More on academies

If you read my blog on the 27th May then you will know that I am not a great fan of academies. They are different because they allow for sponsorship which means that more money goes into the school and they can attract better teachers with higher salaries. They are all-ability schools and the criteria to become an academy also included such factors as the number of pupils who achieved good GCSE results. Where the results were poor then improvements could be made.

Now things have changed. There is no need to be an all-ability school. You don't even need a sponsor, and you don't need to be a school in which less pupils pass with good grades. I have previously written that improving the standard of some schools would put the others in a relatively (or even possibly an absolutely) worse position. Now the schools that do not become academies may be left behind. Where will this happen? In the areas in which parents are not as demanding and the staff are not as pro-active.

The rich will buy their education. The middle classes will demand their education, and the poor - well I'll leave you to decide.

Change the world