Court rules ex Brent headteacher has to payback £1.4million plus to Brent Council

A former head teacher and his previous colleagues have today  been ordered to pay back a total of £1,395,839, excluding costs, for their part in a school bonuses scandal by the High Court.

Alan Davies, the former head teacher of Copland Community School in Wembley, was found to have benefitted from the “vast sums” he received in unlawful bonuses over several years before he was suspended in May 2009.

Davies, who had previously been knighted for services to education, now faces having to pay the whopping sum of £1,395,839 plus 75% of the Council’s assessed legal costs. He had previously taken home more than £400,000 in one year, three times the going rate for a head teacher. He was convicted of false accounting in 2013 and stripped of his knighthood in 2014. 

In August earlier this year, the High Court found that his justifications for the excessive payments were “patently untrue” and “false”.

The payments to Davies and three associates were approved by former Chair of Governors Dr Indravadan Patel and former Vice Chair of Governors, Martin Day, who were both criticised by the Judge for “wholesale failures” and “reckless indifference”. Dr Patel and Mr Day now need to pay back £552,729 between them plus 65% of the Council’s assessed legal costs. 

Cllr Margaret McLennan, Deputy Leader of Brent Council, said:

We are delighted with the verdict as it means the money, which had been swindled, is now going to be returned and can now be used for the benefit of local people.

Davies and his colleagues were arrogantly paying themselves ridiculously high and unjustified bonuses, including Davies pocketing a whopping £400,000 in one year - which is around three times the going rate for the job.

It has taken years of stamina and determination to win this victory but justice has finally been done.

The scandal was revealed by the whistle blowing of  teacher trade unionist Hank Roberts

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Too much concealed in Copland plans to make a judgement

The Brent Cabinet on August 26th will receive an update on plans for a new school on the Copland site following its takeover by Ark Academies.  Frustratingly, many of the references in the report to detail in appendices are unavailable due to the following statement:

Note for publication ('below the line')
Appendices 2 (EFA option plan), 3 (Brent option plan) and 4, 4A and 4B (commercial matters) are Not for Publication.

The EFA Option (Appendix 2) is the plan for a new school from the Education Funding Agency and Appendix 3 is Brent Council's own plan.

The fact that they are confidential means that backbench Labour and opposition councillors are unable to compare the plans and reach an informed view, and the same goes for local residents, the local press and this blogger.

The report states that a new school could be provided within the current school's footprint but claims, 'this could result in a sub-optimal solution and will entail considerable disruption to the learning environment during the two year construction period'.

It adds, 'The EFA's objectives have firmly focused solely on delivering a new school at minimal development costs, whereas Brent officers have been keen to ensure delivery of the Wembley Area Action Plan and a sustainable locally well integrated new school design with connectivity to the local community'.

Officers claim that the EFA design option (which we are not allowed to see) is inferior to the Brent Council option (which we are not allowed to see) because it ignores the 'financial benefits of an improved regeneration area'.

The Brent design would mean loss of playing field space which would require the approval of the Secretary of State and relocating a public right of way that currently dissects the school playing fields.

The report says that the EFA option would result in a reduction of redevelopment/regeneration land at the High Road and claims that the Brent option would give the benefit of a..

...new and expanded (additional one form of entry) secondary school and an expanded primary school (Elsley will double in size to 4 form entry) along with new homes (including affordable housing) retail, commercial and community floor space in line with the ambitions of the Wembley area Action Plan. The transactions may generate a capital receipt that will help offset the costs of this proposals as outline in appendix 4 (which we are not allowed to see), some of which will be incurred irrespective of whether the freehold transfer proceeds or not.

A new school building is certainly required at Copland, and has been for at least a decade,  and so of course is affordable housing. However the link with commercial development, office and retail along the High Road, leaves me a little uneasy. Is the commercial tail wagging the educational dog?


