A new book from think-tank CentreForum entitled “Academies and the future of state education" details the history of the academies programme in Britain and brings together leaders from some of the most successful academies to explain how they have made these schools popular with parents. The book is very supportive of academies, and suggests the government´s programme be expanded not only to additional secondary schools but to primary schools as well. Perhaps part of the appeal is that these new independent state schools are now delivering significantly improved results - in some areas their GCSE results are improving twice as fast as the national average.
The book includes chapters from leading academy heads, sponsors, the Government minister for academies, and Conor Ryan, a former education adviser to the Blair government. Cross-party support for both the book and the academies programme is evident: CentreForum is closely linked to the Liberal Democrat leadership, Schools Minister Lord Adonis wrote the forward, and Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove took part in the book's launch. Lord Adonis wrote: "Academy chains -- able to leverage excellent leadership, ethos, branding and curriculum across more than one academy and to do so rapidly -- are guarantors of quality, accelerating the expansion of academies, because of the ease and reliability with which the chains are able to take on new projects." Currently, the only academy chains operating in Britain are either charitable foundations, universities or private schools. However, several commercial education providers, such as Kunskapsskolan, are entering the UK market. Read the full report, Academies and the Future of State Education |
