Diary of a headteacher: What now for collaboration?

There has been much written in recent weeks regarding the announcement from the government that all schools must become academies by 2022.

Arguments against this proposal have been vociferously made online and in the press by school leaders and many educationalists are genuinely concerned about the future of an education system that will be fully academised and devoid of any local authority control.

Initially only outstanding schools were allowed to become academies and ever since this directive became diluted and good schools were able to convert I think the writing has been on the wall for local authorities.

It has been clear that the government wants schools to be autonomous entities, responsible for their own sustainability and that the local authorities across the country will merely retain allocations and SEN oversight. The education sector of local authorities we once knew is soon to become extinct and multi-academy trusts look set to replace them as the overarching bodies prescribing the ways schools within their trust operate.