Bury St Edmunds Middle schools to become academies

Group of academies planned/accepted: County Upper School, Westley Middle School, Horringer Court Middle School

Reported in EADT, Saturday January 22.
[Please note: EADT link has become defunct.]


Questions that come to mind:

What happens when the rest of Bury St Edmunds schools go two-tier?

Will KE Upper School take pupils from Westley and Horringer at the beginning of Year 7 [i.e. at age 11 years]?  Will that undermine provision for Years 7 and 8 at the Academy Middle Schools?

Will primary schools feeding Westley and Horringer Academies keep pupils for an extra two years?

Will two different school organisations - two-tier and three-tier - survive in a single area?

What are the implications for teacher and headteacher salaries?  Will they be higher or lower than the national average?

***

National Union of Teachers has published an interesting briefing paper on ACADEMIES:  See http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/12075

Snippet: "Removing ‘outstanding’ schools from the local family of schools will have a detrimental impact on all schools. Instead of supporting and working in partnership with each other and their local authority, Academy status could result in schools becoming stand alone institutions, working in isolation from one other, remote and unaccountable to their communities. "

The crux of the matter: cooperation or competition? community schools vs isolated "ivory towers"

See also the ANTI-ACADEMIES ALLIANCE
http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/Home/why-we-oppose-academies