Recommendations for future research

I feel that my research has opened the gates to several other research topics which would be very valuable. In particular, I feel that further in-school research on Academies should be undertaken. While I understand that Academies are very protective of their position, and anecdotal evidence suggests that they are

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increasingly barring researchers from visiting schools, this only makes me more convinced that there is a place for research into the following issues:

 the long-term impact of Academies on the exclusion of students, and how this affects these students

 how a change to Academies affects staff morale

 how students perceive that a change to Academies impacts on them

 how parents perceive that a change to an Academy impacts on their children.

While these areas are obviously Academy-focused, I feel that there are gaps in research in this area as Academies are still relatively new.

As the current government is committed to expanding the number of Academies, regardless of the concerns that have been raised from numerous quarters about virtually all aspects of the Academy programme, I feel that it is important that further research takes place to establish what is fact, and what is rumour, and explore other, currently unknown areas. This is especially the case as, as my research has shown, families living in poverty are less likely to actively select schools than middle class families are – perhaps not least because they could not afford extra travel costs of out of neighbourhood schooling, and are therefore likely to have little option but to keep their child in school if it converts to an Academy.

I also feel that the area of the cost of education, and its impact on families living in poverty, deserves further research. The main areas which I feel would benefit from further research are:

 how students feel that the costs associated with education impact on them

 how parents feel that the costs associated with education impact on their children

 what influences schools to provide assistance to students and families, and what benefits they perceive this assistance has.

9. Overview

My research journey has ended in quite a different way to my initial expectations, but shifts in the planned enquiry happened due to unforeseen circumstances. Nevertheless, I feel fortunate that I was able to find, and follow, a line of enquiry which allowed me to find interesting and valuable data that I hope broadens the

189 understanding of readers about the educational experiences of students living in poverty and attending a school in a deprived area during a period of major upheaval as the school was changed to an Academy. I am extremely grateful to the many people who were willing to engage with me, and share their thoughts and experiences of Chestnut Grove/Academy, for the purposes of the research

My findings provide a multi-faceted picture of the everyday educational experiences of students and of the barriers to their educational experience in the context of a school’s transfer to an Academy. These barriers are many and varied and created and further impacted upon by a number of different agencies including central government, local government, the management team of a school, and the families of students themselves. The project of dismantling barriers will therefore need to be addressed at multiple levels.

There is no reason to believe that the experiences of students at Chestnut Grove/Academy are isolated. The future of pupils at Chestnut and their contemporaries in similar situations is dependent upon critical reflection of their experience and I very much hope that this thesis makes a contribution towards this.

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EPILOGUE

While I ended my primary research in Chestnut after almost five years, I could not end so easily my deep interest in the school, and curiosity about whether the Academy would deliver on the promises it made to the city and local students.

Over the months that followed my last visit to the school, I followed its progress via local newspapers and online, as I no longer had any contact with any of the school’s staff and students.

I was not altogether surprised to learn that Edward went on long-term sick leave the year after my primary research ended, and shortly before the school’s first Ofsted inspection. He was replaced by a principal from another Academy operated by the same organisation. This meant that the school’s fourth Headteacher in as many years was appointed, a huge contrast to the nine years that Tom had been in post before he was removed from his post.

An Ofsted inspection undertaken almost three years after the school transferred was generally not positive – the school scored 3 (satisfactory) and 4 (inadequate) in all areas of assessment, with particular concerns being raised about learning and teaching, which were described as ‘inadequate’. The school was, as a result, given formal notice to improve. The response to this from Walton City Council was relatively cool, with the cabinet member for Children’s Services in Walton, stating:

Three years ago I was sceptical that becoming an Academy would lead to sustained improvement

adding:

The Academy route can provide access to extra Government money for school buildings, but what this report reminds us is there is more to education than the quality of the school buildings.

In addition to the poor Ofsted inspection, concerns have continued to be raised regarding the level of exclusions at the school. Following the ‘misunderstanding’ whereby the Academy illegally excluded 17 pupils in its first year of operation, the school has continued to attract negative publicity regarding student exclusions, with one family winning an appeal against the unlawful exclusion of a student the autumn after my research ended. An independent appeal panel ruled that the