Perhaps the most eloquent response to the government’s decision to turn every school into an academy and destroy, finally, any link with local government, came from the Tory head of education in Hampshire, Councillor Peter Edgar.
He said: ‘In Hampshire, we have 84 per cent of good or outstanding schools and do a lot of intervention work with other Local Authorities. I am a lifelong Conservative, but this statement of policy could lead to the county’s education system imploding. I do not understand it, particularly as there is no evidence whatsoever that the academy conversion of schools is improving standards. Now, with academy chains paying salaries to their chief executives more than the Prime Minister, the whole thing needs to be put on hold.’
Perhaps the most practical resistance has come from the Green party in Brighton, where schools, including most of the secondaries, are opting for a cooperative led by the local council, which wants to be the sponsor of the academy chain.
What of the unions?
What is initially surprising is how muted the response has been from headteachers’ organisations. The ASCL, most of whose members have opted for academy status, has always been compromised into never uttering more than a squeak about the implications of academisation.