400 primary schools to be academies

The UK's 400 weakest primary schools are to be turned into academies
12 November 2012

The Prime Minister has said the Government will no longer "put up" with failing primary schools.

David Cameron was speaking after he hosted the sixth Cabinet meeting away from Westminster this year, at the John Cabot Academy in Bristol.

While at the school he announced that the Government will improve the UK's 400 weakest primary schools by turning them into academies. Following the meeting, attended by 27 ministers, Mr Cameron spoke to around 100 students from primary and secondary academy schools in the area.

He told them: "It's been great to bring the whole Cabinet here, to get them out of Westminster, to get them out of that bubble that they sometimes live in and come and see a really great school, doing great things.

"Today in Britain there are still 1,300 primary schools that don't reach the required standard... 255 of them are so poor that they are actually in special measures. And so what we are announcing today is that we want 400 primary schools taken over by great academy chains like yours in the next year, because we are not going to put up with schools that fail and go on failing."

Mr Cameron said that by the end of next year he wants the schools to be paired up with sponsors to turn them into academies as part of his Government's efforts to improve education in the poorest-performing schools.

He earlier said: "The driving mission for this Government is to build an aspiration nation, where we unlock and unleash the promise in all our people. A first-class education system is absolutely central to that vision.

"We have seen some excellent progress with our reforms, including turning 200 of the worst-performing primary schools into sponsored academies, and opening more academies in the last two years than the previous Government opened in a decade.

"Time and time again we have seen how academies, with their freedom to innovate, inspire and raise standards, are fuelling aspirations and helping to spread success. It is simply not good enough that some children are left to struggle in failing schools when they could be given the chance to shine."

Andy Woolley, South West regional secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the Government's decision to turn 400 primary schools into academies was "irresponsible and rash behaviour from a coalition whose motivation appears ever clearer to be the privatisation of our education system".

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