Schools to be made into academies

[Gavin78]

I thought this might be better with it's own thread.

Osborne to focus budget on plan to turn all English schools into academies.

Well my wife works in a school and she isn't so sure that this would actually work.

Main focus would be who is the employer? the local councils or the school themselves who pays the staff? will there have to be new contracts and rates of pay. will the schools still be subject to the same holidays or down to the head of the school to set their own.

They also want to make 8 hour days but can kids actually focus for this long?

[Stephen]

Here is a link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35815023

Chancellor George Osborne has used his Budget speech to say all schools in England will become academies and extend the school day.
Schools must become academies by 2020 or have official plans to do so by 2022, he told MPs.

[tweedle]

Originally Posted by Gavin78

I thought this might be better with it's own thread.

Osborne to focus budget on plan to turn all English schools into academies.

Well my wife works in a school and she isn't so sure that this would actually work.

Main focus would be who is the employer? the local councils or the school themselves who pays the staff? will there have to be new contracts and rates of pay. will the schools still be subject to the same holidays or down to the head of the school to set their own.

They also want to make 8 hour days but can kids actually focus for this long?

Your wife really should know the answer to this by now, an as for kids "focusing" in China the average school day is 7:30am to 5:30pm an their students do a lot better than ours, by a long way.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by Gavin78

I thought this might be better with it's own thread.

Osborne to focus budget on plan to turn all English schools into academies.

Well my wife works in a school and she isn't so sure that this would actually work.

Main focus would be who is the employer? the local councils or the school themselves who pays the staff? will there have to be new contracts and rates of pay. will the schools still be subject to the same holidays or down to the head of the school to set their own.

They also want to make 8 hour days but can kids actually focus for this long?

Perhaps the 8hr day won't include pupils but instead provide training sessions instead of giving kids the day off for them to happen.

[Gavin78]

Originally Posted by tweedle

Your wife really should know the answer to this by now, an as for kids "focusing" in China the average school day is 7:30am to 5:30pm an their students do a lot better than ours, by a long way.

Nope she doesn't know the answer there hasn't been any briefings on this at all other than this being a possibility mentioned last year.

As for China being so far ahead well they all can't be that educated you just have to look at the work houses where they have poor working conditions and long hours

---------- Post added 17-03-2016 at 00:38 ---------- Previous post was 16-03-2016 at 23:10 ----------

Originally Posted by Stephen

Here is a link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35815023

Thanks for the link...so basically after reading it they don't really have a clue atm how it is going to play out.

You'd have thought they at least might have had some idea how this was going to work before putting a shout out about the change.

I suppose we can only sit back and watch while it goes down the same route as Blairs size 9's into education education education

[Derek]

So in basic terms education in England is just about to be privatized?

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Derek

So in basic terms education in England is just about to be privatized?

Like everything else..

[heero_yuy]

Well state run education has failed our children as revealed by international standards. Privatisation should be given the chance to show how it should be done. Of course the teaching unions will squeal merry hell but since they, in part, are the problem with our lamentable low school standards so be it.

It is a sorry state of affaires when many children, after 11 years of "education", can't read, write, add up or string together a coherent sentence.

[arcimedes]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

It is a sorry state of affaires when many children, after 11 years of "education", can't read, write, add up or string together a coherent sentence.

It wouldn't be that bad if they didn't also mess up the teaching for the brightest pupils as well. e.g. missing teachers for long periods of time and then after complaints hiring effort from the local private schools.

Originally Posted by Derek

So in basic terms education in England is just about to be privatized?

In the same way that GP services already are (in Scotland as well as in
England).

Unless you live in an extremely remote area where it's very hard to attract a permanent GP to run a practice, your GP practice is a private partnership which holds a contract to provide NHS services.

In England, some academy schools are owned by private trusts which are funded by the DfE, others have converted from local authority control so it's less clear to me who ultimately "owns" them (except that the buildings themselves who'll presumably be owned by the state).

[rhyds]

I'm surprised that the Local Government Association hasn't been up in arms about this. I'd imagine education is a massive part of councils' budgets.

In Wales education will still be under the auspices of the Welsh Government and Local Councils, and with the Labour stranglehold on the Welsh government still firmly in place, I doubt we'll see any plans to radically change the education system here, despite some obvious failings.

[gba93]

Originally Posted by Chris

In the same way that GP services already are (in Scotland as well as in
England).

Unless you live in an extremely remote area where it's very hard to attract a permanent GP to run a practice, your GP practice is a private partnership which holds a contract to provide NHS services.

In England, some academy schools are owned by private trusts which are funded by the DfE, others have converted from local authority control so it's less clear to me who ultimately "owns" them (except that the buildings themselves who'll presumably be owned by the state).

Normally the Local Authority holds the freehold to the land and buildings, the academy trust holds the leasehold (usually on a 125 year lease), the staff are TUPE'd over on the same employment terms and conditions and are employed by the academy trust. Hope this clarifies some of the points raised.

Very much so

[devilincarnate]

Just look what is coming to light now in regards to the announcement
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35831935

[ntluser]

Interesting that schools are now going to be required to become academies and to be freed from local authority influence.

I wonder if this applies to public schools like Eton etc.

If not, maybe the new academies ought to emulate public schools given that they have such high standards and supply many of our politicians, captains of industry and other leaders.

Mind you, if the academies fail the government will be left with egg on its face as they will be unable to blame local authorities as was the case in the past.

Governments tend to forget that all their manipulation of the education system could be a contributory factor not only in terms of falling standards but also in terms of the difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers.

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out.