Enfield's top primary school, Cuckoo Hall, in Edmonton, opens as one of Government's academies

AN "outstanding" Enfield school was among only seven of the Government's new-style primary academies to open this week.

The former Cuckoo Hall Primary School, in Cuckoo Hall Lane, Edmonton, was granted the special status by education secretary Michael Gove after meeting the criteria.

It means the primary school is no longer under the control of Enfield Council, and will manage its own budget using funds received directly from central Government.

Local authorities on average keep eight per cent or more of the funds they receive for schools in their area to support central services such as school buses.

Academies do not have to contribute to this, meaning it can channel the money to fund other projects. Headteacher Patricia Sowter said the the extra sum could amount to as much as £200,000 a year.

Ms Sowter said: "This is a real opportunity for our school, our children and our community.

"We will be able to reach more children and make a bigger difference to education in this area. We are an inclusive school and that will not change.

"These new academy freedoms mean we now have the flexibility to adapt and extend the curriculum, target more resources more effectively, use specialist staff and build a school infrastructure to ensure continued and long-term outstanding educational provision for our community".

Ms Sowter said the school would continue to work with neighbouring primaries and not "in isolation".

Cuckoo Hall was judged outstanding by the Government's education watchdog Ofsted in May 2009 and won approval to change to academy status by Mr Gove in June 2010.

Enfield Independent 06/09/10
http://bit.ly/brWWl5
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School 'transformed' by becoming an academy

New figures suggest that most academy schools in England which were set up under Labour - are achieving greater rates of academic improvement than the schools they replaced.

However, The National Audit Office is warning that the rapid expansion of the scheme, planned by the coalition government, will put extra pressure on resources.

Sally Coates is the head teacher of Burlington Danes Academy in West London, she says that becoming an academy 'transformed' her school.

BBC news
10 September 2010
http://bbc.in/chV7QB
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School 'transformed' by becoming an academy

New figures suggest that most academy schools in England which were set up under Labour - are achieving greater rates of academic improvement than the schools they replaced.

However, The National Audit Office is warning that the rapid expansion of the scheme, planned by the coalition government, will put extra pressure on resources.

Sally Coates is the head teacher of Burlington Danes Academy in West London, she says that becoming an academy 'transformed' her school.

BBC news
10 September 2010
http://bbc.in/chV7QB
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Michael Gove responds to the findings of the National Audit Office report on academies

Michael Gove has today commented on the National Audit Office report on the Academies programme.

He said:

I welcome the findings of this NAO report. It confirms our belief that the Academies programme is working, reporting a clear lift in performance after schools convert to academies, confirming that they are improving faster than other comparable schools and that they continue to serve the most disadvantaged communities and pupils. We also know that pupils on free school meals have improved faster in academies than similar pupils nationally.

The experience of the city technology colleges in England, and other reforms across the world, shows that giving schools autonomy successfully drives up performance, and that this improvement is sustained. The performance of the large academy chains is already improving at a rapid rate. This year the Harris Federation reports a ten percentage point increase across all their academies, and ARK academies have reported a 13 percentage point increase.

We have already taken prompt action on the NAO recommendations as we strive to strengthen the programme even further. The Academies programme is helping children from all backgrounds to get a better education – that is why we are allowing more schools to become academies, and are giving real power and autonomy back to schools and teachers.

You can view the NAO report on the Academies programme at the NAO website

DfE website 10/09/10
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Proud day as pupils spend first day at the new Gloucester Academy

YOUNGSTERS dusted off their pencil cases and pulled on their blazers for the start of a new era at Gloucester Academy.

The controversial new academy opened its doors for the first time yesterday.

Children in Years 7 and 10 pupils were welcomed into the academy, with girls joining the school in Cotteswold Road for the first time.

Marketa Dunova, who was a pupil at Tredworth Junior School, was one of the first female students to join the academy.

The 11-year-old, who originally comes from the Czech Republic, said: "It is exciting. We have been talking about the school and the timetable and things on our first day.

"The uniform is nice, I like it and a lot of my friends have come here too which is good."

In February, education bosses announced that Bishops' College and Central Technology College would shut to make way for the academy.

Under the plans, Year 7 pupils will be taught on the Central site at Cotteswold Road, bringing girls to the school for the first time.

Older pupils will stay at their current schools at Bishops' College and Central, which will be known as 'schools of learning'.

Calvin Spencer, who is in Year 10, said he was getting used to seeing girls at the school and thought the academy would bring more opportunities.

The 14-year-old from Tredworth, said: "It is a bit strange to see girls walking around.

"But the academy is better than I thought it would be.

"I thought it would be a bit messed up for the first day but it is good."

Triplets Oliver and Alex Portillo – whose sister Christina goes to Ribston Hall High School – have been at Central for three years.

They said they were looking forward to the rest of the school joining them today. Alex, 14, said: "It is really exciting. There have been a lot of changes that have been made with new teachers, different classes and the internet cafe, but it is really good and I am looking forward to when everybody else comes."

His brother Oliver, who is also in Year 10, said: "It has been fun but nerve-wracking because we don't know some of the teachers. I have been here for three years so it is a bit strange that everything has changed."

It is hoped a new £21milion state-of-the-art building will be up and running by 2013 at Cotteswold Road to bring everyone together. The funding is up in the air however until after the Government's October spending review.

Jane Newns, who is teaching maths at the new academy, said she was enjoying her first day.

She said: "The children are doing really well. They have been very well behaved and I am looking forward to the rest of the year."

Jane Featherstone, deputy head on the Cotteswold Road campus, said the academy would be focusing on the transition from primary school to Year 7.

She said: "We have got tutors teaching the students a core subject and the students will predominantly be in their tutor rooms for many of their core lessons, with the teachers moving around like they would in primary school.

"For the other subjects like technology students will have to go to their classrooms.

"It is lovely to see them and it has been a good start to the academy."

Full Article (this is Gloucestershire)
http://bit.ly/biF6j9

Schools are lining up for academy status. But not enough for Michael Gove

On the face of it, the numbers are disappointing for the education secretary

How many schools does it take to herald an education reform? That was the question when the teaching unions and Michael Gove, the education secretary, battled it out over the latest figures for schools wanting to convert to academy status.

On the face of it, the numbers were disappointing for Gove, who believes standards will rise only when schools are freed from the control of local authorities and allowed to run their own affairs. The Tories' big idea for education is a country of stand-alone, independent schools funded by the state but run by their teachers and governors.

So important is the academy policy to the coalition's education reforms that Gove used emergency powers to steamroller his bill through Parliament and wrote to every school urging them to take the leap. So the announcement that only 32 of the 20,300 secondaries and primaries in England will reopen as academies this term – and a further 110 in the course of the academic year – looked disappointing, not least because Gove had put the figure at 1,100 earlier in the summer.

But behind the apparent PR coup for the classroom unions that are campaigning against academies is the question of timing. The bill became law on 28 July. With everything else going on – exams, induction of new pupils, end-of-year form-filling in and leaving parties – perhaps the low figure does not say much.

The coalition, which inherited the academy programme from Labour, has dropped the requirements that schools wanting to be academies must serve deprived areas and gain the support of millionaire, business or institutional sponsors. Schools rated outstanding by Ofsted can now apply to be fast-tracked through the process and join the 203 academies created under Labour, regardless of the communities they serve. At the other end of the spectrum, failing secondaries and, for the first time, primaries will close and be replaced by academies.

First off the blocks when schools reopen will be oversubscribed schools in middle-class areas, including several grammars. Their headteachers have used the "ready reckoner" provided by the Department for Education and worked out that they will be tens of thousands of pounds better off when they get their share of the "central cake" of resources for local authority-wide services. Councils warn that the remaining schools could suffer from the loss of economy of scale.

Gove quickly has to persuade all schools to become academies or he will end up with a two-tier system and hand the cards to his union opponents.

Will schools flock to claim the extra money and freedom from policies such as the national curriculum and official guidance on discipline, no longer imposed by local authorities but by central government diktat? The dilemma was summed up by Nigel Burgoyne, the head of Kesgrave High School in Ipswich, Suffolk, an outstanding school that could be fast-tracked to academy status: "If we join, by default, everyone else is slightly worse off. We have a moral concern that this is not the best thing for the whole system."

Liz Lightfoot
The Observer News Sun 5 Sep 2010
http://bit.ly/9aNSE0

Really free schools

At the ASI, we like the Government's free schools policy. However, we agree with the outgoing chief of Ofsted's comments that it would be more effective were private firms allowed to establish and run publically funded schools at a profit.

Here are two good reasons why:

Adding the profit-motive to the mix would bring a host of new providers into the free schools fold. From entrepreneurs to private schools, many people and organisations currently lack the incentive to establish or run free schools. Allowing them to make a profit will change this, directing new talent at the provision of state-education. The rationale for free schools policies is the truth that greater competition for pupils lifts standards. Permitting more (and more diverse) providers to compete, as in Sweden, lifts standards to greater heights. Whilst having third sector groups competing with the state is good, having the third sector, profit makers and the state all competing with each other is better.

Private firms are better placed than most parent, teacher and charitable groups to finance capital expenditures on new school buildings, etc. Encouraging them to provide this finance, by, shock-horror, allowing them to make a return on it, will improve the policy in two ways. First, it'll ease its impact on the taxpayer, allowing more new schools to be established at less cost. Second, it will accelerate the creation of such schools. If their construction can be paid for privately, The Department for Education will not need to limit their number in line with its capital budget.

Despite these reasons, opposition to introducing the profit motive into state-education remains strong. It's worth scrutinising two of the more common objections.

'Having firms profit from children's education is wrong!' Really? Let's go back to basics for a second and consider why we have an education policy at all. A sensible answer is, unsurprisingly, in the name: to educate. It thus seems off the point to quibble about means; if we accept that private involvement with free schools will raise standards, it should not matter whether profits are made.

'Having firms take a slice of public funding as profit means that less money is spent educating the child than would be with state provision' So far so true. If the state provides, say, £3000 per annum for a child's education, the firm can only make a profit if it spends less than £3000 educating the child. However, we must be careful not to make the (rather New Labour) mistake of confusing money-in with education-out. Whilst profit-making firms may spend less per head than the state or voluntary groups educating the child, their expertise and greater incentive to minimise costs likely enable them to achieve better educational outcomes whilst spending less per child.

We have, then, a slight policy adjustment that would yield better results and isn't all that objectionable. Come on Gove, let's really set schools free

Written by Matthew Triggs (ASI)   
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 07:00
http://bit.ly/9EofPk