Call to include primary schools in academies programme

The government’s academies programme should be expanded to cover primary schools, according to an influential report published today.

The report, published by liberal think tank CentreForum in a book that has backing from the three main political parties, said academies should be expanded from the secondary education sector into the primary, which could signal a boom in workload for contractors.

However, the report suggests that the primary academies should not feature the designer buildings that have characterised the secondary programme.

An expansion of the academies programme would fuel workload in the already buoyant education sector. The report comes days after a select committee hearing into the £45bn Building Schools for the Future programme, in which Partnerships for Schools chief executive Tim Byles said that he was keen to “find ways for more SMEs to participate in the BSF programme”.