As you know we have been looking into the option of becoming an Academy as part of ATT (one of only 7 Ofsted identified successful academy groups which actually improve life chances for young people).
Our main reason was that we are seriously underfunded as part of the Local Authority. Loads of preparatory work has been done; an Academy order has been granted and we were due to convert on the 1st October.
However over the past few weeks it has become apparent that far from being better off as an Academy we would actually be worse off because all Academy chains take a percentage (3-8%) for their services. This money comes directly from the School’s, already overstretched, budget and in our case from some of the most vulnerable young people in Walsall.
On a personal note I may well have been better off but we could well have been facing staff redundancies in the near future, to balance the books, compromising our independence and safety. As it is we are facing a substantial deficit this year due to cuts in Local Authority funding and a carryover of last year’s deficit.
We are looking at other options and are happy to remain with the Local Authority for the time being. (Local Authority maintained schools are currently outperforming Academies and Free Schools, a fact that the Government don’t want you to know). Academisation is not in itself improving education, but it is allowing many people to suck substantial amounts of money out of the education system in inflated salaries and duplicated services that ought to be going to fund improving life chances for young people.
It may be that at some point Academy status is the right thing for Elmwood but in the meantime we will continue lobbying the Local Authority to fund the school fairly as we have always been a poor relation in the spectrum of ‘specials’ in Walsall. Despite this our social, emotional and academic outcomes are amongst the best nationally and we certainly outperform all similar schools in the West Midlands.