Peter Oldham QC
Section 3(1) of the Academies Act 2010 does not limit the type of maintained school that may apply to become an academy to those which have an outstanding OFSTED report. Any English maintained school may apply. However, at least until now, it has been the DfE’s policy to approve applications only from schools with an oustanding OFSTED. There are media reports that the DfE is to open up the opportunity for successful applicants for academy conversion to be drawn from a wider group, to include schools with an OFSTED rating of good, with some outstanding features, and to schools which enter into some form of partnership arrangement with an outstanding school. This, however, is not reflected by the current DfE website, so we await further details.
Peter Oldham QC
Tags: Academies