10 May 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

The Education White Paper and Government Policy on Academies

You will be aware that the government has decided that it is not necessary to introduce legislation to bring about the forced conversion of all schools to academies by 2022, as set out in the White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere.

Instead legislation will be introduced to trigger the conversion of all schools within a Local Authority area in the following circumstances:

• where it is clear that the Local Authority can no longer viably support its remaining schools because a critical mass of schools in that area has converted,
• and where the Local Authority requests the DfE to convert all of its remaining schools;
• or where the Local Authority consistently fails to meet a minimum performance threshold across its schools, demonstrating an inability to bring about meaningful school improvement.

We believe none of those conditions exist in Kent.

It will remain the choice of high-performing schools (and their governing bodies) in strong Local Authorities whether to convert to academies. However, the government will continue to require underperforming schools to convert to academy status where they need the support of a strong academy sponsor.

Following the concerns raised about small rural schools, alongside an existing statutory presumption against closure of rural schools, a new ‘double lock’ will be introduced so that when small rural schools convert to academy status both local and national government have to agree to a school closing before a decision can be made

No successful schools will be forced to join a national academy chain. The DfE will continue to make some funding available to schools to help pay for the development of MATs and the conversion of standalone academies.

At the same time KCC will continue to support the development of more small multi-academy trusts in Kent, where existing collaborations and partnerships are strong, and where there is capacity to support and sponsor other schools, or become a sponsor for new schools.

Currently there are 193 academies in Kent, including 8 free schools, which is 33% of all schools. This includes 72 (72%) Secondary schools, 120 (27%) Primary schools and one Special School. The majority are standalone academies.

Funding for School Collaborations

The ‘school to school support’ collaborations were allocated a further round of funding from the Schools Funding Forum for this academic year 2015/16. This time last year the Forum allocated £1.2 million for the further development of collaborative partnerships and groups of schools have bid for funding, based on clear action plans, improvements in expected outcomes for pupils, the quality of teaching and school inspection results.

These bids were considered jointly by the Area Boards of the Kent Association of Headteachers (KAH) and KCC Senior Improvement Advisers, to agree the allocation of funding to each school collaborative partnership.

The local authority continues to support this work as a major part of the school improvement strategy for Kent. School to school support is a powerful means of securing improvements, building capacity, spreading the influence of the best practice and ensuring schools benefit from challenge and support provided by other schools and other school leaders.

522 Kent schools have been involved in collaborative projects. Of those who were not involved, a very high proportion consisted of academies in multi-academy trusts. Of the collaborating schools, 409 benefited from successful bids to the KAH Area Boards for funding to support collaborative projects in order to raise standards, measured by achievement and Ofsted judgements. To date the impact has been very positive.

The Funding Forum met on 22 April 2016 and agreed to allocate a further year of funding for this work in 2016-2017, amounting to £1.2 million.

The Forum agreed that the following activities should be supported:

• provision of development opportunities for senior and middle leaders;
• building capacity for peer reviews and other forms of quality assurance;
• increasing the accuracy of the monitoring and analysis of data;
• improvement of classroom practice;
• improvement in Ofsted inspection outcomes;
• raising achievement at the ends of Key Stages 1, 2 and 4;
• narrowing the gaps between the outcomes of disadvantaged and other pupils.

Additional funding can be allocated by the KAH Area Boards in response to bids submitted by Senior Improvement Advisers for the targeted support of specific schools, judged to require improvement by Ofsted, or identified as particularly vulnerable owing to their current circumstances.

As we go forward we would also expect funding in the coming year to be allocated to strengthen the leadership capacity of groups of schools that want to develop as a multi-academy trust. I attach a copy of the Report that we presented to the School Funding Forum.

I hope this is helpful.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services