THE IMPACT OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS PROGRAMME ON THE SECONDARY EDUCATION OF ONE COMMUNITY.

ABSTRACT

This thesis explores the Academy Schools Programme introduced by the Labour Government in 2000 as part of its drive to raise educational standards in English inner cities. It examines the philosophies of that programme and traces their roots of in the 19th Century philosophies, traditions and policies of the English education system. The study focuses on one community in the North of England and the post war history of education in that community culminating in the opening of an Academy school (Northtown Academy) in September 2006. It traces the development of Northtown Academy from an insider perspective between 2002 and 2006 and moves to an analysis of the Academy between 2006 and 2010 through a study of its policy documents and associated media reports. The study is unusual in that so far most research on the Academy Programme has focused on issues concerning such things as sponsorship, finance, exclusions and curriculum/faith concerns.

The historical aspect of the research is based on extensive reading of mainly secondary sources as well as government and local government publications. It looks at whose voices dominated in the development of the Academy Programme and whose voices went unheard. The transition to an Academy is examined in detail with a description of the internal voices of the school seeking to use the Academy process to regenerate a community. The research then traces the tensions between this agenda and the school improvement agenda of the sponsors of the new Academy. It describes the key players promoting the faith sponsorship of the school and contends that their voices are much less in the public domain than policy makers of the past.

The main conclusion of the thesis is that Northtown Academy was a missed opportunity to promote a dynamic, democratic model of community regeneration and raises questions about the extent to which working class state education continues to be influenced by assumptions that have been inherited from the past.