Full report on Cabinet Agenda HERE

R.I.P COPLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL 1952- 2014

Professionals and Mercenaries
 

Guest blog by ‘All in this together’.

Richard Marshall, the interim Copland Head hired by the Gove/ Pavey/IEB coalition to do their dirty work for them, this week  gave a new meaning to the much-abused word ‘professional’ when, in his last-day-of-term address to staff (and his first official recognition that any member of staff had left the school all year) he used it to describe the manner in which staff at Copland had responded to the one hundred and thirty three redundancies he had diligently imposed on the school since last July. By ‘professional’, Mr Marshall presumably meant that his sackings had been achieved without loss of life and, ultimately, with a kind of cowed resignation from the staff. In George Osborne’s  would-be-macho world of balding male willy-wagglers, where’ tough’ decisions have to be made with a fearless lack of concern for the comfort or security of any individuals (except themselves), this version of ‘professionalism’  can be framed as some kind of brave and realistic acceptance of the unavoidable new realities. 
                                                   

The inconvenient truth, however, is that Copland staff did not behave at all in the manner which management clones mean when they employ the weasel word ‘professional’  to mean ‘that of which I approve’.  In reality, Copland teachers  used their collegiate solidarity to resist at every stage what Richard Marshall and his sidekick  Nick John had been hired to do. When the pair arrived last July and demanded of Copland Heads of Department that they nominate people they wanted sacked, apart from the odd shameful exception they refused to do so. When the Heads of Department were then threatened that they themselves would go unless they provided names, they still refused. That resistance, an expression of the self-confident autonomous decision-making which is the mark of real professionalism, set the tone which continued throughout the year. Teachers at all levels (except senior management, inevitably) have been united in their action against the surrendering of the school to Ark Inc and its removal from local democratic accountability.   In the end, the fight was lost, as any fight by a few hundred teachers, parents and pupils  against Cameron plus Gove plus their friends on Brent Council plus a hand-picked and craven IEB plus a couple of hired ‘tough’ guys was always going to be lost. 

However, there are defeats and there are defeats.  Ark and the spivs who own it have grabbed Copland. They will give it a new name and claim the credit for the new  building (which, in fact, was planned to go ahead whoever ran the school).  But Gove has gone from the DfE and, as a result of his perceived ‘toxicity’ in the eyes of the electorate (in large part a result of the loud and active resistance of teachers like those at Copland) his hopes of leading the Tory party, and God help us, the country, have gone too.  

Copland staff can feel  proud of the fight they put up in defence of the jobs of their colleagues (including dinner ladies, classroom assistants, mentors, support staff, sports coaches, caretakers, cleaners as well as classroom teachers).  Their professionalism was manifested in action not in apathetic quiescence and  this kind of professional engagement and concern  is a crucially important part of the checks and balances in any democratic society’s resistance to a bullying centralised state. 

So ‘professional’ is certainly what the great majority of Copland staff have been, particularly in face of the despondency and disillusionment which they inevitably felt as they watched their various ‘Leaders’ abandon them. But to use the word ‘professional’ in the way Mr Marshall used it on Wednesday was an insult.  However, there is another variant of ‘professional’’s  many shades of meaning  and it relates to an any activity performed primarily for financial gain. At this point the word almost takes on the meaning of ‘mercenary’, where any moral qualms on the part of the people hired to carry out the activity can be silenced by, to misquote a great British politician of the past, ‘stuffing their mouths with ten pound notes’. There were  people in the hall at Copland on Wednesday who maybe were worthy of such an appellation; but it was certainly not those teachers and ex-teachers who were having to listen to that ill-judged  speech.

Congratulations to all the staff, parents and pupils who fought so hard and persistently to prevent forced academisation. Although you didn't succeed it was a battle worth fighting and an example and inspiration to others.

