Academies should hold onto inclusive principles

Often these new academies were set up in areas of great social disadvantage. The argument was that while everyone had tried their best, the outcome was unacceptably poor. One of the objections was that the new academies would improve their outcomes, not by improving teaching and learning, but simply by selecting pupils who were more likely to succeed. I freely admit I was one of those sceptics.

After several years, I am very much less sceptical. There is powerful evidence of real and sustained improvement in educational achievement among communities with endemically low aspirations for educational excellence. I’m sure there has been some covert selection going on, but overall it’s at a much lower level than I had feared. What’s more, the 2012 Admissions Code makes the whole admissions process more transparent, and local authorities have been given back the role of securing fair admissions for all schools including, crucially, academies. Having previously worked at the Inner London Education Authority – which operated banded admissions to ensure a balance of abilities – I can’t argue against the proposition that it is much easier to secure decent results when there is a broad range of abilities and backgrounds represented across the school.

But there is growing evidence that some children with special needs are losing out. I don’t mean those for whom the only possible provision is a special school (these children are few and far between), but the many children with some additional needs who are educated in mainstream schools and benefit from that.

Mossbourne Academy in Hackney recently argued that an able boy with cerebral palsy would compromise other children’s education. The local authority said: “Depending on the terms of the funding agreement… the academy may not have to admit a child even if named in the child’s statement”. This is not acceptable. The Secretary of State should remove this anomaly at once. Academies should be required to follow the same educational principles as local authority schools.

John Freeman CBE is a former director of children’s services and is now a freelance consultant