You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Our kids school apparently wants to join an academy trust that runs a few schools around the south east of the country. I had a quick google, it popped up on companies house, and all the directors seem to run a lot of other companies that are servicing, consultancies, investments and so on. The whole thing seems very opaque and suspicious. Is that all completely normal and legit or is this some sort of bizare money laundering tax evasion scheme or something?
Probably the latter but then I’m a cynic. I’d question what is number 1 in their list of priorities but I suspect it’s not the quality of education. Amongst their other interests will probably be the myriad of maintenance, catering, uniform and supply teacher / recruitment companies required to sustain such an enterprise.
The whole thing seems very opaque and suspicious. Is that all completely normal and legit or is this some sort of bizare money laundering tax evasion scheme or something?
Privatisation of the education system in England by the back door.
The whole thing seems very opaque and suspicious. Is that all completely normal and legit or is this some sort of bizare money laundering tax evasion scheme or something?
All very normal and legit, and not a way of siphoning taxpayer money into private enterprises rather than directly into education so that all their mates get a cut. See also, private childcare firms, PPI Hospitals, NHS money going to private healthcare firms...
EDIT: Obviously not an exhaustive list, see also privatised utilities, privatised public transport companies...
My son's school recently got acadamised. Lots of initial churn with teachers but things are settling down now. Overall the pupils behaviour has improved, too early to understand grades due to the impact of COVID.
I'm not a fan of the new head teacher, sorry lead principle, and some of their rules are a bit stupid to my mind but they seem to be turning the school around.
As I see it the acadamy put in place a structure but it's ultimately the capability of the teaching staff and the environment that will impact on your kids.
My wife's school has just joined a trust and now the trust has control of the budget it has reduced the resources available whilst inflating their own salaries and empire building, creating consultancy positions and assistant CFOs etc. There seems to be an opportunity for business types to come in and do as they like with enormous budgets.
I would ask what the trust is offering for the school and whether their ethos is something you agree with.
It's a means by which an unecessary layer of management can be put into place to siphon further cash away from the coalface of education without anything in particular being delivered in return. Mrs Pondo's previous school couldn't afford coloured paper or glue or photocopying (or, increasingly, staff), but the academy CEO has a really nice new Merc SUV.
I don't know how much choice schools have to avoid being academised - not a lot, I don't think.
creating consultancy positions and assistant CFOs etc.
Yup - the school our kids go to keeps creating management positions whilst at the same time removing safeguarding and pastoral roles and giving the added responsibilities to Year managers.
The CEO (as of 2021, the latest figures I can find), earns >£140,000 a year.
@johndoh yep, exactly this. 1to1 TA support that is specified in EHCs too (legal requirement to fulfil)
For reference, becoming an academy and joining (or forming) a trust are not the same things. Becoming an academy is a way to move schools off the LEA budget and make them independent. By doing so they are no longer supported by the standard LEA services (admin, maintenance, educational services etc) and have to pay for everything as independents. A trust is a group of schools that are run centrally and usually lose their autonomy and budgetary control. Head teachers can be replaced by Heads of school who basically run the day to day.
I don’t know how much choice schools have to avoid being academised – not a lot, I don’t think.
I thought the normal process was: Send in OFSTED to put school in special measures, sack or pension off management team, either make it a standalone academy, or tack it onto an existing academy/group of academies for maximum monetisation.
The previous system of having Local Authorities running a county's schools denied parents and pupils choice about their education so instead all the schools across a wide area are run by the same MAT so err, offering choice.
The CEO up there on £140k is doing something wrong or only has control of one school to be so poorly paid!
LEAs were at least partially accountable to the public.
MATs not so much.
The CEO up there on £140k is doing something wrong or only has control of one school to be so poorly paid!
No, there are 13 schools in the Trust and some of the schools are leading schools in the area. I thought it was a huge salary but there you go! (Although it may have changed since then - it was 2021).
Jnr. used to work for an Academy chain in London, Harris. Lord Harris is the top dog, old mate of Maggie back in the day. I think the group 'educate' something like 4/10 London pupils.
She found the whole CEO, business manager, SLT stuff just a racket for old mates.
The CEO up there on £140k is doing something wrong or only has control of one school to be so poorly paid!
The last head of our (Scottish, state/local authority owned and run) secondary school was on a salary of just under £100k, which in 2023 money would now be around £110k for one school or 800 pupils. All within pay scales - albeit top point - and represents only double what a teacher would now be on at top of payscale. This is significantly less than many CEO's in business or other areas.
I attended a presentation evening at a local academy group; it was all very slick, message heavy, and I was left with the feeling of being an outsider looking at a cult.
To me, it seemed that the success of the business was more important than the happiness and wellbeing of the pupils.
The CEO of the one taking over ours is in the "low salary outlier" paragraph with a salary of 252k. On this page it says they don't recognise the "burgundy book" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Learning which doesn't sound great!?
I'm not sure the salary itself is that useful, surely at that level you can arrange your runumeration to include all sorts of other (less taxed) benefits.
The ceo salary is so low cos knighthoods / damehoods spare a thought for the poor things 😉
On this page it says they don’t recognise the “burgundy book”
I believe that is broadly the case.
While I wouldn't argue with many of the observations in this thread, it is also true that not all trusts are created equal.
There are some (I'm lucky enough to work for one) that do put kids and education first. Our CEO is an ex-teacher (rather than someone from 'industry') who is not afraid to speak on national media in criticism of government policy and Ofsted, and as a trust we only take on schools in the most deprived areas of the East Midlands.
Hmmmnnn. United Learning apparently have an office here in Peterborough but their closest school to that appears to be in Kettering or Cambridge. Not a huge problem but a bit odd.
Technically, no Academy or MAT has to recognise the Burgundy Book any more (much like they also don't actually need to follow the National Curriculum either) but in practice most most have T&Cs that mirror it pretty closely - deviating too far would lead to recruitment and retention issues for most.
United Learning seem to be owned by United Church Schools Trust one of the largest.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/may/13/schools.newschools
so that all their mates get a cut.
Seems to be about right.
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/mis-bromcom-arbor-sims-united-learning-legal-case/
There are MATs and there are MATs, just like every 'business'. I'm lucky and work for a good one that has good values and genuinely constructive managers.
Local schools here are all (well, the nearest 3!) heading for academy status. They're using a trust that's been successful in the wider area.
SWMBO is a governor of one of the schools and I've heard plenty of evidence that the school gets precious little support from the local authority. Even to the point that there is literally no sharing of local best practice supported by the LEA.
Of course, the head teachers can sort this out themselves, but budgets are wound so tight and there's no staff to actually have the conversations so nothing actually happens. Case in point is a tree came down onto part of the school fence, which compromised the perimeter. The only "spare" person who could guard it all day was the headteacher! It was that, or shut the school for the day.
So in our case it couldn't really be any worse, and having looked into it I agree with the direction they're taking. There are caveats as always, but the wins are very clear and the school will get some help very quickly once it changes.
Privatisation by the back door? No, I think it's pretty open!