Continuing Back Lash against School Funding Cuts!
Teacher crisis hits London as nearly half quit within five yearsCharlton Community launch campaign to save local school HERE and HERE. Another example of how school cuts are driving schools into private managment.A start appeal to 'Take Back our schools' ..End to Local Voice in our Community Schools ... in black and white HERETop Academy Chain Accused Of ‘Cheating’ During Ofsted Inspection Whistleblowers claim more experienced teachers were brought in for watchdog's visit.
More MAT woes: SATs results wiped at second Harris academy
‘Teachers enslaved as never before,’ says DfE tsar Education Endowment Foundation CEO says lack of teacher autonomy is ironic given government's push for school autonomy: HEREGreenwich Taxpayers fund £1.5m transfer of Academy... The shifting management of Kidbrooke School...
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BREAKING NEWS - Stats watchdog launches investigations into ministers’ ‘disingenuous’ use of data on school funding HERE
PANORAMA ON ACADEMIESIn case you missed it.. watch Ch4's Expose of the Academy System below (including the Bright Tribe scandal):
OPPOSITION TO ACADEMISATION IS HITTING THE POLITICAL MAINSTREAM
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12th June - schools in Salford in Limbo as Salford Academy Trust gives the back! |
Devon MAT stripped of schools
Discovery School Closure - a £9m 'damning endictment' of governments high risk Academy Experiment
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A Greenwich Parent shares her story... And it is possible!
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OFSTED ON ACADEMIES 2015
Harris Academy woes...
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No proof forced academisation worth it, DfE admits .... TES ARTICLE HERE
The Risks in handing over public assets to private management HERE and HERE
NAHT back an end to the Academisation Project... TES article here
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Conflicts of Interest within the Academy Project?
The government faces questions over links between a regional schools commissioner and a school criticised by Ofsted for safeguarding failures.Post, the RSC for north-west London and south-central England, is one of three members of the academy trust that runs the school. In this role, he is responsible for the oversight of governance, which has been strongly criticised in the Ofsted report.
However, as the commissioner for the area, Post is also responsible for intervening in failing schools and academies on his patch. Read more from Schoolsweek HERE. |
Academies - what do we know?
For information from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) please read a brief summary here. This document outlines issues such as funding for academies, and the freedoms academies have in not following the National Curriculum, and setting their own term dates and school hours. It points out that academies are no longer accountable at local level but answer directly to the Secretary of State, which has knock on effects in a parents ability to question or complain about an academy's activities. Unison has a helpful Myth Buster on academies here and includes some steps to take to make sure you are completely involved and consulted in any changes to your childs school. ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers) have also provided a FAQ help-sheet here.
For an account of a recent parliamentary report on Academies which highlights many of the concerns surrounding the increase in academies nationally see here.
Educational Policy will always have an element of Political Ideological bias. As teachers we have had to endure programme changes as each succeeding government sets its own agenda. But what of the hidden politics of this move to academise all schools in England. What are the vested interests? Read here and here for some insight.
Please read here, some arguments from a similar campaign in Lewisham, and here for the power of action to halt a change in the running of schools that has not got the support of the main stakeholders. And here and here are some lessons from Hove!
For a range of resources on the Anti Academy movement see here.
And the answer to underperforming, coasting Academies? Take over by another private group. Read here for some stark numbers on how many academies are seen to be underperforming and how many have had their sponsors changed.
Please read here for a collection of articles on the many issues surrounding academisation including schools being run by authorities from afar, a culture of blame, and the over stretching of the Regional Schools Commissioners in regards monitoring standards at academies.
For information from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) please read a brief summary here. This document outlines issues such as funding for academies, and the freedoms academies have in not following the National Curriculum, and setting their own term dates and school hours. It points out that academies are no longer accountable at local level but answer directly to the Secretary of State, which has knock on effects in a parents ability to question or complain about an academy's activities. Unison has a helpful Myth Buster on academies here and includes some steps to take to make sure you are completely involved and consulted in any changes to your childs school. ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers) have also provided a FAQ help-sheet here.
For an account of a recent parliamentary report on Academies which highlights many of the concerns surrounding the increase in academies nationally see here.
Educational Policy will always have an element of Political Ideological bias. As teachers we have had to endure programme changes as each succeeding government sets its own agenda. But what of the hidden politics of this move to academise all schools in England. What are the vested interests? Read here and here for some insight.
Please read here, some arguments from a similar campaign in Lewisham, and here for the power of action to halt a change in the running of schools that has not got the support of the main stakeholders. And here and here are some lessons from Hove!
For a range of resources on the Anti Academy movement see here.
And the answer to underperforming, coasting Academies? Take over by another private group. Read here for some stark numbers on how many academies are seen to be underperforming and how many have had their sponsors changed.
Please read here for a collection of articles on the many issues surrounding academisation including schools being run by authorities from afar, a culture of blame, and the over stretching of the Regional Schools Commissioners in regards monitoring standards at academies.
I want to get involved - what can I do?
