Academies ambition

Today's publication of a prospectus encouraging successful private schools to get involved in Academies, on the same day that the Girls’ Day School Trust announces that Birkenhead High School is set to become the latest successful independent day school to convert to an academy, is a sign that the radicalism and diversity of the new Labour education project is alive and well. The announcement is being made by Andrew Adonis who is also tempting private schools to sponsor weak state schools that become academies. It is a shame that Ed Balls found no time to mention any of this in his speech to conference last week, because this is where Labour is being truly radical in tackling both underachievement and the historic apartheid between English private and state schools.