Martin Francis 

COPLAND IS GETTING GOVE’S ‘REVERSE -TROJAN -HORSE’ TREATMENT

Guest blog by Will Shaw

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, the bizarre events surrounding the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ schools should have finally made clear that Ofsted exists to give the government the inspection reports it requires to support whatever its  schools strategy happens to be at any particular time. If the inspectors don’t come up with the right report they can be sent back into schools until they do. This is not usually necessary as the inspectors know what is expected of them and they dutifully supply it. Their lack of integrity or principled independence of thought can be measured by their deafening silence in objecting to this role over the years  and the extreme rarity of any individual resignations.

Ofsted inspections are a key weapon in the government’s overriding aim of ultimately turning  all (state) schools into centrally-run academies and  taking them out of local democratic accountability.  Once Ofsted supplies the government with the ‘appropriate’ inspection report on a school, the next stage is special measures, the imposition from outside of a non-accountable IEB  and forced academisation. This is the stage Copland has been at since last September. 

Obviously, this stage in the process has to appear  to be both necessary and beneficial and it’s Ofsted again which is used to show how much schools like Copland  improve as a result of the government’s wise policies. At Copland, if the inspectors are to be believed, the beneficial results of government policy were almost instantaneous. Their report after last November’s visit spoke of  the school having ‘turned a corner’ and ‘students making better progress’. It continued ‘ teaching …..attendance and punctuality are improving’, ‘students are keen to learn’, ‘ there has been a sea-change in the pace of improvement’, ‘the interim headteacher and associate headteacher and very strong governance of the IEB are driving this change well’ and so on; and all this after only 6 weeks! The nature of the narrative had been set. 

March 2014’s Copland report took the hagiography to the next level:  ‘… the  headteacher of St Paul’s Way is an astute Chair of the Interim Executive Board….. IEB members are asking the right questions about the school’s performance.. balanced in the rigour of challenge and in the quality of their support. Senior leaders are ‘stepping up to the plate’ more …. having greater impact on the work of the school ……... responding well to the high level of challenge being laid down by school leaders and the IEB... ……more accurate understanding of students’ needs  ……..higher expectations for students……  behaviour is much improved and the school is a more respectful place…… zero tolerance to poor behaviour … ….. an attitude of respect between and among students and staff……more confident and articulate learners. …….a richer quality of teaching…..teaching is better… lessons are more structured’. Clearly carried away with the spirit of the thing, the reporting inspector at one point came over all Mills and Boon and, revealing  a bureaucrat’s tin ear for the speech patterns of 21^st century London youth,   wrote this:

 ‘One student, capturing the views of many, said, ‘We can see hope now.’ This new-found optimism is palpable’.  

 (I like to imagine the inspector considering whether to  attribute the final 6 words to this ‘student’ as well, but wisely deciding that this might be pushing it a bit). 

It’s difficult not to laugh (if only at the writers’ belief that they could get away with this tosh) but many teachers and pupils have worked very hard at Copland this year and it’s a pity that any truth which these Ofsted reports might contain is tarnished by the relentless gung-ho bollocks  of the rest of it. But then, establishing  the truth is not at all what these inspections are about. How could they be when 2 inspectors come in for a day and a half and watch 10 or 15 minutes of a few lessons?  No, as in Birmingham their function is to provide bogus supporting evidence for actions already decided on. In the case of Copland, we are being provided with the  narrative of the ‘saving’ of a school by Gove, forced academisation, ‘tough’ but necessary action, (60 staff and half the curriculum axed), and finally the salvation that is The Ark Rescue.  

It’s a satisfying narrative  so far and it will be interesting to see how far the Ofsted inspectors think they can push it when the report on their imminent final visit comes out in a few weeks time.  As the purpose of the report is pre-determined and as the inspectors know what is expected of them (and  also know that their continuing employment depends on their coming up with the goods), the report  might as well have been written last September. If it was, I hope they don’t change anything if they , by chance, should come across this blog. And if they’re looking for further fictional inspiration, what better place than in the sort of book that, if he’d ever read it, Michael Gove would surely have banned, if only for the fact that it isn’t even really a decent, proper, stout English novel but rather some thin, poncey, foreign-sounding thing called a ‘novella’: Animal Farm.

