Wearing purple, the
campaigning colour of suffragettes, parents, their children and staff from St
Andrew and St Francis, protested outside the Department for Education (DfE) headquarters
in Westminster this morning (14th May).
Braving the rain they
chanted “give us a vote”. This referred to the Interim Executive Board’s (IEB)
refusal to grant parents an independent secret ballot to prove, once and for
all, their claim that the overwhelming majority of parents are against a forced
academy.
Irene Scorer,
parents’ organiser, said, “They say they support parental choice. Why won’t
they give us a fair vote in a secret ballot to establish what the parents’
choice is?” Irene handed in the petition signed by 230 parents asking for a
vote to a representative from Nicky Morgan’s department at the DfE on behalf of
the parents.
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| Outside the Department for Education |
Lesley Gouldbourne,
Brent NUT Secretary, said, “Today was the seventh day of strike action taken by
staff against an enforced academy. We have said all along we could have called
strike action off if parents had been allowed an independent ballot”. She
quoted from the Parliamentary Education Committee’s report on Academies and
Free Schools, “We have sought but not
found convincing evidence of the impact of academy status on attainment in
primary schools.”
Hank Roberts, ATL
Secretary, said, “Teachers and support staff have been standing up not just for
themselves but for parents’ rights. We are pleased that the newly elected MP
for Brent South Dawn Butler and Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council
are calling for Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education to review the
academy order in the light of claimed Ofsted irregularities, misrepresentations
of parents true views to the DfE and the school already about to come out of
special measures”. The most recent
Ofsted monitoring report after a two day inspection at the end of April 2015
says, “The school is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special
measures”.
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