Dear
I am writing to you to express my concern over the white paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, and to urge you to challenge the Government on this issue.
There is no evidence that academies are any better or worse than local authority maintained schools and so why continue with a programme to convert all schools into academies even if they will no longer be forced?
I believe that the evidence shows that academies lower standards. Only three multi-academy trusts produce better value-added progress than half of local authority schools. Recent reports by Ofsted into seven multi-academy trusts highlighted a string of concerns over poor pupil progress, attendance and behaviour and a lack of leadership and strategic oversight by trustees. The Local Schools Network research has found that ‘inadequate’ schools are more likely to remain ‘inadequate’ if they become sponsored academies.
I am concerned that the move to full academisation will remove the vital parents’ voice from the governing body. The removal of the right to be consulted on the academy sponsor enacted in the Education and Adoption Act is deeply worrying. Schools are essential community resources and, as such, users’ voices must be represented.
If the ethos behind the white paper is to drive up standards of attainment then I cannot understand why the Government is proposing to remove the qualified teacher status and give headteachers the power to employ and accredit whoever they wish within the school to teach. Parents will be rightly anxious about sending their child to a school where the teachers have not achieved a recognised qualification to teach. ATL’s joint member survey with the NUT revealed that the current flexibilities schools have on pay is resulting in discrimination against women, part-time teachers and teachers from BME backgrounds and I am worried about the impact that further freedoms will have.
And finally, what estimate has the Government made to the financial cost of academisation? We know in 2012 the National Audit Office stated that the Department for Education overspent by £1 billion on the academies programme. The ambition in the white paper will dwarf the number of conversions so far and so the overspend is likely to be much higher. Even academy sponsors themselves express concern at the pace of change and the capacity for the system to cope with the Government’s ambitions.
I would like to meet you to discuss my concerns and the issues raised in this letter. Alternatively I would welcome your views in a letter.
Yours sincerely,