LGA LIB DEMS WELCOME U-TURN ON ACADEMIES – BUT WARN IT IS JUST ONE BATTLE WON
Responding to the recent announcement by Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, that council-maintained schools rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ will not be forced into taking academy status, Cllr Liz Green, LGA Lib Dem Spokesperson for Children and Young People said:
“We are delighted that the Government has listened to the strong opposition to forced academisation, which has been strongly echoed by MPs, teachers and parents and backed up by evidence.
“However, this is just one battle won. The war of keeping local authority involvement in school improvement continues. We need to keep on fighting to ensure another method isn’t used to effectively do the same thing.
“The LGA recent analysis of the grades achieved by all schools under the more rigorous Ofsted inspection framework proved that 81 per cent of council-maintained schools are rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, compared to 73 per cent of academies and 79 per cent of free schools.
“Recent Ofsted figures have also shown that ‘inadequate’ council-maintained schools are more likely to improve if they stay with their local authority, rather than being forced to convert to an academy. These figures showed that 98 per cent of council-maintained schools improved in their first Ofsted inspection after being rated ‘inadequate’ compared to 88 per cent of academies.
“This clearly demonstrates that councils are education improvement partners, rather than barriers to delivering the high quality education that our children deserve.”
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