DfE’s “monthly” academies database updated only twice in eight months

The government has updated its “monthly” spreadsheet documenting individual academy projects only twice this academic year, with the last update now nearly three months old and the data it contains accurate only as of last December.

The mysterious slowdown in the updating of this dataset carries important implications for schools and particularly community campaigns around academy conversions, as dates and intended sponsors for academisation moves are now not being disclosed here regularly.

I have been using the DfE’s "Open academies..." spreadsheets for years as one tool in the tracking of goings-on on the ground. The dataset includes a list of all current academies and those in the “pipeline” for conversion, including expected academisation dates – which can slip – and sponsors.

The DfE webpage home for the data currently states: “We update this spreadsheet monthly as more academies, free schools, studio schools and UTCs open. We aim to publish these in the third week of the month.”

Until the current academic year, the data was indeed updated more or less monthly.