“It has become usual in Wembley to give Mr Gove, Michael Pavey, the IEB, the Interim Headteacher and the Associate Headteacher  the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune at the school. You will often hear one pupil remark to another, “Under the guidance of our Senior Leadership Team  I have progressed  five levels in six months” or two teachers, enjoying a drink at the staffroom water-cooler, will exclaim, “thanks to the leadership of Headteacher  Marshall and  Associate Headteacher John, how excellent this water tastes!”...” (With apologies to  George Orwell).

The next Copland Ofsted visit is ‘imminent’  and the inspector’s report will be published in a few week’s time. But please remember, and thanks to Martin, you read it here first.

Alan Davies loses knighthood as Copland strike for 8th time

 

Making the point about privatisation and appropriation of public money

 Sir Alan Davies, former headteacher of Copland Community School, was stripped of his knighthood today in a belated response to his involvement in a financial scandal. Also today Copland teachers held their 8th strike over redendancies and academisation.

From the Brent branch of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers:

The disgraced former headteacher of Copland Community school in Wembley has been stripped of his knighthood. Alan Davies had been found guilty of false accounting at Southwark Crown Court in October last year. He pleaded guilty, although at the very last minute, to six counts of false accounting, and was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment suspended for two years.

Before the trial proper commenced a deal was proposed by the defence. Keir Starmer, former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service was involved and a deal was struck.Sir Alan agreed to plead guilty to 6 of the eight charges – the six least serious, false accounting – in return for the two most serious - conspiracy to defraud and money laundering - being dropped. Davies was not cleared of the charges of conspiracy and

money laundering as the case regarding these allegations was not heard as part of theplea bargain deal so the charges were dropped.

Hank Roberts, the whistleblower who exposed the bonus payments and other irregularities through a detailed dossier, had led calls for Davies to be stripped of his knighthood following his conviction and had written to the Prime Ministers office asking the Forfeitures Committee to take action. A spokesman for the Cabinet’s Office confirmed that Davies has had his knighthood annulled.

Hank said: “This is brilliant news. At least there is some justice in the world even though getting him to court and getting to this stage has taken a very long time. Every day it seems there is another financial scandal involving our schools. Something is radically wrong and I believe it is connected with the break-up of the state education system and allowing greater controls to individual heads and governing bodies. I know that not just myself but an overwhelming majority of staff, parents and pupils will be glad this action has been taken.”

Davies, who was knighted for his services to education in 2000, was tried alongside Dr Richard Evans, 55, former deputy head, Dr Indravadan Patel, 73, ex-chair of governors, Columbus Udokoro, 62, former school bursar, Michelle McKenzie, 53, ex-HR manager and Martin Day, 58, former-vice chair of governors. As part of the plea bargain agreed the charges against them were dropped.

As reported at the time of the court case, when sentencing Davies, Judge Deborah Taylor said: “Your dishonest behaviour represents a fall from grace. You have failed in your duty as head of the school – in failing to ensure proper, transparent management, and, more importantly, you lied about it and resorted to dishonest fabrication. What sort of message did that send to the children?”

 
Meanwhile ARK headquarters in Kingsway, Holborn in central London was the target of a protest

by a group of teachers from Copland Community school in Brent protesting about ARK’s proposal to take over their school. They were taking strike action over propose compulsory redundancies that have been totally unnecessary. ARK continues to cut as many of the current staff as possible before September while hiring two new extra assistant headteachers and one deputy headteacher. This is even before any funding agreement has been signed.

