By Milly Cunningham

' An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control.' (Wikipedia)

'Currently, around 80% of English secondary schools and nearly 40% of primary schools are academies.' (World Education Blog)

'The first three academies opened in 2002; they were The Business Academy in Bexley, Greig City Academy and the Unity City Academy. The Business Academy, Bexley also became the first 'all-through' academy when a primary section was added in 2004. By 2006 there were 46 academy schools in the UK.' (Politics.co.uk)  

ACADEMY EXPERIENCES 

London Borough of Hackney's first 'flagship' academy, Mossbourne, opened in 2004, in a Labour borough, under a Labour government.  Its head was Michael Wilshaw, later to become head of Ofsted, the schools’ inspectorate.  His motto was 'constant surveillance' and that's how this new school, on the site of the former Hackney Downs Boys' School, was built.  It set the pattern for subsequent new academy buildings in Hackney and probably elsewhere.

There are windows all along the corridor sides of the classrooms.  The banisters on the stairs are closed in so that pupils cannot make eye contact with those above or below them.  The school is built round a huge atrium where everyone can be observed.  There is a balcony along the side of the school overlooking the playground for teachers to have oversight and children are not allowed to gather in large groups.  The sixth form head's office is above the sixth form pupils' study room with gaps in the flooring so that he/she can see what is going on below.  There is no staff room.  There are small, glass sided teachers' offices near each subject area classrooms.

The most recent secondary academy in Hackney is the City Academy Shoreditch Park, built on what were the grounds of the now demolished Britannia Leisure Centre.  An expensive replacement leisure centre was built on the neighbouring Shoreditch Park. 314 flats for sale on the market, 51 social rented homes, and 30 shared ownership homes are due to be built next door to the school, where the leisure centre used to be. There will be three towers 25, 20 and 10 storeys high.  

This school appears not to have been needed and looks like a lever to get agreement for the demolition of Britannia Leisure Centre and in particular the construction of the market homes, which the council hopes to sell at a profit. The council was the developer and its planning application said there were 41 secondary schools within a three mile walking distance which could take 5100 more pupils and still not be full.  So the new school threatens the existence of other neighbouring schools, especially now that Hackney is experiencing falling rolls at primary level and is talking of closing or amalgamating six primary schools.

Until recently the mantra from Hackney Council was how terrible schools used to be in Hackney and how great they are now.  Exclusion rates from academies, particularly of black boys, started to tarnish this picture somewhat.  But the case of Child Q, a black girl, strip searched by police in 2020 for suspected possession of drugs in a Hackney secondary academy has blotted the academies' copybook considerably. No drugs were found and the academy has still not been publicly named.

City Academy Shoreditch Park is part of the City of London Academies Trust.  The Trust already had the City Academy Hackney, opened in 2009 in a new building, on the site of a previous state local authority boys' secondary.  The school is sponsored by the City of London Corporation and KPMG.  The Trust also runs the following City of London Academies: Collegiate Sixth Form, Galleywall Primary, Highbury Grove, Highgate Hill, Islington, Newham Collegiate Sixth Form, Redriff Primary, and Southwark.  Like Mossbourne and City Academy Hackney, most of these are on the site of former state local authority run schools.

The standard lease of land to an academy is 125 years at a peppercorn rent.

 

 

...the case of Child Q, a black girl, strip searched by police in 2020 for suspected possession of drugs in a Hackney secondary academy has blotted the academies' copybook considerably.