It uses some of this money to buy services outside its local authority, although it still buys some services from Leeds local authority. Morley High School in Leeds gained £280,000 a year additional income for its 1,600 students when it became an academy in early 2011. The more recent converter academies may not have received largesse on the scale of the originals, but the increase in resources is still notable.Įxtra revenue from LACSEG (Local Authority Central Spend Equivalent Grant) enables academies to invest more in their own priorities. Originally the financial benefits of academy status, and the associated benefits to the schools and their students, were incontrovertible. So what are the benefits and the disadvantages, as seen by school leaders from their practical experience? Finance It includes some that passionately believe in the independence and financial benefits that academy status gives – and one that believes equally passionately that becoming an academy is not for them. This short series of articles, to run throughout January in SecEd, documents the benefits and challenges of academy status as seen and experienced by different academies and maintained schools. In the first of a four-part series, Peter Chambers looks at the benefits and disadvantages, as seen by school leaders themselves, of academy conversion.Ī school’s decision on whether or not to go for academy status is often contentious.Įven now after some 12 years, with more than 2,300 academies open representing more than half of all secondary schools in England, the arguments still rumble on about whether they improve standards overall, their effect on other schools, and whether they increase social division in education.
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