400 Poor-Performing Primary Schools to Become Academies

The government seeks to institute another education reform by turning the 400 weakest primary schools in England and Wales out of the control of their local authorities and into academies.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced that by the end of next year he wants to pair the schools with sponsors in a bid to improve education in the poorest-performing schools. The Cabinet discussed primary education as it held a regional meeting at an academy school in Bristol to highlight the policy.

Mr Cameron said of the initiative: “The driving mission for this government is to build an aspiration nation, where we unlock and unleash the promise in all our people. A first-class education system is absolutely central to that vision.

“We have seen some excellent progress with our reforms, including turning 200 of the worst performing primary schools into sponsored academies, and opening more academies in the last two years than the previous government opened in a decade.

“Time and time again we have seen how academies, with their freedom to innovate, inspire and raise standards are fuelling aspirations and helping to spread success. So now we want to go further, faster, with 400 more under-performing primary schools paired up with a sponsor and either open or well on their way to becoming an academy by the end of next year.
“It is simply not good enough that some children are left to struggle in failing schools, when they could be given the chance to shine.”

In 2010, there were 203 academies which were all secondary schools. At present, there are 2,456, with a further 823 in the pipeline. Of these new academies, 333 were previously failing primary or secondary schools. Ministers plan to spend up to £10m in developing new links with sponsors.