One of the first “how to” guides for schools leaders keen to explore converting their school into an Academy has been launched by a law firm which has advised some of the first wave of new academy schools.
While the new academies have been among the most talked about education topics, little material has been available for interested parties to study what’s actually involved. Now TPP Law has launched a 24-page special report “How to Convert Your School to an Academy” detailing every step for headteachers, governors, potential sponsors and parents who might be among the 2,000 schools already to have indicated an interest in effecting change.
TPP Law advised Tollbar Academy, one of the first new-style Academies to be established under the Academies Act 2010, which opened on 1 September 2010. It was one of 32 converting schools in the country to open under the new fast-track regime introduced by the Coalition Government.
Speaking at the launch of the report on Monday in Manchester at the Remodelling Education Spaces conference, Mark Johnson, Managing Director of TPP Law, said: "We are seeing tremendous interest from our school clients and education providers alike in exploring the new academy models now available, since these will provide new freedoms and additional budgets at a time of austerity. Our special report is intended as route map for busy headteachers, governors and educationalists to understand this new landscape.
"This is frontier work with new legal structures and new contractual relationships being developed for these new-style schools."
TPP Law’s “How to Convert Your School to an Academy” report looks in detail at setting up an academy trust; the funding agreement; assets and contracts; staff and TUPE consultation; land transfer issues and specific school issues.
Following the Secretary of State’s announcement of the new legislation on 26 May 2010, over 2,000 schools expressed an interest in converting to Academy status. Tollbar Academy in North East Lincolnshire was one of the first to meet the conversion criteria to become one of the new breed of publicly-funded independent schools.
As with all Academies, Tollbar will not be maintained by the local authority, but will gain its funding centrally. The Academy will also be able to benefit from such freedoms as being able to set its own pay and conditions for staff, freedom from following the National Curriculum and freedom to change the length of the school day.
TPP Law has also advised the following Academy projects :
- the Tollbar Edge Cleethorpes Academy which is also in North East Lincolnshire and is closely associated with Tollbar Academy;
- the Knole Academy in Kent; and
- the Nightingale and Aylward Academies in Enfield.
These Academies are all sponsor-led Academies, with the Nightingale and Aylward Academies the first in the London Mayor’s Academies programme.
