U-turn | Schools Week

Government ‘taking forward’ academies white paper, Greening confirms

The government remains committed to the idea of all schools becoming academies and is “pulling together” legislation to enact its Education for All white paper, Justine Greening has confirmed. School leaders had raised concerns with Schools Week about a confusion between the green paper plans for selection and the white paper focus on academies. Greening […]

Less of a U-turn and more of a Z-turn

Do you remember last Saturday? It was boiling hot and the world was sunny – not least because Nicky Morgan had announced on Friday afternoon she wouldn’t be making all schools into academies after all. Except, it wasn’t that straightforward. (It never is). At 6.30am on Saturday I therefore found myself explaining to listeners of […]

Forced academisation looms for coasting councils

Nicky Morgan last week announced a u-turn over the government’s controversial proposals to force all schools to convert into academies. Instead, it wants new powers to academise all schools in a local authority where the council is deemed to be either underperforming or ‘unviable’. The ‘triggers’ for both have yet to be decided, as John […]

Morgan to define ‘underperforming’ councils with consultation and vote

The definition of “underperforming” councils that will be used to force schools to convert to academies will be set out in a consultation and put to a vote of MPs, Nicky Morgan has said. The education secretary told the House of Commons today that new plans to convert all schools in areas where a council is […]

Government u-turns on forced academisation plan

The government has abandoned plans to force all schools to become academies, the government has confirmed. This is a u-turn on proposals announced in the budget and developed in the education white paper. It comes in the wake of threats of strikes by teachers and school leaders in opposition to the plans. Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has […]

No academies u-turn announcement as Morgan dodges questions

Questions about the future role of local authorities in schools went unanswered as Nicky Morgan faced a grilling from MPs about plans to convert all schools into academies. During education question time in the Commons this afternoon, the education secretary dodged several questions about reports that councils could be given the right to set up multi-academy […]