The reduction in local control and oversight of schooling represented by the growth of Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) in England raises critical issues for public policy. These include the articulation and exercise of power in the governance of MATs, the future of democratic governance of local services and accountability. Applying Foucault's…

This article reports on data and analysis from a case study investigating policy enactments in a multi-academy trust (MAT) in England. The focus is the influence of a policy intermediary organisation (PIO), The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), on policy making by school leaders. The case is located in the literacy policy of a MAT of 15…

In England and Wales, fee-charging independent schools can be legally classified as charities and, therefore, receive associated benefits, the most obvious being taxation advantages. The high fees charged by many of these schools create financial exclusivity, which, it will be seen, confers significant social and cultural capital to those who can…

School-based education in England has undergone significant changes since 2010, with a huge expansion of academies, schools outside local authority control, funded directly by central government. Academies and local authority (LA) maintained schools are subject to different legislative and regulatory frameworks. This paper focuses on the…

The rationale for the principles of effective school governance in England, as set out in government regulations, has never been made explicit. This article addresses that issue and develops and proposes such principles. We argue that effective school governance secures the legitimacy of schools as institutions. Such institutional legitimacy is…

As part of their commitment in the 2022 School Resource Management Strategy to research good practice and share findings with the sector, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned CooperGibson Research (CGR) and St. Mary's University, to conduct qualitative research exploring school and trust business practices. The research aimed to better…

Behaviour Hubs is a one-year programme of support (two years for multi-academy trusts [MATs]), available across England to mainstream primary and secondary schools, special schools and alternative provisions (such as pupil referral units). It aims to help senior leaders create the conditions for an effective and sustainable behaviour culture…

In 2018 the Department for Education published "Supporting excellent school resource management: strategy." This set out the Department's commitment to helping schools improve outcomes for pupils by making every pound count and getting the best value from their resources. This strategy underpins the School Resource Management (SRM)…

The Gloucestershire Gateway Trust (GGT) is a social enterprise initiative in Southwest England focused on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). This article describes a six-year action research collaboration that has sought to support the GGT and its local non-profit organizational partners using a variety of action research methods, including…

The sociological literature on elite private schooling is frequently informed by Bourdieu's signature concepts of cultural, social and symbolic capital. Yet, his insistence that economic capital is the 'root' of these other capitals is often overlooked or downplayed. This paper addresses this lacuna. While it gestures to Bourdieu's other capitals,…

Children's University (CU) aims to improve the aspirations, attainment, and skills of pupils aged 5-14 by providing learning activities beyond the normal school day. This trial focused on pupils in Years 5 and 6 (aged 9-11), and activities included after-school clubs, visits to universities, museums, and libraries, and 'social action'…

In England and Wales "independent schools" ("private schools" or, confusingly, "public schools") almost always have "charitable status". Hence, they are now subject to the new "public benefit" test imposed in the Charities Act 2006. There is much discussion as to whether this test will be a…

This publication contains a series of sessions developed and used by Newcastle City Council Family Learning Service and now published to share practice. The sessions were developed specifically to support "Skills for Life" tutors to deliver the adult literacy and numeracy curricula but can also be used by other practitioners. There are…

The first of two articles discusses the technical issues of text transfer and processing encountered by the Knowledge Warehouse project. The second describes the development of the concept of a national electronic archive, and discusses issues such as contractual agreements, access control, copyrights, and commercial aspects of value added…

"Pots of Gold" is a family finance research project delivered within Sure Start Children's Centre areas across Newcastle. It is funded by the DfES through the Basic Skills Agency and managed by Newcastle Family Learning Service. This project has been delivered in two phases, running from October 2005 to December 2006. Phase 1 ran from…