The UK Politics and EU Referendum thread - merged

[DaveShoelace]

What is an 'Academy' in the context of the school thing being discussed today? How does it differ from a secondary school?

[DaveShoelace]

BTW good twitter account to follow today is Martin Lewis, historically he has always translated the budget speak into what it will likely mean to regular joes day to day

https://twitter.com/MartinSLewis

[TightEnd]

What is an 'Academy' in the context of the school thing being discussed today? How does it differ from a secondary school?

not totally sure, maybe this explains some of it

Sophy Ridge Verified account
‏@SophyRidgeSky

Turning all schools into academies by 2020 is a genuinely big deal. Local authorities will no longer run schools, no national curriculum.


ie scope for more practical subjects to be taught?

[DaveShoelace]

What is an 'Academy' in the context of the school thing being discussed today? How does it differ from a secondary school?

not totally sure, maybe this explains some of it

Sophy Ridge Verified account
‏@SophyRidgeSky

Turning all schools into academies by 2020 is a genuinely big deal. Local authorities will no longer run schools, no national curriculum.


ie scope for more practical subjects to be taught?

Yeah been googling since I asked, seems like they have the core subjects but then have the impetus to specialise in certain topics like science, arts, business, trade etc.

Not sure what I think of that really. I imagine there would be lots of success stories, but kinda sucks for a budding engineer to be stuck at an arts school and vice versa.

I know I've heard academies mentioned in the context of faith schools, certainly hope we don't have more of them.

Take my recently acquired knowledge with a pinch of salt obviously.

[TightEnd]

they aren't stuck at those schools, its more flexible than that as kids from different academies go to different locations for various lessons

my son went to a school that specialised in arts, he was more science-y and was bussed for one course to the local science based academy school which he was slightly outside the catchment area to go to full time

i think the idea also is to let schools have the freedom to do courses like banking, personal finance etc which maight not be on the nat.curr...stuff that will be useful in the real world as well as the usual academic subjects


i am sure there is a downside, which we will hear later from opponents

[Doobs]

What is an 'Academy' in the context of the school thing being discussed today? How does it differ from a secondary school?

not totally sure, maybe this explains some of it

Sophy Ridge Verified account
‏@SophyRidgeSky

Turning all schools into academies by 2020 is a genuinely big deal. Local authorities will no longer run schools, no national curriculum.


ie scope for more practical subjects to be taught?

I think she is wrong.  Academies can choose to follow the national curriculum, or choose to just follow it for the basics (think at primary it is maths/english and something else) or something inbetween.  I don't think they can opt out for maths, english and whatever the other compulsory subject is (PE?).  After the basics they have a lot of freedom.

[vegaslover]

What is an 'Academy' in the context of the school thing being discussed today? How does it differ from a secondary school?

not totally sure, maybe this explains some of it

Sophy Ridge Verified account
‏@SophyRidgeSky

Turning all schools into academies by 2020 is a genuinely big deal. Local authorities will no longer run schools, no national curriculum.


ie scope for more practical subjects to be taught?

I think she is wrong.  Academies can choose to follow the national curriculum, or choose to just follow it for the basics (think at primary it is maths/english and something else) or something inbetween.  I don't think they can opt out for maths, english and whatever the other compulsory subject is (PE?).  After the basics they have a lot of freedom.

Yeah this pretty much.
Basically just a simplified way of privatising Schools

[Jon MW]

What is an 'Academy' in the context of the school thing being discussed today? How does it differ from a secondary school?

not totally sure, maybe this explains some of it

Sophy Ridge Verified account
‏@SophyRidgeSky

Turning all schools into academies by 2020 is a genuinely big deal. Local authorities will no longer run schools, no national curriculum.


ie scope for more practical subjects to be taught?

I think she is wrong.  Academies can choose to follow the national curriculum, or choose to just follow it for the basics (think at primary it is maths/english and something else) or something inbetween.  I don't think they can opt out for maths, english and whatever the other compulsory subject is (PE?).  After the basics they have a lot of freedom.

Yeah this pretty much.
Basically just a simplified way of privatising Schools

I'm not quite sure if I'd go that far. It's a way of removing local councils from the control of a school, but nearly all schools that convert to academies are going to get their funding from central government without any private corporate influence at all. Also when they are sponsored or outright run by a private company - that's not necessarily a bad thing (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/what-business-does-the-private-sector-have-running-state-schools-8839730.html provides an illustration, it is from 2013 but I wouldn't have thought there was any fundamental change since then)

EDIT: just had a check because I thought it was possible - they can opt out of the National Curriculum, but they are still inspected by Ofsted and something regional - so an Academy that doesn't teach things like Maths and English isn't' going to stay in control for long (you'd hope).

[DaveShoelace]

When it's a full house at PMQs, who decides who stands? Is it just first come first served with the seats (other than the front benches obviously).

[PokerBroker]

i just get stunned by the hypocrisy of it. "champagne socialists" get pilloried yet corbyn's questionable history is brushed aside

i'll try and avoid the lols, but that was what i was heartily doing at the time. Apoliogies.


anyway the budget today. plenty of chance for the opposition to get stuck into Osborne who is on a sticky wicket.

What exactly is his history then?  Go on I'll bite. 

I bet it's nothing in comparison to cutting Corporation Tax from 28 to 17%

[DaveShoelace]

I bet it's nothing in comparison to cutting Corporation Tax from 28 to 17%

I'll bite too, why's that bad? (Devil's advocate here)

[PokerBroker]

I bet it's nothing in comparison to cutting Corporation Tax from 28 to 17%

I'll bite too, why's that bad? (Devil's advocate here)

Well we can't get the likes of Amazon/Google/Starbucks paying what they owe just now, so let's cut it.  Sure to plug the deficit.   Or is it just another tax break for big business. 

[DaveShoelace]

I bet it's nothing in comparison to cutting Corporation Tax from 28 to 17%

I'll bite too, why's that bad? (Devil's advocate here)

Well we can't get the likes of Amazon/Google/Starbucks paying what they owe just now, so let's cut it.  Sure to plug the deficit.   Or is it just another tax break for big business. 

17% would be an increase on what they owe though right? Don't get me wrong I'm not supporting those guys, I want them all to pay a decade of back taxes they owe, but in general lower corp tax means more businesses comes here, means more jobs, surely?

[TightEnd]

i just get stunned by the hypocrisy of it. "champagne socialists" get pilloried yet corbyn's questionable history is brushed aside

i'll try and avoid the lols, but that was what i was heartily doing at the time. Apoliogies.


anyway the budget today. plenty of chance for the opposition to get stuck into Osborne who is on a sticky wicket.

What exactly is his history then?  Go on I'll bite. 

I bet it's nothing in comparison to cutting Corporation Tax from 28 to 17%

its all been done on here and i sense to re-hash it would be unneccessary. it was all done when you were posting under your former non de plume too, you responded to much of it

cutting corporation tax is good too, all other things being equal (which you will argue they aren't)

what i will say is that i listened to and read the speech of dan jarvis last week

now that is a man who if was labour leader would have a fighting chance of victory in 2020. very impressive indeed

[DMorgan]

How tilt is this 'northern powerhouse' thing

Sugar levy is a very good thing imo, has been a big success in Mexico