Tag Archives: academies

A fair crack of the whip to fulfil role

This article was first published in TES Whatever you think about academies, it seems that they are here to stay. Forty per cent of secondary schools have converted, or are in the process of converting to, academy status and, although the rate of conversion has slowed, there is little reason to suppose that this number [...]

Tags: , , , , | Posted by Jonathan Carr-West on February 3, 2012
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Councils need more power to fulfil education role

LGiU Director Jonathan Carr-West has a comment piece in this week’s TES.  Jonathan argues that, whatever you think of academy schools, they’re not going away.  He argues that there’s a reasonable localist case for academies since true localists should be committed to devolving power to the lowest level possible.  In the case of education, that [...]

Tags: , , , | Posted by Laurie Thraves on January 27, 2012
Like Sardines in a Can

Sutton Council raising the cap on primary class sizes

The Guardian reports that Sutton Council is spoiling for a fight with Education Secretary Michael Gove over its plans to raise the cap on primary class sizes to more than 30 pupils.  The Chief Executive of Sutton Council Niall Bolger is reportedly contacting other local authorities to test support for raising primary school class sizes.  It’s [...]

Tags: , , , , | Posted by Laurie Thraves on January 6, 2012
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Michael Gove’s speech at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College

Michael Gove go a bit hot under the collar yesterday morning according to Politics Home.  The pace of his academies programme has resulted in some critics branding him an “ideologue” presiding over a massive shake-up of education with little regard for the long-term consequences. In a speech at Habersashers’ Aske’s Hatchem College, he refuted this charge [...]

Tags: , , , , , | Posted by Laurie Thraves on January 5, 2012
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Rate of Academy conversions slowing down

 Last week, the DfE published its monthly statistical brief on the number of Academy applications and conversions during the month of October. A DfE News has not been issued. Following the pace set in September, it looks like the number of applications per month will settle in the 50 to 60 region. This is considerably [...]

Tags: , , , , | Posted by Laurie Thraves on November 7, 2011
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Join us at Lib Dem Party Conference

We’re preparing to head off to the three party conferences over the next month and will be holding a series of events. Our two main fringe events at each conference will look at the funding of adult social care and  free schools and academies. Full details and flyers are below. For more information, please email dan.garfield@lgiu.org.uk. We look forward [...]

Tags: , , , , , , | Posted by LGiU on September 16, 2011

Transparency, what transparency?

John Fowler takes a sceptical look at the DfE’s transparency website.

Tags: , , , , | Posted by Guest on June 20, 2011

Never minds schools, it’s Barber who needs to learn the lessons of failure

Michael Barber, Tony Blair’s former chief education advisor and new joiner at Edexcel, is profiled in yesterday’s Education Guardian. The picture on the front page sums up the man brilliantly: he’s wearing the sharp suit and crisp white shirt that’s standard issue for a top-drawer consultant, but with a couple of reassuringly school-teacherly touches (thick-soled, [...]

Tags: , , | Posted by Laurie Thraves on June 15, 2011

Government academy policy could take 140 years

DfE has today (6 December 2010) published the latest figures for its flagship academy programme. The figures do not make encouraging reading for Ministers. The first step for a local authority school to become an academy is for the governing body to ask the Secretary of State for an Academy Order. The figures for Order [...]

Tags: , , , | Posted by John Fowler on December 6, 2010