UKC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45472189

I vainly hope that the sharks who hover around our schools, hospitals and social care facilities get called to account. This is the tip of a fairly big iceberg I fear.

https://www.tes.com/news/charting-downfall-famous-five-superheads

http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2018/01/disgraced-superhead-liam-nola...

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/21/collapsing-wakefield-city...

https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-top-earning-academy-bosses-revealed

I could go on but it's depressing. 

I think without going into what is actually illegal, it is appalling that 121 academies are paying their senior executives over £150k when we, as a local authority school, are told there is no money for us to buy a new boiler. Money given to education should not be used in this way.

Why aren't these bastards in jail?

My daughter goes to an academy (there's nothing much else around) the focus is all about grades and most certainly not about education, I suspect this is the case in most schools though.

Must admit I have major misgivings about academies which this only serves to confirm.  The sooner they are abolished and brought back into full State control the better.  The mistake was already made once with Grant Maintained schools and was reversed, it needs reversing again.

The 'model' is replicated in social care and health too. Academies, in the right hands (there are a few principled Multi-Academy Trusts out there) and leadership can be great places. But too many have become troughs for the snouts of those who would not otherwise be at all interested in the education and welfare of young people.

FTFY

I'm a governor of an academy, and I think they have mixed benefits. In an area where local authorities have a strong education service that is able to manage and support schools effectively, they are not (at least as far as results and financial performance are concerned) particularly needed. In other areas of the country, they allow schools to develop and improve far more than they would under LA control.

Since becoming an academy, my school has gone from the worst in the area to one of the best - mainly because we've had more freedom on staffing and have been able to raise money and allocate resources in a way that has had a greater impact. 

It would be interesting to see where the money in that case went - schools are under tremendous financial pressure, and it's easy to see that an academy trust might apply for a grant and divert the funds into paying salaries and paying the electricity instead of using it for capital expenditure.

I think it would be more sensible to challenge the local authorities who aren't doing their job properly.  

I'd also take a wild guess that in your improvement you've probably done what you can to improve your intake.  Most of the big improvements I've seen in academy schools are linked to sending the less desirable students to become another school's problem.  

Nice for the school in question but really you are just moving the problems elsewhere.  

Thanks

I’m also an governor of a school that is part of a multi-academy trust. The school is a classic good quality comprehensive in a rural area. I personally can’t see what the Trust adds to what is a good school. They top-slice around 4% of the school’s budget (the Local Authority used to take 6%).

I like the idea of Academies; personally my experience is that LA education depts are universally crap. Multi academy trusts - in theory should be more efficient than stand alone academies but I’m not convinced

My experience was certainly different to yours. I worked as a secondary head in Warwickshire for many years and the LA education department was well run and supportive. I've seen no reliable evidence that academies overall produce better results than non-academies. The loss of local democratic accountability is a high price to pay for what is primarily an ideological experiment based mainly on faith. 

Likewise. Not all LAs re/were poorly managed. Worked for Warwickshire and Lancs. Former v good, latter good in parts. LAs became - undeservedly IMHO - a political football, getting a good kicking as they were seen as ideologically inconsistent with education as a market commodity.