We live in interesting educational times!
The news of the week must be the move to allow all schools to apply to be academies. The Department for Education has lots of information about the possibilities and there is a link within this news article to more information to schools considering Academy status. Included within this article is a nod to one of my own old teaching schools, Outwood Grange School (now Outwood Grange Academy) in Wakefield, one of the largest schools in the country. Outwood Grange has pioneered an Academy model which is now being championed by the DfE. Well done to them and to their headteacher, Mike Wilkins. Outwood Grange has obviously come a long way since my time there! I don’t know Mike, but I do remember staff there with great fondness, some of whom have progressed into senior leadership.
http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/pressnotices/a0068006/academy-model-extended-so-every-school-can-benefit
Schools obviously have to take this opportunity very seriously and I know many have already begun information gathering prior to the (expected) news being made public. The inspection regime for Academies will become clear through the white paper, due out later this month. The white paper should also make clear Michael Gove’s new funding formula for the direct transfer of funding to schools from the DfE, reducing the role of local authorities in the process.
As I say, interesting educational times. In 2 years, the educational/local authority landscape will look very different from that we are used to today.