STAFF AND PARENTS SAY NO TO ST ANDREW AND ST FRANCIS BEING FORCED TO BECOME AN ACADEMYP

Press release from Brent Teachers' Panel

Ofsted accused of deliberately failing Brent Primary

At a well attended meeting on Wednesday 4th March at St Andrew's Church in Willesden, parents and staff from St Andrew and St Francis C of E Primary School in Belton Rd, Willesden, London were joined by members of the community to voice their anger at the school being forced to become an academy.

John Roche, who spoke for the staff and has been a teacher at the school some years, spoke about how the Year 6 results in the summer had been the best ever and among the best in the country. Ofsted monitoring visits have said that the school is making good progress. He questioned the whole premise of the Ofsted inspection that had 'failed' the school. He had seen documents obtained under Freedom of Information requests that clearly showed original grades being crossed out and lowered. “Give us our own Headteacher, our own Board of Governors and give parents back their voice” he said to loud applause.   

Irene Scorer, the parent speaker, said that parents need to stand next to their teachers and support them. “Start standing up as parents and say no to an academy. For our children's benefit we have to.” She also warned about the dangers of privatisation and running schools for profit. 

Hank Roberts, who spoke for the Unions, said that this was a government conspiracy. The aim was to turn all schools into academies and then run them for profit. He explained the history of how schools had first been bribed into becoming academies and how when the money dried up they are being forced. He 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.”He further urged parents to make every effort to ensure that St Andrew and St Francis was not forced to become an academy.

There were lots of contributions and no disagreement that this should be strongly opposed. The meeting also heard from parents, including an ex governor, about the undemocratic ways that the school was now being run with no parent voice on the IEB and with no substantive head causing real difficulties with communication. One parent reminded the audience that academies don't have to have qualified teachers – a way of saving money but bad for the children's education. Parents wondered why there was no substantive headteacher as Mrs Graham had left over a year ago. Jean Roberts, who chaired the meeting, confirmed that it was common practice for the head to be pressured to leave unless they supported an academy and then not to replace them. This made it easier to put in an Interim Executive Board (IEB) to run the school and have temporary heads who would do as they were told.

Among other speakers Pete Murry, Secretary of the Green Party gave the party's support to parents for the campaign and said that the Green Party were totally opposed to the academisation of state education. Dawn Butler, prospective Labour MP for the constituency said that she was shocked to hear that parents had not been given a voice in any decision about the school becoming an academy. A teacher from a Brent school which had been forced to become an academy warned parents that class sizes for example could rise as they had done since his school became an academy. 

The meeting concluded with a rallying call for action to stop the academy. Teachers are currently being balloted for strike action and from what was said in the meeting this action is being supported unanimously. 

Ends

Will children lose play and sports space through school expansions and academy conversions?

With the Brent Council Executive due to approve more primary school expansions on August 20th the impact on the amount of play space available to children will be a factor. Some expansions could mean increases in the numbers of children and less overall play space available than at present, while others will add more storeys to existing buildings and maintain existing play space but for increased numbers of children. There has been talk of designing rebuilds with roof top playgrounds that still exist today in some of the Victorian inner city school buildings. It is possible that there will be schemes involving the selling off of existing play space for housing to finance expansion, although that looks less likely following the securing of government funds.

Some secondary schools becoming academies may be tempted to  seek additional capital through selling off some of their land.

School play space and playing fields have become an issue during the Olympics and the Green Party's Children and Families spokesperson has intervened in the debate:

Childhood obesity is linked to a host of illnesses including Type II Diabetes,  Congestive Heart Failure and Cancer. A poor diet and lack of exercise are the main causes of childhood obesity.  Tragically little is being done by the Government to benefit schools in tackling these contributory factors with little spent on nutritious school food and Michael Gove committed to selling off yet more playing fields.

The Green Party believes that it is imperative to preserve children’s playing fields. The Conservative and Liberal Democrats coalition agreed with us in the beginning where they too “pledged to protect these playing fields” .  However, Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove going back on his word and selling these recreational facilities to high paying developers, it is very difficult for children to find an area for them to keep fit.  Ironically only this week  Prime Minister David Cameron expressed concern that too many top British athletes in the Olympics attended private schools, and as a result, we are not as concerned with “sports excellence”   We cannot expect to have children of the future succeed in sports by taking away their venues to practice.

Green Party Green Party Families and Children Spokesperson, Emma Pruen comments:

Sport is essential to the emotional and physical health of the nation, and the well being of children.  Children who participate in sport are proven to be happier and healthier.  Insuring the fitness of our children will save the NHS billions for years to come, yet for all the posturing of our public-school educated government they are still selling off school playing fields and reducing the time available for sporting activities. This is so short sighted it beggars belief.

The rising obesity levels and instances of childhood depression will only get worse if Michael Gove continues with his selfish and short-sighted plans.  Cameron’s pronouncements about public school supremacy are supremely hypocritical when the actions of his education minister will ensure only privately educated children have the teaching and facilities to become our next generation of medal winners.  If we want the playing fields of England to be filled with the next generation of Mo’s and Jessica’s the government must stop selling those fields off to the highest bidder.

 T sign a petition opposing the sell-off of Elliott School playing fields  (where GB women's football star Fara Williams trained) click on this LINK