Two of the protesters dressed as fat cat spivs and in a lively exchange explained why they, as hedge-fund speculators, (ARK is run by hedge-fund managers) would want to run schools. The answer from the protesters was to make even more “loadsa money” from their state schools take over. Hank Roberts, ATL Immediate Past President made the clear argument for state education and against privatisation despite being ‘harangued’ by one of the fat cats. Passers by were clearly entertained by this spectacle and interested in the message.

Earlier there had been a joint ATL, NASUWT and NUT picket at the school in Wembley which was addressed among others by the NASUWT National President Geoff Branner. He praised staff for their support, commitment and resolve. This was Copland staff’s eight strike in total, six against being forced to become an academy and  two against the proposed compulsory redundancies.

Copland strike against redundancies well supported today

Copland Communuity school was closed today except for examinations in a joint union  strike over redundancies. Mick Lyons, Past NASUWT President, Stefan Simms, NUT Executive and Hank Roberts, ATL Immediate Past President congratulated the staff for their continuing to stand firm against ARK and for their colleagues and the pupils.

Copland challenge under Equalities Act

The Anti-Academies working party at Copland Community School have sent the following letter to Muhammed Butt and Michael Pavey, councillors and representatives of the parties and independents contesting the local elections:

I am sending this letter on behalf of Copland’s Anti Academy Working Party. We believe that there has been a lack of proper consultation over the future of Copland Community School. We believe that the people who have been appointed by you to run our school do not have the interest of the children of Copland at heart. The running down of the school library is evidence of this but there are many more examples that we could give.

You chose people to run our school who do not represent our school community. We believe that what you have allowed them to do is in contravention of the Equal Opportunities Act of 2011 which states that “a public authority must, in the exercise of its functions, have due regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it”. We believe that you and the Interim Executive Board (IEB) of Copland School have failed to do this.

We refer in particular to the Somalian Community at Copland School. No effort was made by the IEB to consult with this group. Our anti academy group translated our literature into Somalian and other languages but the IEB did not. When this was pointed out to them they belatedly put a notice on the school website saying that parents could use Google translate to read their literature. When they did this Google translate did not have the ability to translate into Somalian. We did translate our literature into Somalian and we have had support from Somalian parents and from a representative of the Somalian Community in Brent. 

The Equal Opportunities Act 2011 states that a public authority must “encourage persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low”.  Neither you nor the IEB at Copland School did this. 

We have another proposal for Copland School. Lycamobile have expressed an interest in sponsoring our school. Their proposal is generous. The representatives of Lycamobile with whom we have met are more representative of the people of Brent that those who make up the IEB. We want all parents to be informed that there is another option for Copland School. We believe that our option will be more beneficial for the children of Copland School than ARK Academy. If you promise to have a fair vote and our proposal is not chosen we shall accept ARK Academy. If you do not then we shall consider legal action.

 

Mr Shyam Gorsia

ARK intransigence provokes Copland strike over compulsory redundancies

The teaching unions (NUT, NAUWT, ATL at Copland Community School have sent the following notice. Copland is due to be forced to be academised and taken over by Ark later this year.

The three teacher unions at Copland Community School in Wembley will be taking strike action again this Wednesday over threatened compulsory redundancies. Two teachers face losing their jobs. The current Headteacher, Richard Marshall and the Unions have been meeting on a weekly basis with the joint aim of preventing this occurring. These negotiations have significantly reduced the original number of proposed compulsory redundancies as well as agreed very useful proposals on how to prevent the loss of the remaining two jobs. These include covering a maternity leave and extending the deadline for compulsory redundancies until December. It is well documented that there is a turn over of staff when a school converts to an academy.

But ARK, who are seeking to take over the school in September, have refused to

agree to any of these proposals.

ARK, known for their anti union stance, are prepared to see the school closed rather than negotiate, are prepared to see the pupils education disrupted. The teachers will be on the picket line again on Wednesday from 7.30 am showing their collective anger at this stance.

