Mar 16, 2020
For this episode Tim Warneford is in Bedfordshire to speak to Jeremy Pilgrim from School Property Matters who are independent experts in pupil capacity and have worked with over 2500 schools so far.
On this episode we cover:
Working with over 2500+ schools
Staring with only LEAs then Academies then MATs
The government origins of MATs
Feeling academisation brought freedom and autonomy
Although some of this has been reined in with MATs
Pros and cons of MATs v LEAs
Whether MATs are getting the right side of support
Working out the pupil yield from new developments
The drivers for parents selecting schools
Early adopters to academies having done quite well
Are MATs getting the Section 106 funding they’re entitled to?
Assessing what schools need to expand
New buildings being attractive to parents
A haemorrhage of pupils when a school is seen as failing
Good schools also having to consider what expansion means
The academy better having improved in terms of expansion
A large percentage of trusts talking of expanding this year
Risk to this growth
Previous estimates of 1000 schools converting a year now reducing to 500-600
Schools now reluctant to convert
LEAs could convert their education departments into MATs
Disparate systems being hard to manage
Section 106 allocation; there is money available that hasn’t yet been invested in school stock
Brexit restricting labour pool
How to increase quality of homegrown talent for labour pool
Money needing to be poured into growing home grown talent
Capacity need to be at the forefront
Why would schools maintain buildings they don’t need?