Education - Academy suspends 40
WORKERS, OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE
The head of Academy 360 in Pennywell, Sunderland, last month suspended 40 pupils in the first two weeks of term. This is a new academy, replacing a secondary school which was judged to be failing by the government.
The academy programme, designed to close state secondary schools and hand them and their assets over to “sponsors” (who in some cases do not even pay for the privilege), has become notorious for finding devious ways to select pupils in order to push up results.
Last year, the academies - making up 0.3 per cent of “state” schools - were responsible for 2 per cent of temporary and 3 per cent of all permanent exclusions.
Paul Prest, chief executive of Academy 360, said that a zero tolerance approach was crucial for pupils who break rules. And no doubt very handy for his school’s attainment figures.