All-academy secondary sector to take another eight years, on current trends

Secondary academy numbers are showing the same tentative trend as that seen in primary since the summer, with new conversions registering year-on-year falls in recent months.

The academic year 2016-17 was a relatively busy one in terms of new academies opening, in the secondary sector as well as in primaries, with conversions possibly spurred by the government’s spring 2016 white paper assertion – later rescinded - that all schools would academise in the coming years.

But August, September and October 2017 have all seen falls, in terms of new secondary academies, compared to the same months last year. Indeed, were it not for the conversion of Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, in which this website has been very interested, in August 2017, that would have been the first month for years without a single new secondary academy.

The September 2016 number of 43 new secondary academies had been the highest for three years, only for numbers to fall back again to roughly their 2014 and 2015 levels in September 2017.