Latest on academy plans for schools in Brighton and Hove

The government’s Schools white paper, Opportunity For All, says council would also be allowed set up their own trusts.

In Brighton and Hove, most schools are under council control or faith schools, with two secondary schools and two primary schools run by academy trusts and two free schools.

Green councillor Sarah Nield put a motion before the children young people and skills committee on Monday, 14 June, stating while it is not the council’s “ambition” to create a trust, members should be “as informed as possible” about the process.

She described how the academy system was “touted as a revolution in education to drive up standards” when it was launched under Tony Blair’s Labour government 20 years ago.

City Academy in Whitehawk

Cllr Nield said: “The shining princes of private enterprise were going to ride to the rescue of our struggling schools, sprinkle them with the magic pixie dust of the market place and hand out gold stars of school improvement all around.

“Twenty years later, academisation as the magic answer to raising school standards is the fairy tale that never came true.

“It’s an experiment that’s been tried, the results are in, and they’re deeply underwhelming.

“Some academies are good schools. Some aren’t. Some have succeeded in improving the schools they’ve taken over. Others quite obviously haven’t.”

Cllr Nield said the education select committee, NEU and the Local School Network had found being an academy does not improve standards.

Recent research by the Local Government Association found that 92 per cent of council-maintained schools are ranked good or outstanding by Ofsted, compared with 85 per cent of academies granted since conversion.

Of the academics converted before August 2018, only 45 per cent have improved standards compared with 56 per cent of local authority schools, Councillor Nield said.

Parents protested against plans to turn Moulsecoomb primary into an academy

Conservative councillor Vanessa Brown said her group was not “ideologically opposed” to academies and wanted the best for children and young people in the city.

She said it was sad for all Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (Baca) and Homewood College special school children and staff that both were rated “inadequate” by Ofsted.

Cllr Brown said: “Until now, both Baca and Paca (Portslade Aldridge Community Academy) have done well and have worked with both the council and the other secondary schools.

“We do hope that the chosen academy chain for Homewood will not suffer the same indignity as the academy chain for Moulsecoomb was subjected to by anti-academy activists, including some councillors. It was not helpful for anyone.”

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy was mentioned during the meeting

Moulsecoomb and Bevendean Labour councillor Amanda Grimshaw said she was disappointed for families whose children go to Baca.

She said she was “extremely proud” to support parents and the wider community who fought against the forced academisation of Moulsecoomb Primary School.

Green councillor Zoe John backed Cllr Grimshaw and said she also stood alongside parents on the picket line at Moulsecoomb to support parents in their campaign against academisation.

Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn said she was disappointed with the Baca and Homewood Ofsted reports. She backed the idea of a specialist trust taking over the special school even though she is against academies.

Cllr O’Quinn supported Cllr Nield and said: “I also think it would be interesting to look at the white paper. I find it almost bizarre that local authorities would be able to set up academies in the future.

“It’s just reinventing the wheel. If we look at it, maybe that’s the way Brighton and Hove want to go.”

Seven Green and Labour councillors voted for a report to come to a future children, young people and skills committee on the pros and cons of setting up a council-backed academy trust, with the three Conservatives abstaining.