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    Primary Academies

    I can't think of a clever title but I would love to see the workings for this carcrash of a policy.

    I appreciate that it is political manouvering to distance them from New Labour but, even so, twats

    Tories plan 'primary academies'
    By Brian Wheeler
    Political reporter, BBC News, Tory spring conference

    Primary schools in England would get more freedom from council control and power over curriculum, budget and hours under new Conservative proposals.

    Shadow education secretary Michael Gove said he he wanted to build on one of Tony Blair's most successful policies.

    But the plan attracted fierce criticism from the government and unions.

    Children's minister Beverley Hughes said it was not financially possible and the NUT said it was too like city academies which it says have failed.

    The policy - unveiled at the Conservative spring conference in Cheltenham - will be seen as a bold attempt by the Tories to seize the Blairite public service reform agenda which they claim is being dismantled by Mr Blair's successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown.

    Spring conferences are not the usual forum for unveiling major policy announcements - it is normally just an opportunity for the party leadership to rally the troops.

    Union anger

    But the Conservatives regarded last week's Budget as firing the starting pistol on the general election - still likely to be a year away - and they want to keep the political momentum going.

    “ We need reform to begin almost from day one ”
    Michael Gove, Tory education spokesman
    The party will also be keen to avoid damaging internal rows about leader David Cameron's decision not to make scrapping the new 50% top tax rate a key priority if the Tories win the next election.

    The party will be hoping it will also reopen old divisions between Blairites and Brownites at the top of the Labour Party over the pace and extent of public service reform.

    But their new education proposal has already been condemned by teaching unions.

    NUT National Executive member Kevin Courtney said: "When you study these schools, [they] are improving their results by changing pupil population so that social segregation is coming in again.

    "That's what we're worried about with this Tory proposal. It's a return to deregulation and privatisation and a return to social segregation."

    NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates added: "Having already announced academies will be the norm for secondary schools, this proposal for primary schools completes the Tories' blueprint for the dismantling of state education.

    "These plans are the naked marketisation of education and will place thousands of children and young people at the mercy of private, voluntary and independent providers."

    Mr Gove said that within two years of a Conservative election victory primary schools would be able to apply for academy status.

    He told the BBC the academies system needed to be extended to primary schools to help disadvantaged students.

    The Conservatives announced last year that they would allow the 400 top performing state secondary schools in England to become independent but state-funded academies free from government control.

    He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "One of the big problems we have in education at the moment is that children from poorer backgrounds are falling further and further behind children from more fortunate backgrounds.

    "And they start falling behind right at the very moment they start their education. So we need reform to begin almost from day one they cross the threshold of the primary school.

    "We need to do everything possible to ensure the DNA of the academy programme, which has been successful in driving up standards, is transferred to the very beginning of schooling."

    Mr Gove also announced his party would allow community groups, charities, philanthropists and education federations to set up new primary schools.

    Local authority-run schools with consistently poor results would also be taken over by organisations behind successful academy schools - such as the ARK charity, the Mercers Company and the Harris Federation, he said.

    'Budget cuts'

    Mr Gove accused the government of letting children down. He highlighted "official figures" that show four out of 10 children leave primary school in England unable to read, write and add up.

    He also said 34,000 11-year-olds had a reading age below that expected of a six-year-old.

    Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said: "The costs of this would be very large indeed, and of course at a time when the Tories are going to try and cut school budgets anyway, I think schools will be worried about the impact on their budgets."

    She also said it was "highly dangerous" to talk about primary schools being able to abandon the national curriculum.

    Liberal Democrat schools spokesman David Laws said primaries should have greater freedom to innovate but that the Tory plan would apply to too few schools.

    "[It] is also undermined by the inability to explain convincingly how underperforming academies would be held to account," he said.

    "The Tories appear to reject a strong role for local authorities in driving up school standards."

    A study for the Sutton Trust education charity concluded last year that academies should not be treated as a "cure-all" for England's educational problems because their performance varied widely.

    Story from BBC NEWS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/8017914.stm

    #2
    Primary Academies

    I had an argument recently with various friends and relatives in which they were saying that for all their sins, the Tories wouldn't be as bad as New Labour on education because at least they wouldn't meddle and indulge ideological flights of fancy as much. As is customary in the life of the modern Labour party member, I found myself rounded on from all sides.

    But here we go anyway: the Tories won't be just like New Labour on education; in this as in most other areas, they'll be even worse.

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      #3
      Primary Academies

      Local authority-run schools with consistently poor results would also be taken over by organisations behind successful academy schools - such as the ARK charity, the Mercers Company and the Harris Federation, he said.
      The Mercer's Company certainly have a fair bit of money (check out Covent Garden for their demi-virgin symbol), but how about we tax some of that off them and do it ourselves?

      Comment


        #4
        Primary Academies

        Can't see this winning the Tories many votes.

        Comment


          #5
          Primary Academies

          Jon wrote:
          Can't see this winning the Tories many votes.
          Won't need to though, will it. They're in next time without breaking sweat. There are going to be some really shit times coming in the public sector.

          IMO most of the problems in modern education are down to a combination of New Labour's micro-management tendencies and the context of schools 'competing' against each other which is a Thatcher legacy. I'd regard the latter as the most pernicious tbh.

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            #6
            Primary Academies

            The latter is one of the most destructive policies to this country in the last century

            But here we go anyway: the Tories won't be just like New Labour on education; in this as in most other areas, they'll be even worse.
            Are you sure New Labour hadn't been thinking of these?

            I can see, after I graduate, that I am going to spend my whole time even more pissed off than I am now with education policies. I may have to wear a hat to stop my head exploding

            Comment


              #7
              Primary Academies

              Can't see this winning the Tories many votes.
              It isn't votes this is about, it is about throwing raw meat to the tories on the ground to get them ready for the election and ushering in a new Thatcherism.

              Comment


                #8
                Primary Academies

                I must admit, until a couple of weeks ago I hadn't even entertained the concept that the Tories would be getting in but it's gradually beginning to dawn on me that they probably will. A pollster on the radio the other day said at the moment he reckoned it was 85% Cameron and 15% Brown getting in. That's scary.

                So - these Tory policies that I've been ignoring for years due to the fact that they'll never be implemented - I'm going to have to start paying attention now, aren't I?

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                  #9
                  Primary Academies

                  Any money on education vouchers coming up at some point?

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