Twenty-two of the 183 primary schools in Bradford Metropolitan District have been warned by the Government that they may be obliged to become academies unless test results in reading, writing and arithmetic don’t improve for their pupils aged ten to 11.

This means that their designation or status would change. The schools would become state-run independent schools with all-powerful governing bodies able to arrange pay and conditions for teaching staff as well as adapt the way they deliver the standards demanded by the National Curriculum.

Academies can also change the length of terms and alter the times of the school working day.

Funding comes directly from the Education Funding Agency, part of the Department for Education whose boss is the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP.

A DfE spokesman said: “Schools with a long history of under-performance will be taken over by an academy sponsor. Some of the improvements seen at new sponsored primary academies are remarkable, ending years of chronic under-performance.”

Originally the hope was that academy sponsors would put money into schools, but this didn’t come about. Academies’ funding from central government is channeled through trusts, not the local authority.

Charitable bodies and private concerns that sponsor schools usually take a per centage of this income for running costs.

Sponsors in Bradford include the Diocese of Bradford. Even though it is due to be subsumed in the greater Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales next year, it has been invited by the Department for Education to sponsor a 1,000-place secondary academy for children aged 11 to 16 in the Bierley area.

The new, purpose-built, £15m Academy will be delivered by Bradford Diocesan Academy Trust working with Bradford Academy. Bradford currently has two C of E secondary schools – Immanuel College and Bradford Academy, both of which are over-subscribed. The idea is that the new academy will supply the extra places that these two schools cannot.

Dixons sponsors four schools; Bradford University sponsors Keighley’s University Academy; and Bradford College sponsors the Samuel Lister School, formerly Nab Wood Grammar, and the Appleton Academy Wyke.

Kenneth Baker, Margaret Thatcher’s Mr Fixit, brought in more change as Secretary of State for Education than most of his successors including Michael Gove. The National Curriculum, SATs, league tables, and City Technology Colleges, the precursor of academies, were just some of them.

But Bradford has experienced more social and demographic change since Kenneth Baker than the country has had education secretaries. Here are just the main ones:

  • In 1997 Bradford’s three-tier system of schools was changed to the present two-tier system.
  • In 2000/2001 the control and management of education provision was given to the private company Serco, at the behest of the-then Labour Government.
  • In 2010/2011 Bradford Council resumed overall responsibility for schools and brought in a schools partnership scheme.
  • After the 2010 General Election, Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove expanded the academy and free school programme.

While change may prevent organisations becoming stuck in a rut, too much change too soon may cause confusion and anxiety.

Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for children and young people’s services, Councillor Ralph Berry said: “There has been no period of settling in, no period of calm.

“I am not ideologically obstructive, I am genuinely doubtful that a one-size-fits-all policy is best. I am more pragmatic. Bradford is a Gateway City that has experienced more demographic change in the past ten years than most.

“You can’t compare a primary school in inner-city Bradford with a primary school in, say, Chipping Norton. The circumstances are different.

“Standards are more important than structure. We have free schools that have run into difficulties and we have academies, such as King’s Science Academy, that have run into difficulties. On the other hand Bradford Moor was taken over by Dixon’s Academy and that was a good move.”

It’s all a long way from the days when education was run by a chairman in City Hall and directors based at Provincial House, when the hottest topic of the day was whether halal meat should be served for school meals.

Now the idea of reintroducing tests for seven-year-olds is being looked at again, while in 2015 the school leaving age is due to go up to 18. More change, not less, is charging bullishly down the corridors of power.