Member

Reducing the PAN of good schools in tough areas reduces those engines of social mobility, and widening them to accept disruptive children achieves the same dismal outcome through a different route. Putting local authorities in charge of admission is really akin to putting the fox into the chicken coop. They have an entrenched conflict of interest, particularly at the primary phase, and face virtually no consequences if they continue to preside over weak or failing schools under their control. My proposals seek to protect good schools from this arbitrary behaviour. They absolutely recognise that some academies have behaved in their own self-interest—namely, badly—and I do not for a second defend that. Nor am I obsessed with, “All things LA bad, and all things academy good”. In any walk of life you find a vast range—look at our politicians.