Heartsease Academy Part 3

The sponsor of Heartsease Academy is Graham Dacre, who owned car dealership Lind before selling it recently for £108 million. He used to be involved with Proclaimers, Drayton Hall and is now a member of the new Norwich Family Life Church.

Here are some interesting pieces including this article from the TES, this with some interesting debate below from Network Norwich and then this blog from a teacher who has already researched and commented loads on the Heatsease proposals. And of course, we have the slick website we'd expect to inform us of the progress made in becoming an academy. We also have The Anti-Academies Alliance.

I find it interesting to learn that Mr Dacre is to buy in with £2m and the Bishop of Norwich £50k. It would appear that the government would then invest between £20-25m.

For the moment, I guess that is all...

Additional Academy Info

Socialist Worker Online (9/4/2005) “City Academies Transforming Education in Their Own Image”

Department for children, schools and families “What are Academies?”

Department for children, schools and families (23/2/07)“Academies on Track to Give Value for Money Says NAO”

Some facts from the DfCSF website:

There are currently 47 Academies opened.

The first 3 Academies opened in September 2002 and 9 in September 2003.

The most recent one opened in April 2007.

27 are in the implementation stage

68 are in the feasibility stage

What are the criteria for a school to become an Academy?

Some Academies are brand new schools in areas which need the extra school places. Most of them replace existing weak or underperforming schools. As a broad rule of thumb, the Government is prepared to consider any secondary school where in 2006 fewer than 30% of pupils gained five or more GCSEs at grades A* – C (including English and Maths) as a potential Academy project. In addition, local authorities should always consider an Academy as an option for dealing with a school in special measures, or subject to an improvement notice, whatever its results.

Do Academies receive more funding than maintained schools?

Ministers are very clear that there must be parity of funding with schools in the maintained sector that operate in similar circumstances. Otherwise, those schools could justifiably argue that they are being treated inequitably. We want to ensure that funding will allow Academy innovations to be replicated in other schools.

More to follow...

The Open Academy

I have heard quite a lot via the press about the proposal to turn Heartsease High School into an Academy, most of it seems to be negative. Most of my information previously about Academies has stemmed from Dave Gallop who used to work with Steve Chalke whose organisation Faithworks is behind the installation of Academies elsewhere in the country. The stuff that he told me about was very positive. I believe that the time has come for me to do some research and find out more about what Academies are and what it means for a school to become one.
I have had a very interesting conversation with Joolian about this document called "The Open Academy Draft Education Brief". It's a very interesting read outlining the ethos, specialisms and structure of the proposed Academy.
According to the Faithworks site a City Academy is:

A government initiative designed to promote new schools being developed through partnerships between central government, a local authority and a sponsor organisation (which could be a private sector company, voluntary sector organisation or faith group).

Some questions that have occurred to me:

• Is this what Heartsease staff and pupils want?
• Why does it have to be an academy?
• How will this impact the community?
• Can the ethos and aspirations of the community be altered in another way?
• Why are people so against it?
• What should my response be as a Christian, a parent, an employer within the current school and a citizen of Norwich?
• Should we be wary of wealthy Christians bearing gifts?
• What has been the impact of Academy status schools in other areas?
• And were they so opposed in their inception?
  

Plus I'm sure there are many others that I haven't thought of...
I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts about this issue. Please do leave some comments.