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17 April 2026

Tag: agony aunt

Should maintained schools convert to academies?

Question: Will all schools still have to become academies eventually? And if so, what should maintained schools be doing to review their options? Christine says: We know that the pace of conversions to academy status dropped off once Nicky Morgan did a U-turn on the target for all schools to convert by 2022. However, it […]

Our LA is quite ‘hands-off’ anyway, so what freedoms would academy conversion bring?

We don’t currently understand the freedoms that converting might give us – what additional freedoms are there? We’re pretty much left to do what we want at the moment anyway as our local authority is quite ‘hands-off’, so what will the difference be? Christine says: I’m not surprised you don’t understand the ‘freedoms’ that converting might bring, […]

Can church schools become stand-alone academies?

Question: Is the memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education and the Church of England/Catholic Church a legally binding document?  Can church schools become stand-alone academies or do they have to become part of a diocesan-led trust? Victoria says: In order to answer the above, we need to look first at how a church school […]