PRESS RELEASE : 400 academies now open [January 2011]
The press release issued by the Department for Education on 6 January 2011.
Figures released today show momentum is building for the government’s flagship school reform. The government announced today that
- there are now 407 academies open in England
- 371 secondary schools are now academies – 11 per cent of all secondary schools in England.
- 204 academies have opened since September 2010 under the coalition government, with 46 opening this week alone. Of these, 136 were schools converting to becoming academies that will now use their academy freedoms to support weaker schools. Sixty-eight were weaker schools that had been granted academy status and new sponsors to help them turn round underperformance
- at least one school has converted to become an academy every school day since September
- an additional 254 more schools are in the pipeline having applied to become academies, with more applications coming in every week
- Sixty-four schools applied to become academies in the last week before Christmas alone
- it took 4 years to open the first 27 academies. It took 5 years to open 15 city technology colleges.
In addition, the Department for Education is working with academy sponsors who have targeted underperforming schools. Plans are advanced to reopen these schools as academies in the coming academic year.
Michael Gove today congratulated the schools becoming academies this term:
I am delighted that more schools are opening as academies this week, and are now free from central and local bureaucratic control.
Schools are taking up our offer to become academies because they recognise the huge benefits of being an academy – more autonomy, more power to teachers, and an opportunity to thrive, free from interference from government.
The Coalition believes that headteachers and teachers – not politicians and bureaucrats – know best how to run schools. That’s why all school now have the opportunity to become academies, with stronger schools supporting weaker ones.
