St Mary’s Church of England Nursery and Infant School

Briefing for staff on Academy Status

September 2011

1. What are the ‘new’ Academies?

Academies are state-funded ‘independent’ (in terms of freedom from the Local Authority) schools serving their local communities. The ‘old style’ academies were originally established in areas of deprivation, had substantial sponsorship and were often accommodated in new or refurbished buildings. The ‘new’ Academies Bill now allows ‘high-performing’ schools to become academies. The decision to convert is taken by a simple majority of the governing body and as a church school with the permission of the Diocese, although it is essential that consultation with parents, staff and the local community is undertaken as part of any decision making process. The first new academies came into effect in September 2010. Outstanding schools & those judged as ‘good with outstanding features’ are now able to convert through the application process.

2. Governance

The governance arrangements would be very similar to those we have currently. One of the main tasks is to establish an Academy Trust. We would work closely with the Diocese to achieve this. The school would remain a Church of England School and have this in its name and the maintenance of the Christian principles and ethos of the school would be written into the legal documents. The Academy Trust is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. The Academy Trust would have members (or their representatives) the majority would be appointed by the Diocese and this would not change. The school’s land and property is currently owned by Carlisle Diocese and this would not change.

The Academy Trust appoints the governing board under what is known as the academy’s Memorandum and Articles of Association. The number of governors is flexible, but the majority would need to be Foundation Governors (some of whom would be parents). Foundation Governors are currently nominated by St Mary’s Church PCC and appointed by the Diocese, but with an Academy the trustees appoint the Governors. The governing body membership would include the Headteacher, and representatives from staff, the community, and at least one elected parent, although we expect there to be more. Governors are accountable directly to the Secretary of State for Education through the academy’s Funding Agreement and to the Trustees who have a monitoring role and the power to change Governors. Procedures of meetings are published and the annual report and audited accounts are returned to the Charity Commission. Governors are responsible for the employment of academy staff, appointment of the Headteacher, administration of the academy's finances, authorisation of staff appointments and changes in terms and conditions of employment, and approval of personnel policies and procedures.

Different models of Academy Trusts are now developing: from collaborative partnerships, or chains, of schools with no shared funding or governance arrangements but agree to work together on certain issues and share responsibilities and services; to umbrella Authority trusts; through to a multi-academy trusts with funding agreement i.e schools do not have their own budget and school governors powers are more limited. It is unlikely that St Mary’s would wish to move away from its presentseparate financial and governance arrangements; seeking to convert on its own merits, whilst continuing its present policy of strengthening collaborative local partnerships. The Academy governors do have more responsibilities e.g. pensions.

3. Accountability

Like other schools, academies are inspected by Ofsted. Academic results are published and the annual report and audited accounts are returned to the Charity Commission. The academy is accountable to the local community through Local Authority, parent and foundation governors.

4. Staff

Currently, as a Voluntary Aided church school all St Mary’s staff are employed by the Governors. Existing staff would be transferred to the Academy from the previous school under TUPE regulations. This guarantees that existing pay and conditions at the point of conversion are preserved. Staff are employed by governors who agree pay and conditions and determine policies for the staffing structure, career development, discipline and performance management. All teachers must have Qualified Teacher Status. Unqualified teachers can transfer from the previous school but would be expected to qualify as soon as possible. Academies are not subject to the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document, but St Mary’s Governors would wish to keep this nor would they wish to move away from national agreements. Academies must give access to the Teachers' Pension Scheme to teachers, and the Local Government Pension Scheme to support staff.

5. Funding

Capital funding for an Academy comes directly from Central Government, although this is not on the same scale as the original ‘old-style’ academies programme. Revenue funding, the General Annual Grant, will come directly from a Government agency. It is calculated on the basis of the Local Authority funding formula where the academy is located. An additional allowance is made for money held back by the local authority from maintained schools. This is typically approximately 10% of school budgets; although some services identified below that continue to be provided by the Local Authority would be deducted from this sum. Threshold and performance pay are funded directly. The Local Authority continues to pay for home to school transport, special needs statements, pupil referral unit placements if a student is permanently excluded and statutory education welfare services.

6. Local Networking with Schools

St Mary’s has a special relationship with Windermere CE Junior School and this is likely to strengthen during the process of becoming an Academy because our schools will be able to support each other. St Mary’s would continue to work in collaboration with Cumbrian Schools through the Primary Heads Association and other local schools through the Windermere Consortium of Schools; this includes regular meetings for Headteachers, the assessment hub project and Early Years Foundation Stage network as well as through many informal network opportunities. The Diocese is looking at ways to ensure that the church family of schools remains strong and continue to work together and support each other. The Headteacher is an accredited Local Leader of Education and a Professional Partner; this would continue as part of an Academy’s obligation to support other schools. St Mary’s would continue to offer teacher training opportunities and to work closely with Kendal College.

