Making Academies shine

28/05/10

Exactly two years ago the teachers at a Derby school staged a one-day strike over plans to turn it into an academy. Ministers then planned to have 200 academies open or in the pipeline by 2010, seeing them as a key way of improving schools. Two years on and the coalition’s education secretary Michael Gove set out his vision for  all schools to have the opportunity to break away from local authority control and become academies. While Mr Gove marks these changes and new freedom as the catalyst to drive up standards for all schools, critics have warned that the changes risk fragmenting state education, with the most disadvantaged children losing out.

At Mango Marketing we’re lucky enough to work with an Academy, St Matthew in Lewisham, which is certainly one shining example of how academies can increase standards.

Replacing a school which was closed down after going into special measures, St Matthew Academy had its fair share of challenges. A large number of its pupils came from the failing school but fast forward three years and Ofsted has stated that the school is rapidly improving.

Monica Cross, principal of St Matthew Academy, and her staff have strived to create an enriched and innovative environment for the students and the results are clear.

So although we have a school who took on possibly more challenges than others, it has a team of highly experienced teachers passionate about the success of the school. I wonder therefore whether the improvement in standards that the coalition is aiming for is related to whether or not the school comes under local authority control or more importantly, whether the school has wonderfully able and dedicated teachers.