The number of academies in England has increased drastically over the past few years -from 203 in 2010 to 1,957 by August 2012. An academy is a publicly funded independent school that receives its funding from central government and sponsors, rather than from the local authority. Academies have freedom from local authority control, and this includes the freedom to set pay and conditions, and to alter term and day lengths, as well as a certain amount of freedom around how the curriculum is delivered.