The Future of Academies

16/06/2009

  - Philip Ly

The Academy system has been the centre of attention in the educational world since it was created in 2004. Rod Aldridge delivered his a presentation at the Campaign for Learning centre in London talking about the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy and the new Falmer Academy (to be open in 2010).

The Foundation is the sponsor of both Academies which specialise in Entrepreneurship and sport. 

To be honest, the room was overly hot and as usual the water jug was too far away in the centre of the oversized table for me to drink without causing any attention – but I kind of forgot about that once the debate got going – and it turns out there are some very *real* challenges to the Academy system.

I think the two biggest concerns that were brought up were “accountability” and “scalability” – when the LSC department vanishes from the political scene in April 2010 how will accountability in the Academy system change? And how much more expansion can a system that is criticised so much be realised?

Overall, I think there should be more emphasis between the links and synergy between communities and education that are inevitably created when an Academy is implemented – innovation has been central to the entire programme and rethinking the ways we can revive and refresh an education system that can engage everyone is a challenge that remains to be solved. Ian McGimpsey at the Royal Society of Arts talked about an ‘opening minds’ programme, and I think I am just about beginning to do that with respect to Academies.

Of course, educationalists, academics and even business people are likely to assess my blog and know more than I do about The Future of Academies – but to see what the Aldridge Foundation’s stance is click here.