Reading that Labour education manifesto, I'd say the days of academization is over.
Simply changing the structure of schools, turning them into academies or setting up new Free Schools, has failed to
deliver high standards. Free Schools are failing at a greater rate than other schools, one in five academies is
underperforming and whole areas have been left to languish.
Labour understands that simply changing a school’s structure is not enough; raising standards requires local oversight of school performance, help for struggling schools and great teaching and leadership. Most of all it requires a shared local mission to turn things around. So we will end the centralisation of powers in education, giving all schools the freedoms to innovate currently only granted to some.
We will also introduce new Directors of School Standards, appointed locally and with a remit to tackle underperformance
and respond to the views of parents. Building on the success of London Challenge, Directors of School Standards will build collaboration between schools, identify problems and intervene early to help fix them. To put an end to low expectations and chronic underperformance each local area will agree its own ‘Standards Challenge’ – an area-wide school improvement plan including a new public target for raising standards and attainment locally, for which the Director of School Standards
will be accountable.
Directors of School Standards will also be responsible for commissioning new schools where there is a local shortage
of places, encouraging innovative bids from established providers, good local authorities, parents, teachers and
entrepreneurs. Labour will end the underperforming Free Schools programme and the wasteful practice of building schools in areas without a shortage of school places. This money will instead be spent where it is needed so Labour can deliver enough school places to cap infant classes at 30 pupils or under.
So...
1. No need to convert as 'freedom' will be available to all.
2. Local authorities able to open schools if local director of schools standards thinks they're good enough. There are plenty of really good LAs that should be allowed to continue as they were without the ideological restriction that we have now.
3. End of the New Schools Network.
4. Decent academy trusts allowed to continue and maybe expand but I imagine only in their local area - not all over England as is the case now
Putting the academy genie back in the local authority bottle was never going to be a runner - too time consuming and too costly. In any case, faith schools were never really part of LAs anyway.
That's about as good as I could have hoped for.
If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.