Chancellor George Osborne is calling for all schools to become academies by 2020 or to have a plan in place to convert to an academy by 2022 at the latest. Previous to 2010, schools often only turned in to academies if they were seen to be under performing (often following Ofsted inspections). Since then the government have tried to encourage all schools to go down the academy route and are even offering additional funding for schools which do.
There are mixed feelings about academy schools from teacher, pupils and parents. Some like the way the school has more control over the timetable, holidays and members of staff they can employ, whereas others think that it is a risky strategy and that not making all schools comply with the same rules and procedures could back fire. With academies often receiving additional funding by sponsors, could it be that schools in less wealthy areas suffer because of lack of funding?
