This article considers the implications of Academies for the diversity of schooling in England. It seeks to establish the extent to which Academies are distinctive compared to other types of state secondary schools and whether this has been affected by a number of recent reforms. Different types of Academies are also be examined. Previous work in…

The English Academies programme has become one of the most controversial aspects of the New Labour strategy for education and public sector reform. And in many ways, given the significance of the programme, that controversy is understandable and appropriate. This is particularly so because, as the author argues here, Academies are indicative of…

Academies were launched by David Blunkett, the then Secretary of State for Education, in March 2000 in a speech on transforming secondary education. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) was commissioned by the predecessor of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in February 2003 to conduct an independent longitudinal evaluation of…

In August 2008, the then Schools Minister, Andrew Adonis, gave the go-ahead for the privately funded Hereford Waldorf School to reopen as a tax-payer-funded Academy, sponsored by the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship of Great Britain. Accordingly, the Steiner Academy Hereford opened in September 2008. In common with the 132 other Academies opened…

This article forms an introductory exploration into the relationship between corporate features and religious values in Academies sponsored by a Christian foundation. This is a theme which arose from research comprising the ethnography of a City Technology College (CTC) with a Christian ethos. The Christian foundation which sponsors the CTC also…

The Researching Academies (RA) Conference, hosted by the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham on 12 November 2008 and organised by the authors, was a unique one-day event, funded as part of a research project (a case study of an Academy) supported by a British Academy (BA) grant, with additional support and funding from BELMAS. The RA…

In this article the author seeks to look at the policy on Academies from a broader perspective, briefly touching on issues of democracy, autonomy, governance and accountability and arguing that the policy must be considered holistically. Individuals should focus not on an Academy or Academies in isolation but on their relationship with the rest of…

Academies have proved to be one of the most contentious of the Labour government's education policies. The education policies of the Labour government, including Academies, have been the subject of a large body of academic research and analysis, much of it critical. However, it has tended to neglect popular dissent and movements of opposition.…

Based on initial analyses of a case study of an Academy with a specialism in business and enterprise, this article examines how the Academy appears to be constructing meanings around enterprise. It tests the usefulness of a typology of entrepreneurialism (Woods et al., 2007) as a means of exploring the degree to which meanings ascribed to…

The Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) has so far sponsored four schools in England. Beginning with Emmanuel College in Gateshead in 1990 (which remains a City Technology College) the Foundation sponsors the King's Academy in Middlesbrough, which opened in 2003, and Trinity Academy in Thorne near Doncaster, which opened in 2005. The Foundation's…

One of the essential ingredients of high-performing individuals, teams and organisations is creativity. To be creative means releasing talent and imagination. It also means the ability to take risks and, in some cases, necessitates standing outside the usual or accepted frames of reference. Creative people push the boundaries; they seek new ways…

Early work on change in higher education by Guba and Clarke (1966) suggested that in achieving systematic change in institutions of higher education "there is a difference between what is needed and what is done". The authors, which are the leaders of particular project at the Institute of Education (IoE), University of Worcester, knew the nature…

Creative leadership is an imaginative and thought-through response to the opportunities and challenging issues that inhibit learning at all levels. It's about seeing, thinking and doing things differently in order to improve the life chances of all students. Creative leaders also provide the conditions, environment and opportunities for others to…

Far from being an "endangered species" (Edwards & Lyons, 1994), moving towards extinction, women secondary head teachers are alive and well in Birmingham. While the national picture in England and Wales showed 29.8 per cent of secondary head teachers were women in 2005, this research identifies extensive regional differences. In Birmingham 41 per…

The Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) was established in 1998 and is organised and delivered by two (previously three) consortia comprising a partnership model with universities and local authorities. SQH participants are encouraged to adopt a distributed style of leadership in taking forward their School Improvement Project. Currently,…