7. Admissions

St Mary’s would continue with an all-ability intake policy and this would be included in its legally binding funding agreement. It would still be subject to the Code of Admissions and admissions legislation. All children from the ‘old’ school would automatically be transferred to the ‘new’ academy.

8. Special educational needs

Academies must have regard to the SEN Code of Practice and statutory guidance on inclusion. Parents can still appeal to the SEN and Disability Tribunal. Local Authority funding and support for SEN are still available to academies. Nationally, academies have been examples of good practice in SEN.

9. Curriculum

Academies are encouraged to innovate, although this is less significant with relaxation in the National Curriculum for all schools in recent years. They must still, however, follow the National Curriculum for English, Maths, Science and ICT like other schools. As a church school St Mary’s would continue to use the Agreed Syllabus for RE. St Mary’s would continue to develop the curriculum to best meet the needs of all its children as set out in our current aims/ethos statement.

10. Should St Mary’s become an academy?

Governors (& the wider school communities) are required to act in the best interests of the School; towards securing the best in terms of outcomes for the children in its care and ensuring the school’s long-term sustainability. Consideration of this decision will fulfil that role.

11. Advantages

Governors believe that the key benefits to our school becoming and Academy would be as follows:

A significant increase in direct funding to our school combined with greater control over the school budget to achieve the very best for our children. Governors would have greater autonomy over decision making.

There would be freedom from the Local Authority administration processes which in turn would reduce the burden of bureaucracy such as being asked for the same information from different elements of the LA.

It is fair to say that, as a good school with outstanding features, the local authority has given St Mary’s School a great deal of scope to make its own way. Much of the Local Authority’s focus has been on other parts of Cumbria and on other aspects of Children’s Services. It seems natural, therefore, to explore full autonomy as a state funded, ‘independent’ school, working closely with other Cumbrian schools and the Local Authority. As an Academy St Mary’s would buy back (as appropriate) services currently funded by the Local Authority. This is a much healthier approach to funding because as an Academy, we would have far more financial autonomy . However, St Mary’s would continue to seek to work closely with the Local Authority and any partner agency, in overcoming barriers to learning and raising outcomes for children whatever their background or ability.

The Government is clear that academies should not be more favourably funded than other local schools. The essential point here, though, is that the Local Authority holds back a proportion of school funding for its own administration, its own priorities, and its own school improvement services, which are not often directed at more successful schools. St Mary’s could make very good use of thatfunding. Although St Mary’s would not receive those amounts held back for services such as special needs, it would continue to benefit from that provision.

By becoming an Academy St Mary’s would preserve its autonomy as an Infant and Nursery School; whilst gaining all the benefits of working co-operatively with Windermere CE Junior School

12. Possible disadvantages

For some schools, not having the local authority to mediate with central government could be a daunting prospect. Working with a government agency could be more remote than with Carlisle. There will be greater levels of financial responsibility to accompany greater financial autonomy. As a lone school there could be a loss of economies of scale in provision of external services.

A school in more challenging circumstances than St Mary’s School could well miss the additional support of the Local Authority.

Some professional associations are against academies. They argue that national negotiations with employer organisations could be undermined and hard won pay and conditions eroded. Existing staff would bring over their existing pay and conditions through TUPE regulations. St Mary’s School has consistently sought to be a good employer.

Perhaps the strongest argument against further expansion of the academy programme is the impact on other schools and the potential demise of local authorities. As more schools opt out of the Local Authority to become academies, there will be less money left to support central services and administration: but equally, be fewer schools to support. There is a fear that the development could result in a widening of the gap between the best schools and those that are struggling particularly as there will be less central funding to tackle areas of greater need. This is, of course, a potential disadvantage for the ‘system as a whole’ rather than for the ‘privileged,’ individual academy. However, there is an expectation that academies would share good practice and support other ‘weaker’ schools – once more, mirroring St Mary’s ethos.

The Governors would identify possible financial liabilities such as support staff pensions through a due diligence exercise. This would enable the governors to make informed decisions about any potential liabilities.

13. Conclusion

Local Authorities are changing. They are becoming commissioning authorities, buying in services for their schools and communities, rather than making direct provision themselves. They will be forced to become leaner and therefore possibly less responsive to individual schools. Collaboration between schools, primary / special / secondary, has made schools more self-reliant, and less in need of tight regulation.

The numbers of academies is growing quickly; within our local area most notably locally Queen Elizabeth School, The Queen Katherine School, Kirkbie Kendal, Burton Morewood CE Primary, Arnside CE Primary, Grasmere CE Primary and Stramongate Primary School : regardless of St Mary’s School, academies will have an increasingly prestigious status as more schools convert.If St Mary’s was to become an academy, it would not lose its Christian Foundation or its ethos to be an inclusive and collaborative school. In fact it would safe guard our distinctiveness.

For a school such as ourselves, we must consider whether in the future our Local Authority would possess the necessary resources in order to support our school or indeed, to be available to us at all, and, whether conversion to academy status would provide an advantageous alternative. 

For more background information go to: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies