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Monday 25 January 2016

Academies to scrap Governing Bodies

The independence of Academy chains seems to permit them to scrap their locally appointed school governors, and in the words of the academy chain, E-Act, replace them with 'academy ambassadorial advisory bodies'.  What the heck is one of those?

The Academy structure was a brilliant idea that actually worked well in its initial form.  Outstanding successful schools and staff shared best practice and procedures with local schools needing improvement.  But now, the so-called 'not for profit' (but 'yes to high salaries for managers') organisations now run huge chains of schools in widely differing geographical areas.  So the 'shared best practice' is now top down from out of touch monoliths without the initiatives formed at a classroom level.

In fact, what has been achieved are a series of mini-education authorities that are not even 'local', and they syphon off their overheads and vast paycheques from the money that should have gone directly to the school.  By running schools north, south, east and west, the best interests of the community are no longer addressed.  In addition, the ability of Advanced Skills teachers to pop down to a nearby school to assist, train and support their colleagues has now disappeared.  I, for one, enjoyed visits from my local colleagues who were welcome to come into my classroom at anytime to see for themselves, and for me to visit them, which was a mutually beneficial experience.

In summary, I believe that academy chains have run their course, and before they do any more damage they should be broken up, with two or three local academies being clustered into academy support groups.  Each academy to have its own Governing Body comprising parent and staff elected  governors and a sprinkling of 'public appointees' who have expertise in the areas of finance, human resources, and fund-raising.  An overseeing Cluster Governor Board comprising three governors from each school can monitor 'key performance indicators' and make suggestions and add support where needed.

It is time education in this country was finally changed for the better ,and not by Education Secretaries who have been solicitors (present incumbent), journalists (Gove), economics journalist (Kelly), postman (Johnson), a student in Cuba before only politics (Charles Clarke), and a lecturer in industrial relations (Blunkett).  This is not to decry the professions they did follow, but I ask you, to run education for England?  Honestly?