1. Registration
Firstly fill out an online registration form. The Department will contact you directly with further guidance and documentation. The person who contacts you will be your named support throughout the process. All schools must register using the online form before they can start stage 2.
2.Application to convert/eligibility checks
Submit a short application to convert form to your named DfE contact including the confirmation of a governing body resolution, the agreement of your foundation (if applicable) and confirmation of your outstanding rating from Ofsted. You will also discuss your in-principle agreement to support another school to help raise standards. The Secretary of State will confirm whether he is content for your school to proceed to the next stage.
3. Funding agreement
The Department will support your school to ensure all legal documents are completed relating to governance, land transfer and company registration. The Secretary of State will make an academy order and request the local authority to cease to maintain the school. This is subject to the successful passage of legislation. The current employer of the school staff will carry out a consultation on the transfer of staff under TUPE.
4. Pre-opening
Your school will need to set up new financial systems and contractual arrangements, completing registrations and ensuring that all CRB checks are carried out as necessary.
read more on the process
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Academies Rule OK- Sarah Teather
On Sunday's blog I asked, "How long can (Sarah Teather) go along with undemocratic, cash grabbing academies and the 'shambles' of free schools?"
It didn't take long for her to respond! In a written answer published yesterday, as Minister of State for Children and Families, she said:
We will reform the school system so that children with special educational needs and disabilities get the best possible support. We will halt the unnecessary closure of special schools, improve diagnostic assessment for schoolchildren, and remove the bias towards inclusion. We have introduced legislation to make it possible, for the first time, for special schools to become academies. We are committed to offering special schools the additional freedoms that we are giving mainstream schools.
So it seems that she is going all the way with academies that she opposed back in 2007 and with 'free schools' that she dismissed as a 'shambles' during the General Election campaign. Added to that she appears to be suggesting that children with special needs and disabilities should not be integrated into mainstream schools.Umph!
read full blog
It didn't take long for her to respond! In a written answer published yesterday, as Minister of State for Children and Families, she said:
We will reform the school system so that children with special educational needs and disabilities get the best possible support. We will halt the unnecessary closure of special schools, improve diagnostic assessment for schoolchildren, and remove the bias towards inclusion. We have introduced legislation to make it possible, for the first time, for special schools to become academies. We are committed to offering special schools the additional freedoms that we are giving mainstream schools.
So it seems that she is going all the way with academies that she opposed back in 2007 and with 'free schools' that she dismissed as a 'shambles' during the General Election campaign. Added to that she appears to be suggesting that children with special needs and disabilities should not be integrated into mainstream schools.Umph!
read full blog
Government accepts academies should be subject to FOI Act
Schools minister Lord Hill of Oareford has confirmed that the government accepts academy schools should be public authorities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act. In response to an amendment proposed by Lord Lucas during the committee stage of the Academies Bill, to add academy proprietors to Schedule 1 of the FOI Act, the minister said he supported the amendment in principle and promised to come back to the issue at report stage
see full Academy bill update
see full Academy bill update
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Academies Student Conference 2010
Thursday 8 July 2010, The Lancaster London Hotel
A free academies student conference will run in parallel on the first day and we are pleased to announce that due to popular demand HumanUtopia will be back.
Building on last year's hugely successful event they will be incorporating the second phase of their youth intervention programme - The Heroes Journey. The programme aims to break negative cycles in young lives and will be focusing on the importance of developing and sustaining healthy relationships through effective communication.
To register your students, please email Carolyn Henry or telephone 020 7802 2397 (SSAT).
Go to the SSAT website for more info
A free academies student conference will run in parallel on the first day and we are pleased to announce that due to popular demand HumanUtopia will be back.
Building on last year's hugely successful event they will be incorporating the second phase of their youth intervention programme - The Heroes Journey. The programme aims to break negative cycles in young lives and will be focusing on the importance of developing and sustaining healthy relationships through effective communication.
To register your students, please email Carolyn Henry or telephone 020 7802 2397 (SSAT).
Go to the SSAT website for more info
Monday, 28 June 2010
The government's academies bill was a hot topic at the latest Teaching awards ceremony
Teaching awards winners offer a view from the chalkface for the benefit of politicians and colleagues
The academies bill was perplexing some of Britain's best teachers last week, gathered at the British Museum for the London and the south-east regional Teaching Awards. Baroness Shirley Williams, chair of the UK judging panel, and, of course, a Lib Dem peer, asked for opinions at a special workshop, and there was little holding back.
