It’s good to see that the letter from Cllr Jonny Crawshaw (16 April) has spurred a wider debate (Letters,21 April) on the lack of transparency and accountability in the school academy system. Unfortunately, no mention is given of the proposals by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in her children’s wellbeing and schools bill to curb academy freedoms. These include requirements to follow national pay scales for all teachers and for employing only those with qualified teacher status; an obligation to follow the national curriculum once the government’s curriculum review has been completed; an end to the forced academisation of maintained schools; and greater powers for councils over academy admissions.
Is this another example of the government getting little credit for some of its more positive stories?
Bob Hudson
Durham
• When Labour set up academies in the early 2000s, the aim was for better performing schools to join with those needing to improve. On a not-for-profit basis the schools would share resources to save money, with pupils from poorer schools benefiting by having the same opportunities.
The 2010 coalition government, in the form of Michael Gove, turned the idea on its head by making the system into a business opportunity where those schools within the academy trusts have to buy in most resources from their lead school run by leaders on enormous salaries.
Now that many schools have been forced to become part of a multi-academy trust, the situation is frankly appalling. The government should bring back Lord Adonis (whose brainchild the academies programme was under Labour) to return the system to its original principles.
Wendy Musson
Wraxall, Somerset
