Is the Academy System Really Working for Our Children?
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16 Tuesday, September 29, 2015 Eastern Daily Press Like us at: NEWS local www.facebook.com/edp24 Is the academy system really working for our children? The rise of academy schools has proved to be the most controversial development in education for the last few years. But does it actually work? In the first of a four-day special examining the performance of academy schools in our region, education correspondent MARTIN GEORGE looks at their GCSE results I A protest was held at the Hewett School in Norwich after it was announced it would become an academy. The annual release of the GCSE Picture: ANTONY KELLY results table is a key moment for any high school. Fairly or not, they are judged on So, what are academies, and why do they matter? how many pupils gain at least five GCSEs at A*-C, including English Academies are schools that were brought in by the Labour a wider group, and converter and maths, and this headline figure is are funded by taxpayers, government, with the first academies, which are used by Ofsted and the government. Norfolk’s first six sponsored acade- but have cut their formal opening in 2002, with the idea inpendent, remains, but the A key element is whether schools mies had not yet converted, their ties with the local council that businessmen or charities distinction is becoming less are above the government’s floor average score was just 30.3pc, well and receive their money could take over struggling useful. Good schools that want standard for pupils leaving with below what was required. By summer directly from the government. schools in deprived areas, to convert are increasingly those all important five “good” 2015, the average result had risen to Although all schools have and turn them around. The encouraged to link up with GCSEs. For the last three years, that 43.3pc. had a lot of autonomy from government expanded the a wider organisation, and minimum expectation has been 40pc. This was a significantly greater local authorities since 1988, policy after 2010, encouraging increasing numbers of existing How have schools’ GCSE results improvement than the overall academies have extra freedoms, top-performing schools to go it converter academies are opting changed since they became acade- Norfolk average in the same period, and so do not have to follow the alone as converter academies, give up their independence mies? The picture is mixed, academy which rose from 52.3pc to 54.8pc. national curriculum and can while pushing for more and and join academy chains. status is certainly not a fix-all solu- This figure does, however, conceal employ unqualified teachers. more poorly-performing schools Their introduction has not tion for schools looking to improve some dramatic year-to-year varia- They are not allowed to make to become sponsored academies, always been welcomed. Many grades. tions, most notably Ormiston Victory a profit and are run by an run by an outside organisation. have concerns about a lack of Academy, formerly Costessey High academy trust which has to Broadly speaking, this transparency, the freedom they Sponsored academies School, whose headline figure soared file annual accounts with split between sponsored have to dictate their own terms to 73pc two years ago, a few years Companies House. Academies academies, which are part of and at times even the motives. Overall, sponsored academies have after becoming an academy, before improved. These were schools that crashing back down to 41pc and 40pc were made into academies precisely in 2014 and 2015 respectively. the 20s for the past three years. Inspiration Trust. In the two years ing an academy in 2013, but has been because their performance was not It is a trajectory mirrored, but to a Thetford Academy remained in the since, its results have risen to the just below 30pc for the last two years. good enough, so they started from a lesser extent, by City Academy 20s or 30s for its first three years, high 40s. low base. Norwich, which saw its results peak before Ofsted judged it “inadequate” Improvements at the Open Converter academies In 2010, when the majority of at 40pc in 2012, before falling back to and it was taken over by the Academy, which became Norfolk’s first academy when it replaced Converter academies were those Heartsease High in 2008, have been schools whose performance was so Martin George on our findings... more steady and gradual, despite a good the coalition government setback in 2013. encouraged them to become stand- Over the next four days, we set up to help the most – caution. Complex stories often What is the picture like when the alone academies, independent of will look at how secondary