Jane Acklam is the head teacher at an outstanding secondary school which is preparing to become an academy. Reporter LOUISE COOPER asks what pupils, staff and the wider community can expect from Moor End Academy in September and beyond.
HUNDREDS of Huddersfield students will get free school uniforms.
The 900 pupils who will be at Moor End Technology College when it switches to an academy in September will be kitted out smart new blazers.
The £65,000 cost will be met from the new funding pot that will be available to the governors of the new academy, which totals £4.7m.
And the decision to provide free uniforms is one example of the new freedoms they hope to enjoy.
Moor End head teacher Jane Acklam said the academy move will give them much greater freedom – not just to choose what lessons to give but also on what equipment and resources to buy and on admissions.
"As an academy we will receive funding direct from the Government.
From September this year we can chose how to spend our £4.7m budget."
HEAD teacher Jane Acklam is looking ahead to the next school term with renewed optimism.
She is in charge of a high school which will convert to academy status in September.
Moor End Technology College is one of several Kirklees schools which is making the move away from local authority control.
It will mean it takes full control of more than £4.7m of funding – and will be buying new uniforms for the 900 students.
But there has been criticism of the move, so why has Moor End gone down the academy path?
Why is an Ofsted-graded ‘outstanding’ school becoming an academy?
A: Key benefits to becoming an academy include:
- overall independence to run the academy free from the constraints of the local authority
- funding direct from the government
- the opportunity to determine our own curriculum
- the opportunity to set our own admissions policy
- the chance to choose additional partners.
How will the academy be funded?
A: Under the current community school arrangement we are awarded money from the local authority under a financial year basis. But as an academy will receive funding direct from the government.
It will also be easier to manage our budget because it will be allocated in the same year for which we are managing our curriculum.
From September this year we can choose how to spend our £4.7 million budget.
As a direct result of becoming an academy we will receive an extra £425,000.
We are not being funded by a sponsor.
How will this additional funding be allocated?
A: We have to keep a proportion for future projects because there is no capital projects grant anymore.
A large proportion of the remainder will be spent on resources, for example our ICT renewal plan was put on hold due to lack of funding. This will now go ahead as planned.
