Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if it is Government policy that well performing schools shall not be made to convert to academies.

The government believes that all schools can benefit from becoming an academy as part of an academy trust. The department’s policy remains that maintained schools are only required to become sponsored academies, due to educational underperformance, if they are judged inadequate by Ofsted.

Many well performing schools are voluntarily choosing to convert to become academies. As a result, thousands of pupils are benefiting from higher standards in their schools. As of June 2019, there are 8,157 academies. Over two thirds of these academies, 5,861, are converter academies, and many of those have become system leaders within academy trusts by helping other schools to improve. We encourage any collaboration between schools that improves outcomes for pupils.