MORE ACADEMIES, more free schools and more autonomy for all schools are among the changes announced by Oxfordshire County Council.
In a statement, the county council has stated: “Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet has agreed that the council should formally adopt a position to support changes proposed by national Government to improve educational standards across the UK and to work on ways of helping schools manage the change.
“The cabinet has endorsed the Government’s national drive to develop the Academy programme nationally and bring fresh focus on the ways in which under performing schools are supported to improve; as well as encouraging good and outstanding schools to achieve academy status.
“The government has said it wishes to see increased autonomy from local education authorities for all schools – with Academies being supplemented by a network of free schools and greater accountability for under-performing schools alongside the Academies programme.”
The council is also launching a campaign to improve standards with an Every Child a Reader campaign in primary schools and improvements in school leadership.
It set aside extra money when it recently set its budget for the 2012/13 financial year for these purposes, and claims to view structural change as another key method of changing the culture in Oxfordshire and bringing about a wholesale improvement in standards.
However it does want to help schools manage this process in a planned way – ensuring no schools are disadvantaged by an unplanned process.