Nursery World - Think-tank calls for all primaries to convert to academies

A report by think-tank Policy Exchange says that all primary schools in England should convert to academies by 2020.

It estimates that in 2016 and 2017 more than 3,300 primary schools may fall below new standards, which come into force by 2016.

This equates to around 20 per cent of English primaries. This comes after figures from 2013 showed that 1,000 schools (6 per cent) failed to meet the standard.

The report's authors Annalese Briggs, education research fellow at Policy Exchange, and Jonathan Simons, head of education at the think-tank, ‘Primary Focus: The next stage of improvement for primary schools in England’ considers the new Key Stage 2 floor standards.

Under the new regime, 85 per cent of children will be expected to meet the equivalent of a ‘Good’ Level 4 in reading, writing and maths. The report includes figures from 2014 that show that 65 per cent of children currently achieve Level 4 at KS2.

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