How on earth could any school have decided already to apply for academy status, wondered an infants' school governor, when detail about the nitty gritty, including the actual cash involved, was hard to sleuth. "I find it baffling to hear that 1,700 schools have already applied," he said, his voice rising with incredulity. "How do they know?"
Ah, said Williams, there was an explanation for that... "The government has been a little bit naughty," she said. "You see, if you want to get the information about it, you've got to turn up." By which she meant that expressing an interest was the only way to find out details. So out of the 1,700 that Michael Gove, the education secretary, said had applied, "in many cases, all they are doing is asking for information," she explained.
Full article
http://bit.ly/bM8J0F
The academies bill was perplexing some of Britain's best teachers last week, gathered at the British Museum for the London and the south-east regional Teaching Awards. Baroness Shirley Williams, chair of the UK judging panel, and, of course, a Lib Dem peer, asked for opinions at a special workshop, and there was little holding back.
How on earth could any school have decided already to apply for academy status, wondered an infants' school governor, when detail about the nitty gritty, including the actual cash involved, was hard to sleuth. "I find it baffling to hear that 1,700 schools have already applied," he said, his voice rising with incredulity. "How do they know?"
Ah, said Williams, there was an explanation for that... "The government has been a little bit naughty," she said. "You see, if you want to get the information about it, you've got to turn up." By which she meant that expressing an interest was the only way to find out details. So out of the 1,700 that Michael Gove, the education secretary, said had applied, "in many cases, all they are doing is asking for information," she explained.
Full article
http://bit.ly/bM8J0F
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Sponsors of new academy in Norwich buy £34,000 of blazers, trousers and skirts for its 1,000-strong first intake
Pupils at a failing comprehensive are to be kitted out in Savile Row-tailored school uniforms and given lessons in etiquette in a move to improve standards when it reopens as an academy.
The sponsors of the new Ormiston Victory academy in Norwich have bought £34,000 worth of crest-emblazoned blazers, trousers and skirts for its 1,000-strong first intake, who will be encouraged to make polite conversation at mealtimes and be taught "excellent manners".
The academy will replace Costessey high school, twice placed in special measures in the last decade. The new uniform – designed by Savile Row tailor Thomas Mahon, who has previously worked as a cutter for bespoke suits worn by the Prince of Wales – is designed to create a smarter attitude, the academy's head, Rachel de Souza, said.
More..............
http://bit.ly/aBrs76
The sponsors of the new Ormiston Victory academy in Norwich have bought £34,000 worth of crest-emblazoned blazers, trousers and skirts for its 1,000-strong first intake, who will be encouraged to make polite conversation at mealtimes and be taught "excellent manners".
The academy will replace Costessey high school, twice placed in special measures in the last decade. The new uniform – designed by Savile Row tailor Thomas Mahon, who has previously worked as a cutter for bespoke suits worn by the Prince of Wales – is designed to create a smarter attitude, the academy's head, Rachel de Souza, said.
More..............
http://bit.ly/aBrs76
Friday, 25 June 2010
Labour attempts to stop legislation allowing academies to cherrypick pupils
The government's academies programme is a "Trojan horse for selection", the shadow schools secretary says today, as he tables an amendment to legislation that, if passed, would block academies from being allowed to cherrypick their pupils.
Ed Balls claims a mechanism he brought in to allow good schools to expand will now be used by the Tories to give grammar schools the right to do the same, in a "perversion" of the system.
His intervention comes the day after the government revealed the names of 1,700 schools that expressed interest in applying for academy status, after pressure from union leaders and campaigners. A total of the 97 grammar schools - 59% of all those in England - have asked the government for information.
Of the 870 "outstanding" schools on the list, who will be given the chance to convert and opt out of local authority control as soon as September, some 76 (9%) are grammar schools. Among the 830 other institutions that have asked the government for information, there are 21 grammars
More................
http://bit.ly/9lgfzW
Ed Balls claims a mechanism he brought in to allow good schools to expand will now be used by the Tories to give grammar schools the right to do the same, in a "perversion" of the system.
His intervention comes the day after the government revealed the names of 1,700 schools that expressed interest in applying for academy status, after pressure from union leaders and campaigners. A total of the 97 grammar schools - 59% of all those in England - have asked the government for information.
Of the 870 "outstanding" schools on the list, who will be given the chance to convert and opt out of local authority control as soon as September, some 76 (9%) are grammar schools. Among the 830 other institutions that have asked the government for information, there are 21 grammars
More................
http://bit.ly/9lgfzW
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