The Children Acts; tour de force not tour de France!

One sector in particular appears, in some cases, to be travelling in the opposite direction and working counter to the principals of the Children Acts 1989 and 2004. The sector I am speaking about is schools and more specifically a minority, but a growing number of, academy schools. These act outside of “ethical considerations” (as one academy recently described its own discussions) and describe disadvantaged children as “anchor students”.

You will recognise these schools and no doubt you will be able to name some. Typically, they appear to be highly successful, popular with the Department for Education and some parents (but by no means all), have high progress and attainment measures and are likely to be rated as ‘outstanding’. However, some of these schools ignore or actively shun the needs of the most vulnerable or disadvantaged children in their communities by using a range of strategies. Many claim to be system leaders but act in ways that are almost entirely competitive and other schools are greatly frustrated by them. They cite ethics as their driver, utilising phrases such as “pupils first”. This is clever, but it implies that only ‘our’ children, the ones that learn here, matter.