The Tories have no mandate for forced academisation

The announcement that all schools will be forced to become academies surprised nobody involved in education. We had been hearing this for months. So much so that when I saw tweets saying that this wasn't in the Tory education manifesto I actually thought it was.

I downloaded a copy of the 2015 Tory manifesto to see for myself and was genuinely surprised by what I read. Not only did the manifesto not promise to academise all schools it actually said this:

Any school judged by Ofsted to be requiring improvement will be taken over by the best headteachers — backed by expert sponsors or high-performing neighbouring schools — unless it can demonstrate that it has a plan to improve rapidly. We will continue to allow all good schools to expand, whether they are maintained schools, academies, free schools or grammar schools.

So the only schools facing forced academinsation under this manifesto are those failing Ofsted inspections. Maintained schools are specifically mentioned as being allowed to expand. No mention at of of abolishing them completely.

Indeed only four months ago in the autumn statement Osborne said that:

Here he offers to “help” secondary schools to become academies. Primary schools are not mentioned at all. Four months later Osborne himself announced that all schools will be forced to become academies.