Academies
Academy Status, Pupil Attainment and School Improvement
Introduction to academies
The NUT is committed to supporting and protecting its members who work in academies but is opposed to the academy programme as a whole. This is because:
- There is no evidence showing that academies raise standards in education. Read the NUT’s Edufact on academy status and school improvement here.
- Academies can employ teachers without qualified teacher status. The NUT is opposed to children being taught by unqualified teachers and believes this will lead to the erosion of teachers’ professional status.
- Academies have more flexibility over the own pay and conditions of staff, undermining the national pay and conditions framework and local collective agreements.
- Academies operate independently of the local authority (LA) and outside the local family of schools meaning they are no longer democratically accountable to their local communities are less likely to cooperate with other schools and the LA.
- Academies can determine their own admissions arrangements. This is undermining LAs’ ability to plan and manage school places. It is also leading to an increasing number of unfair admissions procedures and fuelling social segregation.
- The academies programme is costly and has undermined the fair funding of schools.
This page provides information and resources to help support members working in academies as well as materials to inform campaigns against academy conversion.
Briefing on the Education and Adoption Bill 2015
Briefing on the Education and Adoption Bill 2015
Please read our briefing on this Bill which is designed to speed up forced academisation. For our briefing specifically on the Bill's proposals for 'failing' and 'coasting' schools, please click here. To see how the NUT is working with MPs on the Bill, see www.teachers.org.uk/parliamentary. To find out more and to email your MP, please visit www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/beatthebill
FoI data reveals false rationale for sponsored academy status
DfE data newly released under FoI blows apart the rationale underpinning the Education & Adoption Bill, currently progressing through Parliament. This Bill will force all schools that are deemed to be underperforming to become sponsored academies. Speaking on the Today programme on 3 June, Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan justified its provisions, stating: “I don’t think it’s right that children should spend a day longer in an ‘inadequate’ school than is absolutely necessary.”
Yet the data released to education blogger Henry Stewart of the Local Schools Network exposes claims for sponsored academy status as a strategy for school improvement to be a myth.
It reveals that a primary school rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted is 12 times more likely to remain ‘inadequate’ at its next inspection if it becomes a sponsored academy (8% remaining inadequate) than if it had remained a maintained school (0.6% remaining inadequate). Secondary sponsored academies are four times as likely to remain inadequate when next inspected (27% remaining inadequate against 7% of maintained schools).
Read the NUT’s press release here.
You can read Henry Stewart’s blog here.
Find information about a specific academy sponsor
If you would like to find out about a specific academy sponsor, try using our guidance document to find sources of information about it.
Academy Transfers – NUT Guidance for School Representatives and Activists
This guide explains the legal provisions that can be used to assist in protecting members' rights when a school converts to become an academy. It is intended to supplement the Academies Toolkit: Protecting members in Academies which is aimed at school reps in those academies which are in the process of converting or have converted already.
Academies Toolkit
Organising to Win - Defending State Education | Organising to Win - Protecting Members in Academies | |
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Academies Toolkit: Defending State Education | Academies Toolkit: Protecting Members in academies | |
This toolkits is for school representatives to use to campaign against academy conversion for their school. The NUT is campaigning to defend a unified state education system and believes the best way to do this is for schools to remain part of the local authority family of schools. |
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Forced Conversion Under the Academies Act 2010
The Secretary of State for Education can 'force' a maintained school to convert into an academy due to perceived poor performance at the school but only in certain limited legal circumstances. Read here the NUT’s full legal advice on when this power might come into play, and about the rights of head teachers, should they find themselves being called to a meeting with a DfE academy broker.
In December 2013 the NUT responded to the Education Select Committee’s Call for Evidence for its Inquiry into the Academies and Free Schools’ Programme. The Union chose to focus its evidence on the forced academy programme. The Union’s written submission to the Inquiry can be downloaded here.
Materials for Members, School Reps and Division Secretaries
- Academies - Model NUT Health and Safety Policy for Academy Chains
- Academies - Model NUT Health and Safety Policy for Free-Standing Academies
- A Briefing for NUT members, school reps and divisional secretaries which explains the requirement on governing bodies around consultation on the question of whether or not a school should convert to academy status.
- A list of questions to ask about the funding impact of a voluntary transfer to academy status.
- A model resolution for use in your school