Tom Stone, NASUWT Secretary said, “I find the intransigence of the ARK management in not agreeing any of these eminently sensible proposals, unbelievable. We have had weekly meeting with the aim of preventing any redundancies. ARK is prepared to disrupt the children's education when such a small step would solve this situation.

Hank Roberts, ATL said, “If ARK do take over the running of the school in the autumn this does not bode well for the staff or pupils. The children's education has already suffered too much without sacking their teachers.”

Lesley Gouldbourne, NUT said, “We have been working so hard to prevent any strike action. Yet even when we and the school come up with an effective proposal, ARK refuses to agree. It is outrageous that this is allowed to happen when they are not even running the school.”

The teachers are planning to strike again on May 21st if there is not agreement to prevent these compulsory redundancies.

‘Letter to Brent Council? That’ll be £6.40, please.’

(And a reply? Priceless)

Guest blog by 'Elvin Impersonator' 

On Wednesday this week letters were sent to Brent Council nominating, under the provisions of the Localism Act 2011, the extensive green space of Copland’s playing fields as an ‘asset of community value’. The Act requires local authorities to maintain a list of sites and amenities which are used by the public and are part of local life. The letters were signed by representatives of local residents and Copland staff and students.

When it came to posting the letters, however, the bill came to £25.60, or £6.40 per letter, extortionate even by privatisation standards. Why so much? Well it’s the price of experience really. Last year Brent claimed to have no knowledge of a petition posted to them by first class post and signed by hundreds of Copland students opposing the forced academisation of their school. As a result, another petition opposing the Ark takeover was signed by over 400 students and copies posted to all 63 Brent councillors. Again it appears that up to 60 of these must have been lost in the post as replies were received from only three of our elected representatives. Dozens of additional letters written on the subject and sent to those looking for our votes on May 22nd have similarly met with no response whatsoever. As a result it was decided this time to utilise the Post Office service which registers the sending of the letter and effectively tracks it to its recipient. But at a cost.

Whether it was a price worth paying will soon become clear. But if Brent Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives had sat down and tried to plan how to alienate this group of ordinary voters and drive them into the arms of Farage and the Fruitcakes, they couldn’t have done a better job than they’re doing already. Interesting to see whether the strategy changes over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile at Copland a ‘special meeting’ for staff has been called next week to introduce the new school uniform. Whether this will be the students’ uniform or the one the teachers will have to wear (shiny estate agents suits, gel, blusher etc) has not been made clear. Early booking recommended.
 

Copland land deal for rebuild and academisation

Ariel view of site. Copland is at the top on the High Road, St Josephs top right at end of  Chatsworth/Waverley and Elsley bottom right at end of Tokyngton

The Brent Executive on April 22nd LINK will discuss a land deal for the Copland Community School site and adjacent lands. Copland is due to become the Ark Elvin academy on September 1st 2014. Government money has been made available for a rebuild which also involves adding another form of entry.   Copland has suffered from an inadequate building for a long time and this has been mentioned in its Ofsted reports.

The previous headteacher Sir Alan Davies and the governing body had plans for redevelopment approved in 2006 which included the 'Copland Village' but these plans were never realised.  The land involved is currently in multi-ownership:

The Council intends to hand the land over to Ark on a 125 year lease and at the same time secure land for the necessary playspace and land for the expansion of Elsley Primary school which will double in size from two forms of entry to four. Current consultation on Elsley's expansion has been halted until the land issue is resolved.

The report states:

Copand Community School is a foundation school and therefore the land and buildings are mainly in the ownership of the school itself, the responsibility for which is vested in the Interim Executive Boards. The IEB has expressed agreement to transfer the freehold of the site which it currently owns to the Council instead, in order for the Council to rationalise the ownership and use of the site overall, ensuring an optimum footprint for the school. The ARK would under these proposals be granted a 125 year lease on the final school site.

 As part of these transactions, the Council would secure enough land from the overall site to facilitate the proposed expansion of Elsley Primary School.

