Nobody misses Ducie High School in Moss Side. When it closed in 2003, it was believed to be one of the worst performing schools in the country. Its buildings were in a pitiful condition, but that was nothing compared to its terrible academic record. The height of its success came when just 13 per cent of its pupils got five GCSEs above grade C.
 
Something drastic needed to happen to stop children being condemned to a substandard education. The school was reborn as the Manchester Academy, with a new building, a new headteacher and a new approach. Crucially, and controversially, it was taken out of local authority control.

The new school became one of the first academies in the country. State funded but independently run, it was given control over its budget, admissions, staffing and curriculum. Since then, it has achieved significantly better results than the school it replaced. In 2010, 81 per cent of its students got five GCSEs above grade C, a dramatic improvement in just seven years.

“I am in a privileged position,” says principal Kathy August. “This is a happy school where children do well.

“We have the same admissions system and take children from the same areas as the previous school, yet we have produced a huge improvement.”

The change is credited to a relentless focus on discipline. Attendance, punctuality and uniform are all closely monitored and classroom performance is rigorously assessed. Without outside distractions, the school has been able to focus on improving the standard of education it provides.
 
So are academies the answer to our education problems? The government certainly thinks so. They may have been a Labour idea but the coalition has embraced academies enthusiastically.

There were 200 academy schools before the general election in May last year. Now there are around 700. A third of secondary schools are either academies, or in the process of converting. Some of the biggest secondaries in Manchester, including Wright Robinson College in Gorton and King David High in Crumpsall, are joining the revolution. Thirty one schools in Greater Manchester have opted to become academies, and more may decide, or be forced, to do the same.

No doubt they’ll be hoping to replicate the achievements of Manchester Academy. If they can do that, parents, students, teachers, and taxpayers will surely rejoice. But not everyone is convinced academies are the answer.

“I don’t believe they are a panacea,” says Andy Jones, the Dean of the Institute of Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. “We don’t yet know if academies actually raise standards. There simply isn’t the data to prove that yet.

“I am concerned we may have a problem brewing. This seems to be a drive to an even more uneven playing field for our children.”

These are concerns regularly raised since the first academies were introduced nearly a decade ago. Academies are outside the control of local councils and that autonomy means schools are free to run their affairs, without the input of town hall bosses.

Some see that as liberation from the interference of council bureaucrats, putting teachers in charge. Others see it as a separation from the support network councils provide. The teaching unions are particularly opposed to academy schools.

Last week’s strike over pension changes may have shut hundreds of schools but teachers have already taken industrial action over the expansion of academies.

Earlier this year, staff at a school in Oldham went on strike over plans to convert to academy status. Similar strikes have taken place elsewhere and more are planned across the country.

Union objections might be seen as unsurprising as academies can set their own pay and conditions. Certain academy staff have become the highest paid workers in the education sector. But unions claim some teachers have had their terms unfairly changed. And they have other concerns.  
 
“Schools are rushing to become academies without fully realising what it will mean and without the support of staff and the community,” says Noel Hulse, regional officer for the National Union of Teachers. 

“The government is encouraging a policy of isolation. If a school becomes independent, it can run its affairs as it likes. The community it is there to serve has no say. We are moving to a situation where there will be a free for all in education.”

Such vociferous opposition seems at odds with the enthusiasm of headteachers and governors rushing to convert. Since the government has allowed any good school to become an academy, there has been a flood of applications.  

So what are parents and students to think if their school becomes an academy? Ultimately, it will depend on whether you think schools should be independent, or run by councils.

“Parents shouldn’t be automatically concerned,” says Andy Jones. “A lot will depend on the individual leadership in a school.”

In that, Manchester Academy was lucky. Kathy August, an experienced school leader with a track record in turning around schools, has led the Academy since it opened.

“The school we took over had been under local authority control for a long time and they had been unable to improve it,” she says.

“School improvement is about what happens in school and you’ve got to able to get on with it without outside distractions.

“What we’ve been able to do is focus unrelentingly on education. All our energy and resources are dedicated to improving the experience we give to our students.”

The school is sponsored by the United Learning Trust, an Anglican charity, which runs 21 academies including the Stockport Academy and the Salford City Academy.

Academies are often accused of being private enterprises with selective admissions but Kathy August dismisses this. She says the ULT does not make a profit and the school’s admissions policy hasn’t changed since the Ducie High days.

She is used to defending academies against detractors and is convinced they can succeed where other schools have failed. “Change will always generate hostility, and people are fearful of it. I can only speak from my own experience but I believe there is compelling evidence that academies are transforming the chances of young people.”

With schools converting at an astonishing rate, we can only hope she is right.

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