Morley High School in Leeds became an academy in January 2011. Why become an academy? “We wanted to be emancipated from the local authority,” explained straight-talking principal John Townsley.
“In our view it wastes a lot of public money. The school is now significantly better off – becoming an academy created £280,000 a year additional income, which even though we have nearly 1,600 students is still a sizeable amount.
“And we can choose how we spend the increased income, whether on services from the local authority (we still buy some services from them because those are very high quality), on new staff, or on services from private organisations. We also have more freedom over the curriculum, employment and admissions policies.”
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