north east lincs academies

The National Audit Office have recently published a booklet about already established academies. It is generally favourable to the idea of academies, though it is too early to make a full assessment. Some points made in the report, however, help to bear out the criticisms we have made about academies locally.

Academies are publicly funded schools, the government paying most of the capital costs and all the running costs. Sponsors make a contribution to the capital cost.

Academies operate independently of local authorities

They say it is desirable that they should cooperate with other schools in their area, but up to now "there has been little collaboration between most academies and neighbouring secondary schools".

Sixth Forms

The report says: "While the business case for an academy is usually strong, the case for the academy having a sixth form is sometimes less convincing."
( Being translated it probably means that a sixth form is often better in theory than in practice!).

What,s in it for our council ?

Money

What problems can academies cause ?

Small sixth forms are educationally unsatisfactory It is already a problem with some local schools. In Franklin, we have a flourishing and very successful sixth form college. It is perverse that we will have three academies, each with its own sixth form.

Sometimes the local authority has to make policies that impact on all schools. This happened with the need to reduce surplus school places - but the academies could not be considered to be part of the solution.

No doubt our academies normally will cooperate with the council and with other schools. But they don't have to. It is a recipe for future problems.