In response the DfE said: "Ofsted already inspects all school and academy performance, while the DfE examines the performance of chains.
There is anger that ministers have broken their promise to give schools choice, foreboding at the prospect of a further six years of upheaval, and frustration that all this is justified by a use of statistics on academy performance that frankly borders on deceit.
A Department for Education spokesman said: "Ofsted already inspects all school and academy performance, while the Department for Education examines the performance of chains.
"To my mind," Mr. Pountney said, "the emotional impact of the academy performances, which was very strong, derived from young people telling stories about their own age group: students singing about students fired with an idealism that makes them stand their ground against disarming odds.
In a way, as Gooch asserted, he is a triumph for the county system over academies and performance squads.
I'm very interested in heritage restoration, and I'm working with a group of people to create a number of academies and performance spaces to encourage native arts and crafts and to explore African history.
The balance between 'core' skills like literacy and numeracy and the 'wider' education in terms of social skills, personal health and well-being might be a good broad issue to discuss, rather than getting into a discussion about academies or performance pay or the national curriculum.
In his new role the former England spinner will oversee all the county's professional teams as well as the academy, high performance and development of excellence programmes.
The academy's performance was appropriately crisp and urbane, never lingering, with fine, incisive flute and clarinet playing counterpointing the brisk staccato tread in the strings in the outer movements.
