“David, I completely agree with everything you have said. My point however was about Mr Hough objecting due to a political stance. Several Conservatives have spoken out against Academies in Council, both Labour's and our current Bill. The point mainly being he adds no constructive suggestions, but just speaks out in a negative manner.”

“Mrs Quirell,
The Academies that are being set up now are completely different from those originally set up under the previous government.
Then they were designed to take schools that were failing under the mainstream system of the national curriculum and local authority oversight.
They were given more freedom on what they taught, how they taught and what they spent their money on (along with a shed load of money). For some it worked (though the extra money probably helped as much as anything).
The Academies that are going through now are taking schools that have been very successful under the National Curriculum and Local Authority oversight (though without lots of extra money). They will no longer be looked after locally but answerable only the Education Minister.
Whilst I disagree with Cllr Hough's attack on CFBT, I also think the Academies programme now is a fundamental and terrible change to our school system as it undermines local say in our schools, undermines local authorities in favour of central government, opens up schools to risks caused by mismanagement (Michael Gove has said that if a school goes bankrupt then it simply closes, never mind about the education of the children involved).
The decision to puch forward with this plan is not down to any evidence that it will improve results, simply that fits in with the Minister's ideology.”

“It is SO important that Lincolnshire keeps CfBT as completely out of our county as possible.
What do we want? CfBT out!
When do we want it? Now!”

“Sorry Mr Hough but I find it very difficult to believe anything that comes out of your mouth. When we had a Labour Prime Minister and Ed Balls was Education Secretary, you were a keen supporter of the Academy Bill. You are constantly negative and add no positives to any argument. I am getting a little fed up with Politicians always in the paper blaming someone else because they are from a different party. If Mr Hough really cared about Education in the way he claims, then maybe he would be bringing some suggestions forward on how to protect small Schools in Lincolnshire instead of trying to undermine the controlling party just because he's a different political colour.”

“I think Cllr Hough is picking on the wrong target. Schols are being forced by central government policies to move to Academy status and as more schools opt for it the viability of Lincs CC continuing to provide services to the remaining schools becomes more doubtful (a number of authorities, including Doncaster are closing down their support services).
For smaller schools (of which Lincilnshire has many) trying to organise all the extra bits themselves, that they would then have to do is impractical and would end up costing the school more than any financial gain from moving to Academy status.
As I understand it the CFBT offer is to effectively put in a safety net to schools that opt in. It also means that the same support teams would still be available to Lincs CC controlled schools.
Rather than kicking out against a move to make the best out of a bad situation he should be shouting about the loss of local control to our schools and as Colin points out too much political interference.
BTW Colin, I suggest you have a bit more contact with some local schools, as most of your criticisms are very wide of the mark.”

“Aren't we all getting a little more than fed up of political interference in education? We are seeing here politicians taking it in turns to force their own ideology on our schools. It seems to me that the task of primary schools is quite simple, to teach young children the three R's and to learn how to play and socialise together in a disciplined environment. These basic building blocks are not rocket science, yet we have 'failing' schools and then we say there is a need for 'superheads' and 'superschools'. Research shows that writing by hand and doing mental arithmetic makes the brain develop. Learning times tables, learning how to spell, learning good grammar and learning how to write aren't seen as 'sexy', so we continue to experiment and our children are way down in the international league table for numeracy and literacy.

So what do we do? Get rid of OFSTED, SATS and Targets and rewrite teacher's job descriptions to focus on the basics. Put in at county level a 'superhead' or Schools Superintendant and have Head Teachers report directly to this person. Put proper school inspectors back into schools and introduce the concepts of discipline and consequences for pupils, teachers and head teachers. Not Right, Not Left, just Common Sense!”