A city academy is a type of British secondary school, of which one of the major architects was Andrew Adonis in his capacity as education advisor to the Prime Minister (now Lord Adonis, a junior Minister at the Department for Education and Skills) in the late 1990s. Academies are independent schools although they are publicly funded and run, and as such are outside the control of the Local Authorities in which they are situated. City Academies were created by the Education Act 1996 (S482) and first announced as a reality in a speech by David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education, in 2000 (although they are now known officially as Academies by an ammendment in the Education Act 2002). They are considered a method of dealing with the problem of historic and entrenched failure of schools in England that do not achieve academically (or in areas of little educational aspiration, such as the North East). However, as the programme is in a fairly early stage of development with less than 30 Academies open (and for less than three years) there is little solid evidence one way or the other as to whether they are effective in this. Academies are currently subject to an independent five-year evaluation by the consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers who have to date published two annual reports consisting of both 'hard' and 'soft' data concerning the open Academies. In the Department for Education and Skill's Five Year Strategy (published in 2004) the Government committed to opening 200 by 2010. Secondary school may refer to Secondary school in the United Kingdom, is the general term for the schooling of children between the ages of eleven and sixteen High schools, particularly in Australia, Canada and the United States Secondary education in general This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which... Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis (born c. ... Department for Education and Skills (DfES) is a department in the United Kingdom government created in 2001. ...

Features of an Academy

Academies are established in a way that is intended to be 'creative' and 'innovative' to give them the freedoms considered necessary to deal with the long term issues they are intended to solve. Each Academy has a private sponsor who can be an individual (such as Sir David Garrard who sponsors Bexley City Academy) or an organisation such as the United Learning Trust or Amey PLC. They are intended to bring 'qualities of success' to the school, again to help it change the long term trend of failure of the school the Academy replaces. In return for an investment of 10% of the Academy's capital costs (or £2m, whichever is less), the sponsor is able to input into the process of establishing the school including its curriculum, ethos, specialism and building (if a new one is being built), and the power to appoint governors to the Academy's Governing Body. Academies typically replace an existing (predecessor) school, or are newly established. The remainder of the capital and running costs are met by the state in the usual way for UK state schools through LA funded grants. Academies can select up to 10% of pupils by aptitude in a way similar to Specialist Schools (although very few of them exercise this ability). Although they are independent they have to have regard to the same code of practice of admission as maintained schools, and so cannot select beyond the 10% aptitude rule. As of May 2005, 17 city academies are already open, with another 40 being developed. Academies are not bound to follow the National Curriculum (another freedom to innovate), although they still participate in the Key Stage Three and GCSE exams as other British schools (which effectively means they teach a curriculum very similar to maintained schools, with small variations). In terms of their governance, Academies established as charitable trusts with a Governing Body that also acts as the Trust's board of Directors (they are legally accountable for the operation of the Academy, but not financially so). In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a nationwide education curriculum was introduced in the 1980s to ensure that certain basic material was covered by all pupils. ...

Opposition/criticism

The British House of Commons Education Select Committee reported in March 2005 that it would have been wiser to limit the programme to 30 or 50 academies in order to evaluate the results before expanding the programme, and that "the rapid expansion of the Academy policy comes at the expense of rigorous evaluation."[1]. This view is also held by the Liberal Democrat Party who stated in their 2005 election manifesto that they would suspend the creation of any new Academies if they came to power (although they did not commmit to abolishing the programme). The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and is now the dominant elected branch of Parliament. ...

The programme of creating city academies has been controversial and heavily criticised for handing schools built at great expense to private sector entrepreneurs who in many cases have no experience of the education sector - most notoriously, the Evangelical Christian car dealer, Sir Peter Vardy, who has been accused of pushing the teaching of creationism in two academies he sponsors in Gateshead and Middlesbrough (the latter being the King's Academy). The failings of the Unity Academy in Middlesbrough and the West London Academy in Ealing have also been highlighted as indications that the programme is not wholly successful.[2] The programme has also been attacked for its expense: typically it costs on average £25m to build an Academy (more in London) much of which is taken up by the costs of new building. It is frequently cited that this is more than a new school although these comparisons are often drawn between the total cost of building an Academy including start up grant and all initial outlay, and the cost of a new school building for a maintained school. That said Academies are not cheap in real terms, although the Government and sponsors maintain that it is money well spent to help those that the Academies serve (namely disadvantaged and chronically low performing children in deprived areas). This criticism was made by Sir Peter Lampl who through his Sutton Trust has sponsored 25 state schools through the Specialist Schools programme.[3] The Creation of Light by Gustave Dore Creationism or creation theology encompasses the belief that humans, the Earth, and the universe were created by a supreme being or deity. ... Gateshead Millennium Bridge Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear in north-east England on the south side of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne which covers the North Bank. ... Map sources for Middlesbrough at grid reference NZ5118 Middlesbrough is a town and district in North-East England, with a resident population in 2001 of 134,855. ...

Comparisons

The city academy programme echoes the programme of city technology colleges (CTCs) created by the Conservative Party in the 1980s, which were also business sponsored. One of the proposed city academies is Dixons CTC, once sponsored by the retailer Dixons. Currently the Government is encouraging CTCs to convert into Academies which several of them have already done (Djanogly CTC is now Djanogly City Academy). Dixons CTC has also converted, however as it is without an outside sponsor the new city academy will effectively sponsor itself, with Dixons CTC putting in nearly £1m in conversion costs. Building work started at the end of 2005 and is due for compleation summer 2006.[4] The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the centre-right in the United Kingdom. ... Dixons Group plc is a United Kingdom-based consumer electronics retailer. ...

In some respects comparisons may be drawn between city academies and US charter schools. In the United States, a charter school is a school that is created via a legal charter. ...

External links

• Rebecca Smithers, The Guardian, July 6, 2005, Hedge fund charity plans city academies: Network of schools for children from poor backgrounds, based on US model, will start with £14m proposal for seven in London"
• Roy Hattersley, The Guardian, 6 June 2005, "And now, over to our sponsors"
• Polly Curtis, The Guardian, 1 November 2004, "Academies 'gagging' teachers"
• Francis Beckett, The New Statesman, September 20, 2004, "How car dealers can run state schools
• Rebecca Smithers, The Guardian, 31 August 2004, "Flagship schools attacked over costs"
• The DfES Academies Website