In the first of a two-part series, Lisa Bower talks about embarking on the academy conversion journey and how getting a yes was just the beginning
When we finally received the approval from the DfE to set up an academy, after eighteen months of hard work, I naively thought that there would be a process to follow to complete the conversion. Maybe even a checklist that I would just work through over the next months leading to an academy being established, but I couldn’t find anything at all.
I looked for a book that would guide me through the process and help me understand the pitfalls and shortcuts, but again I drew a blank. This is probably because every school’s journey is different, and therefore it would be impossible to put together a step-by-step guide. Instead, I have spoken to lots of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Operating Officers (COOs) over the last six months, to get their advice and suggestions, but everyone has a different view. What I have learned to do is to do what feels right for our school and our team.
Project checklist
Once you are on the journey the DfE step in and lead regular conversion meetings. If you have gone through this process, you will know, that this takes the format of a ‘Project Checklist’ where everyone involved (HR, Legal teams, Local Authority) all update the DfE on where they are up with their role and actions in the process. Academisation is a well-worn path for the DfE team, they know what is required to get schools over the line and are able to support that.
But taking a school from being maintained to an Academy is so much more than a tick list of Articles of Association, CTA’s, Lease Agreements and schemes of delegation. It is also about people.
It is negotiating the change of relationships with people in the local authority, who have worked with the school for years. It is about explaining TUPE to staff who are worried about the impact of the change, their rights and their pension (I had a lot of questions about pensions). It is about reassuring the finance staff that their roles will change over time, but that they will be fine. It is about ensuring that the schools joining your Trust are part of the process, that the SBM is part of the journey and involved in decision making – and doesn’t feel that the minute the Academy opens they will not have a job.
It is about doing all these things, alongside the legal stuff, while still doing the ‘day job’.
The tipping point
Who knows what will happen to the Government’s target of all schools becoming an Academy by 2030? But what we do know is that over 50% of schools have now academised, and over 80% of secondary schools are Academies. So, we have hit the tipping point, it feels like there will be no way back from this, so all schools that haven’t gone down this journey will have to at some point in the future. This may be through joining an existing MAT, or through doing what we have done, and establishing your own. Our role as SBL is isolated at the best of times, no one else in the school really understands what we do, so if you are setting off on this journey, my advice is to seek out others who will help you, talk to as many people as you can, through networking groups, national conferences and magazines like EdExec. Don’t make decisions in isolation, and recognise that you can’t do everything, and you certainly can’t control everything in this process.
I have found this process very difficult, it has been hard work, and I am in constant fear that I have overlooked something crucial, but I have had to accept that I don’t know what I don’t know, and that no problem is insurmountable. Over the next few months, I am sure that there will be lots more issues that I haven’t even thought of yet, but I will deal with them as they arise, and not spend (too many) sleepless nights worrying.
Converting a school to an Academy has not been an easy journey, and we are not there yet. But it will be worth it when we get there.
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