Local authority schools outperform academies – proving Thicky Nicky wants the worst for your children
She is already on the back foot, trying to bribe Local Education Authorities (that’s your council) with promises that they can run academy trusts themselves – a promise that is full of opportunities for corruption, as This Blog’s story about tax avoidance showed.
Now she has information proving that academy and ‘free’ schools are dunces.
Yes, she can quote the cliché about “lies, damned lies and statistics”, but that will just reinforce what we already know – that Conservatives are ruled by ignorance and ideological stubbornness. Those are hardly qualities she will want to emphasize!
Yet she remains intent on driving education standards down.
Where can she go from here?
The back benches seem a reasonable option.
The government’s plan to force all schools to become academies has come under further attack with research which suggests that council-maintained schools outperform academies at inspection.
Analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) has found that 86% of local authority schools are rated good or outstanding by the schools watchdog, Ofsted, compared with 82% of academies and 79% of free schools.
Looking only at data drawn from the new, more rigorous Ofsted inspection framework introduced in 2012, the LGA says the figures are even more pronounced, with 81% of council-maintained schools rated good or outstanding, compared with 73% of academies and 79% of free schools.
The LGA claims the research shows that “inadequate” council-maintained schools are more likely to improve if they stay with their local authority, rather than convert to an academy – 98% of council schools improved in their first Ofsted inspection after being rated “inadequate” compared with 88% of academies.
The LGA study was released early as the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, came under increasing pressure from many in her own party to back down on plans, outlined in the education white paper, to force all schools to become academies.
Morgan would not be drawn on reports that discussions are under way about possible concessions aimed at appeasing Tory rebels, including allowing the best-performing local authorities to run their own multi-academy trusts (MATs).
Source: Local authority schools outperform academies, research suggests | Education | The Guardian
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Yet another “yes sir – how high” muppet from the new piggy clan of kamkazi politicians ….. any future directorships on the horizon?
Sir Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington College and a key Gove ally, claimed that Morgan knew little about schools and had accepted the education portfolio despite an initial lack of interest. She needed more radical policies to get schools to develop pupils who were “rounded, resilient citizens” but her “probable departure at the election” meant she was unlikely to make any sort of mark. wikipaedia
Oh dear, looks like Thicky Nicky took Sir Seldon’s words to heart and is determined to make her mark whatever the cost of our children.
Conservatives always seem to want to drive down standards for everyone who is not super rich.
thicky nicky clearly doesnt know what will be long term effects of her stupidity. is probably beholding in relations with cameron and senior tories. carries another poisoned chalice and wants badly to remain on the gravy train.
therefore will do anything she is directed to do by senior tories.
her priority is purely self interest and staying on the gravy train, not preserving standards of education.
This is all part of the Tory “Victorian Vales” plan to make a good education something which only the wealthy can afford.