children from disadvantaged lie behind simple numbers. more recent sponsored academies are outside organisations. As with school academies in our area backgrounds. On the fourth Changes to GCSE results must considered? Norfolk’s original sponsored acade- have been performing. day, we will take stock, and be treated with caution, as the Of the 14 schools that had been mies, the average headline figure for Although there are an compare our findings to those government greatly restricted sponsored academies for at least a the five original converter academies increasing number of primary made nationally. the number of qualifications year by the time this year’s results has improved. academies locally, most are too As a report published by the that would count for league came out, nine have seen results go Their average headline GCSE new to draw firm conclusions. Sutton Trust in July noted, table purposes, and excluded up since converting, two saw them result in 2011, before they had been Today and tomorrow we “the level of complexity the results of any exams pupils stay the same, and three saw them academies for a year, was 65pc. It has will examine the two and fluidity has made it re-took. fall. been higher in every year since, main measures the notoriously difficult Small shifts in grade But the picture for the two spon- except in 2014, when changes to the government uses to to analyse the impact boundaries, or a difference sored academies in Waveney, in league table rules saw results fall at judge schools: their of academies”. between year groups, can have Suffolk, is less positive. most schools, and this year this group headline GCSE results, And although disproportionate effects on East Point Academy, which of schools’ average headline GCSE and their Ofsted exams results and the headline pass rate, and replaced Kirkley High, in Lowestoft, score was 69pc. The average of all inspection results. inspection grades can changes to Ofsted’s inspection rose to just above 40pc in 2012 after its Norfolk high schools fell from 55.4pc The third day will seem authoritative handbook can make it hard first full year as an academy, but has to 54.8pc. examine their impact when printed in to compare one year’s Ofsted been below the government’s 40pc But when all the schools that have on a group of pupils black and white, any grade with another’s. floor for each of the last three years. become converter academies are they were conclusions we draw But our research has found Ormiston Denes Academy, which considered, a less clear-cut picture originally must be treated with clear themes in many areas. replaced the Denes High School, in emerges. Eight have seen their head- Lowestoft, was at 30pc before becom- line GCSE figure rise between their Eastern Daily Press Tuesday, September 29, 2015 17 Follow us on Twitter @edp24 local NEWS Academy status – does it make a difference? Overall GCSE trends (five A*-C grades) in Norfolk 80 70 60 50 The rise of academies Primary Secondary 40 Sponsored Converter Sponsored Converter Total England average (state funded) 2008-9 . .0 . 0 . 1 . .0 . .1 30 Norfolk 2009-10 . .0 . 0 . 2 . .0 . 2 2010-11 . .0 . 2 . 6 . .3 . 11 Converter academies 20 2011-12 . .0 . 2 . 6 . 10 . .18 Sponsored academies 2012-13 . 6 . 6 . 9 . 15 . 36 % of pupils achieving Grade A*-C GCSE A*-C Grade achieving % of pupils 10 2013-14 . 17 . 12 . 13 . 16 . 58 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2014-15 . 32 . 23 . 16 . 18 . 89 GCSE trends – the figures Results for Norfolk’s 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 longest-standing GCSE GCSE GCSE GCSE GCSE GCSE GCSE GCSE academies England average (state funded) . 47.6% . 50.7% . 55.2% . .58.2% . 58.8% . 60.6% . 56.6%. N/A Norfolk . 47.9% . 50% . 52.3% . .55.4% . 55.6% . 54.4% . 52.7%. .54.8% Converter academies . .68.6% . 61.9% . 60%. 59.8% 100 2015 GCSE % A* to C grades Sponsored academies . 32% . 29.5% . 42.3% . 46.7% . 45.3% . 41%. 49.5% 86% 80 GCSE results in the year 90% before changing to an (2011) 72% academy (year in brackets) 68% 61% 62% 60 2015 Norfolk average 54.8% 56% 47% 66% 68% 42% 40% 42% (2011) 56% (2011) 40 (2011) 28% 43% 36% 38% (2011) 20 (2010) 35% (2010) (2008) 29% (2010) % of pupils achieving Grade A*-C GCSE A*-C Grade achieving % of pupils 19% 20% (2009) (2010) City Academy King’s Lynn Ormiston Ormiston Victory The Open The Thetford Cromer Diss Springwood Wymondham Wymondham Norwich Academy Venture Academy Academy Academy Academy Academy High School High School College High (Sponsored) (Sponsored) (Sponsored) (Sponsored) (Sponsored) (Sponsored) (Converter) (Converter) (Converter) (Converter) (Converter) Source: Department for Education conversion and 2015, but eight saw them fall. Two remained the same.