On completion of the freehold transfer the Council will grant the ARK an interim lease agreement to allow occupation of the existing school building until the new building is completed. Following this a 125 year lease arrangement will be granted. The transfer from the IEB needs to happen before the conversion to Academy Status, because the IEB will cease to exist on the conversion date, proposed for 1st September.

The land transaction proposals in the report are dependent on the Secretary of State for Education agreeing to disposal of education land, and specific consent surrounding disposal of school playing fields, this is an absolutely critical point referred to further in section 6 below and the confidential appendix 1.

Section 6 outlines how school playing field disposal has to be approved by the Secretary of State. Because most of the appendices have been declared confidential it is not easy to see just how much of the playing fields will be needed for the new build. There will have to be a statutory  consultation:

Therefore, prior to any disposal or change of use of school land the relevant statutory process will need to be followed. The relevant statutory process that applies will depend upon who owns the said land (for example a governing body of a school, or local authority), and whether the land is playing field land, or non-playing field land. Each process for consent and/or notification has its own specific requirements and complexities.

The scheme would involve commercial development and housing on the present Wembley High road site of the school realising the Wembley Plan's vision of a shopping street from Wembley Central Station to the London Designer Outlet close to Wembley Stadium. The amount of housing and the proportion of it that will be affordable is not stated in the public documentation.

The report says that the new school building  will be behind the present one as envisaged in the plans approved in 2006. (Below) Note the East-West orientation of this plan:

Copland appoints 6th head in 5 years out of the Ark

Guest blog by 'Antediluvian' 

Having earlier had to extend the job application deadline by 2 weeks for reasons which can only be guessed at, Copland has now found a new head teacher for September when the school is scheduled to be taken over by Ark Schools, an academy chain.   The new head, currently a primary head at Wembley Ark, will work with the associate head designate, Delia Smith, currently head of Wembley Ark (and who she already works with), and is a product of the Future Leaders programme which was  co-founded by  Ark.  (Previous Future Leaders products at Copland  have been very impressive in their ability to spout the standard nostrums about passion, driving change, transformative visions, making a difference etc  etc, though not sufficiently impressive to conceal an absence  of both independent thought  and, it has to be said, emotional  intelligence. It has been remarked before that, if these are going to be the Leaders  then the Future doesn’t look too bright).

The announcement by Ark of the appointment of an Ark-trained Ark product as the new Ark head is likely to increase staff concern that this year’s  ‘staff reorganisations’ (4 so far and more to come),  the decimation of the 6^th form and  the introduction of the new, unattractive slimline Austerity Curriculum are part of a planned  near-complete purging of staff and students preparatory to a running  down of the school while the new building is erected.  In this 2 year interim period,  radical Arkification  can be expected in which any grizzled old Copland diehards will be got rid of to allow re-stocking  with young, compliant, conformist and obedient  Ark-product teachers in preparation for the phoenix-like ‘re-opening’ in 2016. After this, unless the school intake radically alters, expect a new Ark school name, an aspirational new Ark uniform, enhanced verbiage levels,  an embarrassing ‘vision statement’, rapid staff turnover ( termed  ‘teaching unit refreshment’) and  ultimately  a possible  slight improvement in exam results, ( yes I know there is no evidence that academies in general or Ark in particular have any beneficial effect on educational standards,  but doesn’t that contrast piping on the blazer lapels look classy! ). 

Things look grim indeed and with the recent biblical weather, the country plagued with floods and even a film called Noah currently playing in cinemas, it might seem that a certain school brand’s time has come and any resistance is futile. However, Copland teachers should take the longer view and find solace in the fact that, despite countless exhaustive searches over many years in and around the Mount Ararat area, there has never ever been found  any remaining  vestige, trace, remnant, scrap or relic of anything remotely resembling an  Ark.  

(‘And the redundancy notices went out two by two, two by two, two by two………..’)

