In August 2015 David Cameron announced that every school in England will be given academy status by 2020. The move means that schools will be taken out of local authority control, and instead be directly funded by the Department for Education, and also eligible for funding support from corporate or other sponsors.
The Prime Minister hopes that the move will mean 500 new free schools – each one being an academy, with local authorities running schools becoming a thing of the past. A reforming bill is due to be announced by the government in Spring 2016, but so far the news has received mixed reviews. Teaching unions are unhappy with the way the government is seemingly forcing academisation on schools and many parents have campaigned against the idea.
The University of Salford, Manchester is hosting ‘The Future of Academies: Showcase and Exhibition’ on the 24th February and Promethean is pleased to be involved with the event. It will give delegates the opportunity to debate the impact of schools that have converted to academies so far, and discuss the impending government reforms.
Speaking at the event will be Allan Yellup OBE, CEO of Wakefield City Academies Trust; Lucy Powell MP, Shadow Education Secretary; Dame Kathy August DBE, Salford Academy Trust; Vicky Beer CBE, Regional Schools Commissioner for Lancashire and West Yorkshire Department of Education, and many more.
We will also be at the event showcasing our ActivPanel. Optimised for educational settings, the ActivPanel transforms the front-of-the-classroom instructional display into interactive, digital spaces for whole-class, small team and even one-to-one engagement. Simultaneously allowing for up to ten unique touches.
Promethean’s award-winning ActivInspire software is installed as standard, providing teachers with the tools they need to create interactive lessons. Our cloud based learning platform ClassFlow presents another option for lesson creation, delivery and assessment, allowing teachers to seamlessly share lesson material across the ActivPanel and student’s handheld devices. Teachers can register for a free ClassFlow account at www.ClassFlow.co.uk.
The ActivPanel is available in four sizes to suit the needs of each classroom, including 55-inch, 65-inch and 70-inch high-definition displays as well as an ultra-high-definition 84-inch model. The ActivPanel line supports Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS X, Linux and Chromebook OS for plug-and-play operation in almost any school’s technology environment.
More information on The Future of Academies: Showcase and Exhibition is available here.