The Corrupt Academies/Free Schools Thread

[Orang Utan]

The first Academy has been absorbed by the Harris Federation after it went into special measures, following a huge deficit that led to a massive staff cull:
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/pioneering-london-academy-absorbed-by-harris-federation/

 

[Orang Utan]

DotCommunist posted this on the fingerprint thread, but it's worth a repost here:
LRB · George Duoblys · One, Two, Three, Eyes on Me!

 

[Orang Utan]

Pure banditry here:
Collapsing academy trust ‘asset-stripped its schools of millions’

 

[alex_]

Pure banditry here:
Collapsing academy trust ‘asset-stripped its schools of millions’

The way it’s been going on for a while either suggests it was standard practice or a pyramid scheme.

Alex

 

[Red Cat]

DotCommunist posted this on the fingerprint thread, but it's worth a repost here:
LRB · George Duoblys · One, Two, Three, Eyes on Me!

Thanks for posting this (I get the print version but hadn't seen it). The high school (part of a multi-trust academy) most of the kids from my 10 yr old's class will go to seems to be a school like this. I went to an open day on a Saturday and quite liked the emphasis in the head's talk on the children feeling safe, importance of relationships and predictability, but I visited on a school day and the the kid who showed us around managed to scare our kids by talking about rules, detention. When I pointed out that as R and her friend are only in yr 5 and they don't need to know all this, she told me that they were better learning it now before they started. I've since looked into it a bit more, and reading that article provides some context, and there's a definite 'new discipline' thing going on there.

 

[snadge]

DotCommunist posted this on the fingerprint thread, but it's worth a repost here:
LRB · George Duoblys · One, Two, Three, Eyes on Me!

This made me laugh.

‘Year 7s study the Odyssey,’ my guide told me as we joined an English class, showing me a copy of the textbook the students were working from. ‘Mr Kirby [Michaela’s deputy head] rewrote it, taking out the chapters we don’t need to read. It saves us a lot of time.’

Am I getting this right, someone rewrote the odyssey and missed out a load of chapters as they were not going to be tested on those parts of the story?

 

[Orang Utan]

Am I getting this right, someone rewrote the odyssey and missed out a load of chapters as they were not going to be tested on those parts of the story?

I think it's quite commonplace not to read the whole book unfortunately

 

[snadge]

I think it's quite commonplace not to read the whole book unfortunately

What is the point of reading half a book? When I was at school we were recommended to read the whole book, to get context, now, pupils are even being denied that experience with re written books missing half the narrative.

Is this a teaching for the test type thinking.

 

[SpookyFrank]

DotCommunist posted this on the fingerprint thread, but it's worth a repost here:
LRB · George Duoblys · One, Two, Three, Eyes on Me!

So, establish an informal atmosphere but only as a trap to get the kids to let their guard down so you can punish them later on. Sadistic twat

 

[Plumdaff]

I think it's quite commonplace not to read the whole book unfortunately

That's just tragic

 

[May Kasahara]

DotCommunist posted this on the fingerprint thread, but it's worth a repost here:
LRB · George Duoblys · One, Two, Three, Eyes on Me!

Thanks for posting this OU, very interesting indeed.

Re. Wakefield City Academies Trust, I was very interested to read their (glowing) outcome letter from Ofsted's focused MAT inspection in 2015. What a difference two years makes, eh?

 

[ViolentPanda]

What is the point of reading half a book? When I was at school we were recommended to read the whole book, to get context, now, pupils are even being denied that experience with re written books missing half the narrative.

Is this a teaching for the test type thinking.

Sadly, taking the lead from the private education sector of teaching to the test, not teaching for the expansion of knowledge.

 

[catinthehat]

This is the sort of school you can get if the mucky fingers of profit are not in it. 140 students. 20 teachers. 3 admin/support. Excellent systems. Set their own policies. No inspections. No exams. The place is as calm as a spa. No hierarchy. If I taught here you would have to physically remove me at the end of the day. Max of 15 per class - any more and the teacher gets paid extra.

 

[alex_]

This is the sort of school you can get if the mucky fingers of profit are not in it. 140 students. 20 teachers. 3 admin/support. Excellent systems. Set their own policies. No inspections. No exams. The place is as calm as a spa. No hierarchy. If I taught here you would have to physically remove me at the end of the day. Max of 15 per class - any more and the teacher gets paid extra.