Anti Academies Alliance
Parents and teachers are getting organised in Greenwich: Check out John Roan Resists - a community group from The John Roan School and parents who have campaigned against the Compass Federation converting to MAT status at our School our VOTE.
Since the announcement of the White Paper - a parent led group called Rescue our Schools has also been set up - where ever you are - get together and set up a parents group that will fight to stop forced academisation.
Parents and teachers are getting organised in Greenwich: Check out John Roan Resists - a community group from The John Roan School and parents who have campaigned against the Compass Federation converting to MAT status at our School our VOTE.
Since the announcement of the White Paper - a parent led group called Rescue our Schools has also been set up - where ever you are - get together and set up a parents group that will fight to stop forced academisation.
Information from the Press
Click here for some information from the BBC on Academies old and new. It highlights the intrinsically undemocratic nature of schools becoming academies, namely that a Governing Body has the power to convert a school without the vote of other major stakeholders such as parents, staff and students - and even the LA! Click here for a brief for and against the move towards academies, which highlights again how parents do not get a vote in the process. Increased Academisation in a Borough has funding implications for all services in that Borough. Read here for more details. The Question of Profit and Corporate Schools
There are questions about how the financial dealings of academies are regulated and monitored. Increasingly academies are being found to misappropriate funds or at best not be as cost effective as they are hailed to be. This is notwithstanding the argument that schools, while they should be efficient in all the quantitative and qualitative measures that spell out solid and equitable educational provision, are less so an environment that should put economic efficiency over the provision of a social (merit) good.
For more information read these case examples: - E-ACT - set up in 2009 as an independent educational Charity. Click here and here. - Super Head extravagances here. Read here for a review of a report by A Public Accounts Committee on the millions wasted on the Academies Project due to overly complex funding systems and a lack of oversight to ensure effective use of public funds. It highlights how funds ineffectively used in the Academy Project has been diverted from non academy schools who are in need of specialist support. Read here how the rapid expansion of the Academy Project has overstretched the Department for Education and had costly knock on effects on the provision of local public services. Another area where the introduction of public - private business relationships have led to the detriment of education is in the sub-contracting out of Supply teachers. Where once a LA had a supply pool of local teachers now schools contact private agencies who are run for profit. See here for evidence given by the NASWT to a House of Lords Select Committee on the far reaching consequences of handing over the provision of supply teaching to large private organisations who are often registered off shore for tax purposes and who are not under the same obligations to pay national insurance and other benefits. Click here for a more personal account of the effects of this move towards privatisation and here for regional action to build better conditions in supply teaching. NEXT STEPS
If you have any questions or concerns regarding these proposals please contact the governors at governors@thejohnroan.greenwich.sch.uk,
Also contact the Governors and the LA to request a Parent Ballot. If you wish to send us your comments please contact us at johnroannut@gmail.com |
Academies - Their Track Record
The Governors have indicated that they are considering moving The John Roan School into a Multi Academy Trust (MATs). They have not indicated to parents which one they are considering. We urge them to give stakeholders such as parents and staff more information and allow both sets of stake holders to come together to discuss the issue. Currently they are organising SEPERATE meetings for both staff and parents. If you wish any information meeting to include all affected parties we urge you to contact the Chair of Governors on governors@thejohnroan.greenwich.sch.uk. The Governors have made it clear in a letter to parents that they will consider comments. But they have also made clear that any meeting is an information meeting NOT a consultation. They have now set a date to meet with staff, on February the 23rd. But again this seems to be separating out the key Stakeholders and we would urge the Governors to convene a Public meeting where all stakeholders, including Students! can meet and share knowledge, and opinions, prior to a Stakeholder Ballot on the issue.
Our concern with MATs is that they can become very large, very complex entities in which your child's school is but a small part of a wider organisation run for profit. Your child's head teacher may suddenly become an Executive Head (with a large increase in salary) who is no longer involved in the day to day running of the school. Large academy chains do not have a good track record. Please read here for more details on AET, a group that runs an astonishing 67 schools across a geographical area stretching from the Isle of Wight to Hull. This report highlights how the chain is failing students and the community on multiple levels. We are aware that budget tightening is on the way for all Public Services, states schools included. But we would wish to remain within the management of the Local Authority during this difficult time. See here for concerns about how MATs are coping with new financial constraints. Also a concern is the fact that academies have the power to scrap Governing bodies altogether, replacing them with representatives appointed by the Academy - and bare in mind these representatives may have no local connections to either the Community or the School. Read here for more information on Academies taking this route. This further exacerbates the decreasing democratic nature of Governance in our schools put in place by Government changes allowing elected staff representatives to be replaced by co-opted members of staff. This has recently happened at the John Roan, where two elected staff representatives were replaced by an unelected member of staff and a second member of staff was co-opted as an advisor. A more detailed document on the Governance of MATs can be found here. What is striking is there is also provision for a Board of Governors to be appointed to govern over several schools. Again this is a move away from local accountability and the tradition of local volunteers investing in their local community school, towards a more centralised, corporate approach. |
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We can win.....
Remember others have!
Read about Hove Vs Gove here.
And other Campaigns/ Actions...Birmingham, Bristol, Somerset,
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