to change. New houses in the town mean primary schools are already full and the only secondary school in the area is close to being full. The plan is to convert both the junior school and infant school in the town to create two new, two-form entry primary schools. There will be a six-phase redevelopment of Faringdon Community College (FCC) taking it from a 1,100 capacity to 1,450. There will also be the formation of an eight-school multi academy trust with the college and seven district primary schools. The current date for the two primary schools to open and for the first new classroom block to be built is September 2017. The scheme is being led by the board of directors of the existing multi academy trust between FCC and the two primary schools, which was set up in April 2012. John Banbrook, the directors’ financial advisor, said: “The reason the three schools joined together in the first place was Bloor Homes building the estate on Park Road.” In the past four years, the developer has built 430 homes in its Folly Park estate north of Parks Road, and has now applied to build 300 more on the south side. “They were obviously going to increase requirement for school places.” Related links More Wantage news In order to have more clout in determining future education provision the schools decided to band together. At FCC, 25 per cent of teaching is currently done in 12 temporary classrooms, including one for pupils with behavioural issues. Mr Banbrook said: “They are all beyond their useful life. We don’t want children taught in temporary classrooms falling to pieces and we do our best with funding to keep them warm and dry. “The bottom line is we have got temporary classrooms which are beyond their sell-by date.” The first phase of the redevelopment would see these replaced with a new £3.5m two-storey block with 12 classrooms. The school is aiming to submit plans this autumn. Phase two would be a 22-classroom block and phase three would see the school’s gymnasium replaced with a two or three-storey art and music block. Beyond that plans are not definite and will depend on funding availability at the time. Funding will come from a mix of maintenance and capital grants from the Education Department and section 106 developer money, largely from Bloor Homes. The plan for increasing primary provision is to expand the Junior School at its current site on Lechlade Road, and to replace the infant school with a new one on the Bloor Homes development south of Park Road. Sometime in the future, those three schools will form a multi-academy trust with five others in the Faringdon area – Buckland, John Blandy in Kingston Bagpuize, Longcott and Fernham, Shrivenham and Watchfield. Mr Banbrook explained the rationale behind such a move: “Currently pupils at seven different primary schools can be taught the same subject in seven different ways, but if we can bring that together and make it much more consistent that will have a huge impact on their first year at secondary school.”

Analysis: teachers leaving?

From Factcheck:

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/is_there_an_exodus_from_the_teaching_profession-27352



This weekend the Independent on Sunday reported that the number of teachers leaving work before they reach the official retirement agehad hit a record high of 8,880 in 2010/11, as "thousands of staff are driven out by plummeting morale and stiffer pension rules". This followed stories that surfaced earlier this year the Independent, Daily Mail and the Telegraph reporting a similar phenomenon. So what are the facts?

Analysis of claim that old academies reverting to bad habits

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/a_levels_early%20academies_performance_independent-29169


Factcheck:

Looking at early academies build under  labour administration 2008-12

"The Independent's diagnosis of recent problems in early academies essentially rests on one single year-on-year change for a relatively small sample of schools. In January 2014 the Department for Education will publish 2013 performance. With this data we'll be able to get a slightly better glimpse of any emerging trend. Longer term trends in scores per pupil seem to suggest in fact that early academies are improving, but for the time being the jury is still out on early academies."

Academy chain breaches gov pay guides

Academy chain breaches gov pay guides:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/academy-chain-to-break-government-pay-ceiling-in-bid-to-lure-best-teachers-8773443.html


One of the country’s biggest academy chains is busting the Government’s pay ceiling for public sector workers by offering all its teachers a 1.5 per cent pay rise. United Learning, which runs 25 academies around England, will also pay all new recruits on the teaching starting salary five per cent more than they would receive under the current teachers’ salary scale. Teachers’ leaders hope the deal will put pressure on other academy chains and, eventually, other state schools, especially if it prompts promising new teachers to opt for United Learning. It also poses an interesting question over relations between Chancellor George Osborne, who is anxious for strict adherence to the public sector pay curbs, and Education Secretary Michael Gove, who strongly supports academies having as much freedom as possible.

Warwick Mansell:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/aug/19/1m-free-school-temporary-site




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-23780765




Large secondary school Academy based in East Sussex, urgently requires an experienced Academy Head of Finance through to Christmas. As part of the SLT the role will lead the development of the Academy's financial and operational functions and fully participate in the management of the Academy. You will help to establish the Academy's commercial strategy by developing a network of commercial activities to support the Academies educational aims. You ill also oversee HR, IT, facilities, catering and capital projects. My client is keen to talk to a seasoned Academy professional. You will be available at short notice and be able to commit to the end of the assignment. You will also be formally qualified certainly and also have experience of managing large, multi-disciplined teams within a schools environment. To find out more about the role then please do not hesitate to contact Robin. Farrer Barnes Ltd does not discriminate on the grounds of age, race, gender, disability, creed or sexual orientation and complies with all relevant UK legislation. Farrer Barnes Ltd acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers.

from here: http://www.gaapweb.com/job/1251173/east-sussex/head-of-operations---academy


http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/10620642.Free_school_bid_supported_by_charity/


said: An independent charity which supports parents who want to open free schools in their area has thrown its weight behind a project in Ongar. School4Ongar, supported by MP Eric Pickles, was set up in 2012 by residents who wants a new school built to serve Ongar and the surrounding areas. And it has now been announced that the project is to be supported by the ‘New Schools Network’, an independent charity which provides personalised support to groups preparing to submit an application to the Department for Education to open a Free School, from 2015. School4Ongar project leader Jeff Banks, who is determined to have an all-ability, state-funded school for Ongar, said the support of the New Schools Network was a key development in the bid. He said: “We are really pleased to have been accepted on the 'New School Network' programme. It was a very tough selection process and in addition to a lengthy application form, four of our team were grilled in a challenging interview in London. “The whole process was very demanding but has show that our ideas are strong and our team can perform when we need to." NSN figures show that 80 per cent of groups interviewed by the Department for Eductaion (DfE) were approved to open their free schools. Related links Campaign for secondary school launched Parents who wish to express an interest in the school, or individuals or businesses who want to offer support, can contact the group at info@school4Ongar.com.

Gove on computing education: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/interview/2286684/gove-on-education