The Department for Education recently announced that schools wishing to convert to Academy status on or before 1 April 2011 must have both submitted their applications by 14 January 2011 and received a signed agreement from the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, by 11 March 2011. The deadline for applying to convert on 1 March has already passed. Those wishing to do so after 1 April will have to wait until the start of the autumn term (September 2011).

Official league tables for primary schools in England were published yesterday showing that almost 1,000 schools are not meeting the benchmarks for literacy and numeracy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/8199924/Primary-school-league-tables-1000-schools-falling-short-of-targets.html

Under the recent legislation the best performing schools will be able to convert directly to Academy status but those who are not deemed to be performing so well will also have the opportunity to convert by working with the better rated schools. Other schools will be able to join federations to achieve this goal.

The move towards 'Free Schools' will allow new schools, funded by the State for children of all abilities, to be formed where there is a clear demand from parents for something which is not offered currently in their locality. Charities, teachers, parents and even businesses will be able to get involved and establish new schools under the new plans.

These developments are being driven against the backdrop of the Schools White Paper 2010 introduced at the end of November. The Government's aim is to ensure children are taught a wide ranging curriculum by highly qualified teachers and achieve good exam results whatever their background.