Copland IEB opts for 'No Trust' status

 Guest blog from 'Deleted'

Another 25 teachers at Copland have been notified that they are on a new redundancy hit-list for sacking at the end of the summer term. This follows the dozens of staff who have already been sacked since last July when Brent Council sent in an Interim Executive Board (IEB) to run the school (down).

Why is the Copland IEB now being called the Copland  Lie EB? 

In the autumn they said there would be no forced redundancies. Just weeks later they are  ‘consulting’ (telling) 25 staff that in the (new) next stage of ‘staff reorganisation’ (sacking),  14 of their ‘posts will be deleted’ (14 people will be sacked).  You can apply for ‘voluntary’ redundancy  (ie sack yourself and get a bit of compensation) or wait for the school to sack you. Whichever way, it’s forced, it’s compulsory and it’s the sack. 

What do the Lie E.B give as their reasons for the sackings?

They say they’ve got more teachers than they need. Well, they would have really, wouldn’t they? It’s a measure of the Lie E.B’s success in practically closing down the 6^th form  and producing an Austerity Curriculum for the rest of the school. Since last July they’ve scrapped  all the 6^th form vocational subjects, loads of successful  A level and GCSE subjects, got rid of support teachers and  mentoring staff and the latest statement from them scraps Business Studies, effectively scraps Yr 7,8 and 9 Information Technology  and gets rid of Art.  They turned away good potential 6^th Form students last August when they told them at the last minute they’d have to go elsewhere as they’d scrapped their subjects. They’ve narrowed the school’s curriculum offer to make it so unattractive that only 40 parents put Copland down as first choice for Sept 2014 (even less than Michaela ‘Free’ School, and they don’t even have a viable building).

Then add to that the continuing flow of inept and embarrassing decisions (scrapping Sports Days, charity events,  prize-giving evenings, progressive student associations, etc etc) which have produced columns of print in the local and national press, campaigns on social media, and disbelief among current and former  students and staff. So, dismantle the curriculum, halve the intake and, hey presto, you’ve got too many teachers! 

This is called ‘vision’.

It’s basically the same technique as the Tories have used against the NHS. Regard the institution and its staff as the enemy. Run it down, highlight all its defects. Cut staff, provide worse services to the point where no one will want to bother to fight to save it. Then flog it off to a chain.

But isn’t Copland becoming an Academy in September? Won’t they need teachers?

Of course, and no one believes that an academy chain intends to run a school with no subjects and no decent curriculum offer. After they’ve thrown away all this experience and knowledge  in this year’s sackings they’ll start advertising for new teachers, with all the expense and waste (and risk) that entails. But the new staff will be young and cheap and obedient, advised not to talk to other staff out of their rank and not to join the union. They’ll be on short-term, hire-and-fire contracts and staff turnover will be high. In a few years’ time they’ll all be agency staff and many will probably be on zero-hours contracts. Most will give up teaching in less than 5 years. This is not a prediction; it’s already happening. This is Gove’s  ‘future’ (with the acquiescence of the Copland management, it’s imported  IEB, Brent’s Michael Pavey and Mohammed Butt). And it’s what Copland staff are resisting.

Ok. But the ‘no compulsory redundancies’ promise was only a small untruth and maybe was meant only to refer to the last sacking round, no reason to call the IEB the Lie EB is it?

Yes, because the last sacking round was supposed to be the final sacking round (apart from a Leadership cull which now seems to have been  postponed until next year).  The proposed review of TLRs has not appeared and these new sackings have come out of the blue.

But there’s something else. The sacking letters Copland staff now regularly receive have always  referred  to financial reasons for the sackings and regularly trot out the excuse of  ‘the accumulated budget deficit which is currently in excess of £1.5 million’.         

                                                                                                                                              

2 points about this:

The ‘budget deficit’ dates from the time when the recently-convicted –in-the- courts (and earlier-knighted-by- the-Queen) ex-Head Davies ran the show. