2007 + : ACADEMY STATUS
The Specialist School status that
Dinnington had achieved in 2005 (and the money that went with it) was
abolished by Conservative education reforms in 2010. The same piece of
legislation introduced the concept of the "Converter Academy": a
distinct entity to the original "City Academy" private-finance model
which was associated with government intervention and dubious
sponsorship (Wales High's conversion in the late '00s, just after
having been rated 'Oustanding' by OFSTED, may be seen as an effort to
counter such associations). The political purpose of these new
Academies was arguably to break the local education authorities and to
promote the 'Big Society' model of charitable rather than state
ownership. Nevertheless, many schools saw it as an opportunity to
acquire (or reacquire) certain freedoms that (for better or worse) did
not exist under the local authority model (one should bear in mind that
some red tape exists for genuinely beneficial reason while recognising
that it can also stifle to the detriment of a service).
On 1st February 2015,
Dinnington withdrew from Rotherham education authority control --
increasingly inevitable given the swingeing budget cuts consistently
being imposed on local authorities by central government. The school
took up academy status as part of a Multi Academy Trust, in
collaboration with
Brinsworth Comprehensive School, called ‘Learner Engagement
Achievement Partnership’ (LEAP). Funding of this trust comes from
central government rather than the local authority. Maths, English and
Science remain bound to the National Curriculum, but other subjects do
not.
[[The
school newsletter of January 2015]] revealed that the school's
governors were taking the "opportunity of academy conversion, and in
response to feedback from
the wider school community", to drop the 'Comprehensive' part of the
name, reverting to Dinnington High
School. It is this author's hope that the Comprehensive
ideals that have been core to the school since the 1950s are not
ditched along with the name.