New academies have been offered new freedoms over the way the school?s run, but what will this mean for your school? What might you change? The biggest change, and greatest freedom is that you will be an independent school, separate from local authorities, funded directly by the government. In this programme Headteachers from two schools, one that became an academy in 2010, one that will become an academy in 2011 share their thought processes to help you avoid pitfalls. When you sign up as an academy you can alter your staff?s terms and conditions. This means you could choose to pay an outstanding teacher a little more, or keep the school open longer at either end of the day, or change the holiday dates. Both heads emphasize that what they won?t choose to do is to change their staff?s terms and conditions for the worse.

Video Series: Becoming an Academy
Release Date 2010