Academies: opponents point finger at the council

BRAND new . . . an artist’s impression of what the Oasis Academy will look like

Warnings ignored, say critics

ANTI-ACADEMY campaigners have criticised the council for failing to scrap the idea altogether.

The future of schools hangs in the balance after the Government axed its £55 billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme to refurbish every secondary.

Oldham’s three academies WILL open in September in the existing schools they are replacing: Breeze Hill, Counthill, Grange, Kaskenmoor and South Chadderton.

However, proposals to THEN move into purpose-built schools in Royton, Waterhead and Hollinwood in 2012/13 are now in doubt as the Government reviews the funding.

Proposals to replace or refurbish the borough’s other secondaries have either been scrapped or are also being reconsidered by ministers.

Opponents say that academies, run by sponsors, fail to raise standards, damage other schools and are unaccountable to local taxpayers.

Oldham Campaign Against Academies (OCCA) wanted Oldham to bid for BSF funding without including academies.

Spokesman Stuart Paulley said: “Oldham Council also did not heed our view that opening academies before new buildings were complete would be foolish.

“It means that two of the academies will have to operate on split sites — and this after the council had celebrated its success in removing split sites at Radclyffe and Failsworth Schools.

“OCAA told councillors that the education of hundreds of children in the split-site academies would be damaged for at least two years as they waited for their new buildings to be completed.

“Now it is quite possible that the Government will not provide funding for the three academies.

“This would present the council with an even more difficult situation and put our children in an impossible position.

“Not only will they be in academies, but in two cases they will be in schools whose curriculum will be constrained by operation on sites one-and-a-half miles apart.

“The council got our children into this mess partly because it relied on faulty advice from its officers and partly because it refused to acknowledge, let alone use, expertise and information possessed by other interested groups.”

But Mr Paulley criticised the Government for pulling the plug on the borough’s other building plans and said: “Apparently, at least some of the promised funding will now be used to allow ‘successful’ schools to become academies and to establish Swedish-style free schools.

“The majority of these schools will be in affluent areas, so money desperately needed by Oldham children will now be allocated to already fortunate young people.

“This is despite the fact that educationalists have shown that academies and free schools do not raise standards.”


Builders sure plans won’t prove academic

THE construction company chosen to build three academies in Oldham has said it is optimistic the scheme will go ahead.

Wilmott Dixon, one of the country’s largest privately-owned construction firms, was chosen in March by Oldham Council to build the Oasis Academy in Hollinwood, the Waterhead Academy at the Orb Mill site, and Oldham Academy North in Royton as part of a £71m development contract. However, on Tuesday, the Chronicle reported how Schools Secretary Michael Gove scrapped the £55billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme to replace or refurbish every secondary in England by 2012.

Plans for all academies across the country are now under review, with a five-week wait to find out whether funding for Oldham is available. However, a spokesman for Willmott Dixon said they were positive that the benefits of having academies in Oldham would count in their favour.

He said: “We are watching the situation but we are optimistic that the planned academies will go ahead.

“We are hopeful and confident that the benefits of having academies will warrant them going ahead.

“The Government did say where it is proved that academies can have a worthwhile, beneficial effect of the community, it will be a strong case for going ahead.

“We are hopeful the tremendous opportunities, such as better education, will count in our favour.

“We are behind the client and the council, and are doing everything we can do to support the case.”

Last month, Balfour Beatty Education was chosen to carry out the £170m overhaul of Oldham’s schools by 2014. Construction work was due to start in January, next year.

No-one from Balfour Beatty was available for a comment.