Schools are going to be forced to become academies under the new Budget, announced this month by chancellor George Osborne. We provide a glance-and-go overview, plus a round-up of key responses from teachers, unions and more.
The proposals
- All schools will become academies. Every school in England will either have to be an academy by 2020 or in the process of becoming one for 2022. Any school failing to make the transition will be forced to so under ‘radical’ new powers to be adopted by the government.
- Provision will be made to encourage academy chains to take over so-called ‘Cinderella schools’ which are unattractive to potential sponsors because of their small size, tight budgets, expensive buildings or remote locations.
- The current system for funding schools will be replaced by a fairer national funding formula from April 2017. The government aim for 90 per cent of schools who benefit from the new formula to receive their extra funding by 2020. An extra £500million will be made available to ensure the deadline is met.
- There will be £20million a year in additional money for schools in the north of England.
- There will be a review to consider making the teaching of maths compulsory until the age of 18.
- Secondaries can be open for longer hours. A further £285million has been set aside to allow of a quarter of secondary schools to provide at least five extra hours a week for extra-curricular activities such as art and sport.
- The ‘real-terms’ protection of school funding in England, as outlined in the Spending Review 2015, will be maintained.
- The government will invest more than £1.5billion in schools and other areas such as housing and transport over the next three years.
- The primary school sports premium will be doubled to £320million per year from September 2017.
- There will be an additional £10 million funding to expand the number of healthy breakfast clubs.
- The government will provide £14 million to deliver a mentoring scheme for disadvantaged young teenagers.
The response
Extra funding is, of course, always welcome. However, the government's plans to turn all schools in to academies have come under fire from all angles, with school leaders, unions, local authorities and the Labour party joining the debate.
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