Over half of schools in county are academies
THE rate of academy schooling in Leicestershire is far greater than the average in England.
Of the county’s 321 schools, 189 are now academies of some description, according to data from the Department for Education (DfE).
This is 59 per cent, higher than the national average of 32 per cent of the 27,280 schools currently open in England. In Leicester city, 44 of the 133 schools are now academies, or around 33 per cent.
In 2010 the Government introduced legislation that allowed all schools to make the change to become academies - including primary and secondary schools.
These institutions have more autonomy over their curriculum, budget and staffing than regular state-funded schools - something that the Government says improves educational outcomes for children.
Since then, there has been a shift in focus to get more and more schools to become academies.
This is also the main method it uses to address underperforming schools, by converting them into academies where performance is expected to be higher.
The policy is responsible for the vast majority of the 244 school closures in Leicestershire since 2000, as there were only 23 schools that stopped operating entirely during the two decades.
Another reason why a school may be listed as closed is because it has merged with another.
Leicester city saw 80 school closures since 2000, with 43 of these being academy converters or to make way for academies.
Across England, 8,852 schools have closed due to academisation since the year 2000.
This is the majority of the 16,269 schools that were marked as closed during the period.
The next biggest group, at 3,390, was closure as a result of a merger.
There are another 49 schools proposed to close in England before the end of this year, with 46 of these closing for academies or being converted into one.
Just one was closing for good, Christ Church, Church of England Primary School in Gloucestershire.
And a total of 48 new academies are being proposed to open by September 1 this year.
A DfE spokesperson said: “Every year, hundreds of schools make the choice to become an academy, enabling them to benefit from the opportunities and support that being part of a strong trust brings.
“We know many schools have benefited from the support provided by their academy trust during the pandemic and we continue to support some schools to convert to an academy during this period at a suitable timescale.”