Academies are a relatively new type of school that are being encouraged by the UK government. They are free from the government regulations that regular schools are and are independently run. They are state maintained but can also have the financial help of sponsors and businesses.

Although academies can be independently funded they cannot charge for entry and cannot make a profit. They are effectively publicly funded schools that operate outside of local authority control and can seek additional funding as well. They have more freedom over finances, the curriculum, and teacher’s conditions than regular schools.

Academies can have a large amount of choice over what they teach and how they teach it. They do have to follow the national curriculum in English, Maths, Science and IT, but other than this can teach what they like. This allows them to focus more intensely on other areas if they wish or teach subject that other schools do not. The majority of academies specialise in a certain area, such as technology or sport.

Although they cannot charge pupils to attend, academies are free to choose how they run their admission processes. Pupils must be broadly from the local area but there are not specific requirements for the entry process as there are for regular schools.

The academy system can particularly benefit those who wish to start religious schools. This is because they don’t have to follow the curriculum in teaching a broad range of religions. If they wish they can solely focus on one religion.

Any existing school can apply to be converted into an academy that will be maintained and partly funded by the state but run independently. The first step in starting an academy is for the current governing body to apply to the department for education and for a charitable company to be registered with companies house. An academy trust needs to be set up to run the academy. If the application is successful, this trust will be granted ownership of the school’s land. They will then be able to take over the running of the school, which will at this stage become an academy. Rather than being funded by the local authority, they will be funded directly by central government receiving an annual grant. As mentioned earlier, they will be able to receive additional funding on top of this.

It is thought that academies and the rules that go with them will help improve poorly-performing schools. The thinking is that by being able to attract more funding and have more freedom it will enable them to make changes to improve the quality of teaching, the curriculum and other things. They will be more able to do what they think is necessary to improve a school rather than follow strict regulations as to how it should be run. With more freedom comes more individualism and it is hoped that if specific schools have specific requirements to improve, this will be possible under the academy system. One of the aims of state education is for the quality of education to be the same for everyone. It is hoped that academies will allow poorer quality schools to improve so the gap between the better performing schools and poorer performing schools will narrow.

Andrew Marshall ©