Teachers and school leaders are currently facing an array of challenges – funding shortfalls, a teacher recruitment and retention crisis and questions over the safety of some buildings, to name but three. It may therefore seem like a curious time to be discussing the structure of the state school system, most notably the future direction of academies and Local Authority (LA) maintained schools. On the contrary, the existing school system – in which around half of state-funded pupils attend academies and the other half attend LA schools – has become undesirable and unsustainable for two reasons.
First, operating two parallel systems with different approaches to funding, curricula, governance, admissions and oversight has created a fragmented and confusing landscape that leaves everyone from local parents to national politicians worse off. Second, considering the wider challenges facing schools, it has never been more important to make sure that every pound invested by government contributes to improving teaching and learning, yet propping up two separate school systems is inherently wasteful and makes it harder to ensure that public funds are reaching the classroom.
Around 20 years after the first ‘academy’ school was created in England, this report argues that it now makes sense to establish one set of structural arrangements that apply to every mainstream state school. Once these arrangements are in place, all the available energy and resources can be directed to those aspects of policy – namely, teaching and learning along with high-quality leadership – that have been shown to make the most difference to pupils’ outcomes. Consequently, this report aims to construct a new framework for state education that is based on the following three principles:
- COHERENCE: the roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders in the school system should be easily understood and minimise potential conflicts of interests, while any decision-making powers should rest with the individuals or organisations who have the most suitable knowledge and expertise.
- COLLABORATION: all state-funded schools should be working together, both formally and informally, to promote the best interests of pupils – particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people.
- TRANSPARENCY: taxpayers have a right to know how, where and when their money is being spent on schools as well as being confident that the available funding is being put to its best possible use.