Where is that ?

 

[Orang Utan]

Where is that ?

Doncaster

 

[catinthehat]

Snafellsness in Iceland (but typical of schools here). Though Orang Utans answer is better!

 

[scifisam]

What is the point of reading half a book? When I was at school we were recommended to read the whole book, to get context, now, pupils are even being denied that experience with re written books missing half the narrative.

Is this a teaching for the test type thinking.

Nah, the Odyssey is our current written version of a centuries-old story that was handed down by oral tradition for generations. It's not a book that has one official with a definitive author. It's more like looking at one episode of Eastenders and asking about the storytelling tropes therein.

There's nothing wrong with studying parts of it, quite apart from the fact that the length would make it impossible for any teacher to cover in full, especially in year 7. The kids then get something that is not British, was extremely influential for world literature and comes up in fiction all the time even now, and has some cool monsters in it. You can easily miss out the bits where the bard was probably filling time while everyone went off to get more ouzo.

 

[DotCommunist]

bit in the groan today might be of interest:
Take heart – the monstrous academy system is running out of road | Fiona Millar

 

[catinthehat]

Our local FE college is currently advertising for current students to take roles as teaching assistants - as unpaid volunteers. They must have a qualification one level above those they will be teaching 'in large or small groups delivering key skills of Maths, Communication and IT'. Their reward will be a 'Bronze Level Badge' which is awarded by the college. Scores of qualified lecturers redundant, replaced by unqualified instructors on zero hours contracts and unpaid student volunteers. But all is not gloomy - management and administration jobs have increased and the principal and senior managers have a new 'suite' and enhanced salary. Which is handy as most of them send their kids to the local private school. Where there are qualified teachers on full time contracts and no teaching done by a 16 year old with a C in Maths!

 

[8115]

40,000 children trapped in ‘zombie’ academy schools

 

[BigTom]

Outrage as school splits kids playground into 'rich and poor' zones

Wednesbury Oak academy asked parent's to pay for new sports/playground equipment, then stopped children whose parent's hadn't paid from using parts of the playground. Grim.

 

[Idris2002]

Outrage as school splits kids playground into 'rich and poor' zones

Wednesbury Oak academy asked parent's to pay for new sports/playground equipment, then stopped children whose parent's hadn't paid from using parts of the playground. Grim.

The head in that piece seems to be arguing that the money isn't that much - but that makes it even worse, that she's punishing the kids to get back at the parents.

 

[Winot]

Jesus Christ.

 

[BigTom]

The head in that piece seems to be arguing that the money isn't that much - but that makes it even worse, that she's punishing the kids to get back at the parents.

Yep, seemed like she was bitter not many parents had paid anything. Really horrible stuff from her i thought.

 

[Poot]

There's nothing like finding out your place in the word early doors, is there?

 

[alex_]

Yep, seemed like she was bitter not many parents had paid anything. Really horrible stuff from her i thought.

Totally pathetic.

 

[chilango]

Outrage as school splits kids playground into 'rich and poor' zones

Wednesbury Oak academy asked parent's to pay for new sports/playground equipment, then stopped children whose parent's hadn't paid from using parts of the playground. Grim.

Wow.

I mean the entire education system essentially works like this, but this is brazen.

 

[BigTom]

hang on a minute...

Of some 450 pupils she said only 50 parents had paid the £6, which amounted to just "15 pence per week", and all that was purchased was a football a rugby ball, a slinky, two skipping ropes and some a tennis balls.

£6x50 = £300. A football, a rugby ball, a slinky, two skipping ropes and some tennis balls. For £300?

 

[chilango]

hang on a minute...



£6x50 = £300. A football, a rugby ball, a slinky, two skipping ropes and some tennis balls. For £300?

Perhaps from a “preferred supplier” with some sort of exclusive rights who have absolutely no connection at all with the bosses/board/governors/head?

 

[BigTom]

Perry Beeches saga: who was involved

Perry Beeches academy chain in Birmingham pays £1.3m to company that headteacher is director of and gets a £160k wage from. Not sure if the academy chain actually had the schools taken off them or not.

School chain 'collapsed owing nearly £500k over unfilled pupil places'

Collapsed owing £500k to the government for school places that weren't ever filled but they calimed funding for. Schools have been transferred to two other academy trusts/groups.