Academies And Trusts

One of the most contentious proposals in the education five-year plan is the expansion of academies. But with the dozen that are already up and running experiencing mixed fortunes, should the government really be pinning its hopes on them? - More

An evangelical Christian sect that considers television and computers evil is in talks with the Government about sponsoring a city academy, it became clear last night.

Members of the Exclusive Brethren met Jim Knight, the schools minister, to discuss the possibility of backing one of Tony Blair's flagship schools.

The sect believes that the world is the domain of the devil and that children should be taught in "safe places".

Its educational division, the Focus Learning Trust, already runs 37 private schools - which have been highly-praised by Ofsted - even though pupils are denied access to modern technology and sex education is banned. - More

Members of the Exclusive Brethren met Jim Knight, the schools minister, to discuss the possibility of backing one of Tony Blair's flagship schools.

An investigation into the accounts of City Academies by the Times Educational Supplement shows that the King’s Academy in Middlesbrough – run by the creationist fundamentalist Sir Peter Vardy – has paid £14,039 of public money to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

The TES reports: “The King’s Academy accounts show that between April 2002 and August 2003, the school was billed £111,554 for ‘support services such as marketing and recruitment’ supplied by car dealer Reg Vardy plc, of which the academy’s sponsor, Sir Peter Vardy, is the major shareholder.”

The school was also billed £121,514 for “educational advice” by Emmanuel College, Gateshead, another college sponsored by the Vardy Foundation. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association got its £14,039 for work by the association’s employee, David Vardy, who just happens to be Sir Peter’s brother and another of the academies directors.

Now we come to John Burn, a director of the King’s Academy and former head of Emmanuel, who was paid £43,107 for “educational advice.”

A spokesman said the payments represented “value for money”. Gwen Evans, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Academies were supposed to lever private finance into public education, not lever public money into private pockets.”

The King’s Academy cost £20.3 million of public money to build, of which the Vardy Foundation provided £2 million. It costs £5.7 million of your money each year in running costs, even though it is not bound by the national curriculum and can teach almost anything it likes.

The TES quotes NSS honorary associate Paul Holmes, MP, who is a member of the Commons education select committee, as saying: “The government is essentially giving individuals the right to experiment with children’s education at taxpayers’ expense. These are basically private schools, being run using public funds. What safeguards are in place to ensure that the taxpayer has any say over what goes on in these schools?”

Only five out of the 12 academies already open have paid all the £2 million sponsorship they promised.

The Department for Education and Skills said: “It is easy to criticise radical steps to break the cycle of educational underachievement. We prefer to get on with giving children in these areas the very best education that we can.”

In four years, Jim Farnie, the headmaster of West Gate College, has turned it around. About a third of pupils this year have achieved an A-C grade in five GCSEs compared with just 8 per cent in 2000. He is a hesitant supporter of the changes which will mean closing his school and moving to new premises in September 2008.