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Parents are strongly endorsing Academies, with three applications for every place for this September and an increase of nearly 30% in the number of places offered in those Academies which replaced weak or failing schools to meet this extra demand, says the government. The three brand new Academies - with no predecessor schools - are more than six times oversubscribed.
This year's application figures have been published by the government in support of the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers' evaluation of Academies, which says that "one of the clear indicators of the success of the Academies initiative" is its popularity with parents.
A new sponsorship model has also been published for Academies aimed at strengthening the long-term investment of sponsors in Academies through new charitable endowment funds. The change will mean sponsor contributions - which remain the same - will in future go into long term endowments to be spent on the school's educational needs and to counter the impact of disadvantage. Thanks to savings made by a more cost-effective building and procurement process through Building Schools for the Future, the sponsorship contribution is no longer required for building costs.
Academy sponsor Lord Harris, said:
“These changes will enable sponsors to make a real difference in their communities, by giving them more time to drive innovation and improve standards in the Academies.”
Amongst the findings of the PwC independent evaluation report was the following: "Sponsors give good support to principals and parents and staff welcome the resources and expertise sponsors bring".
E&OE
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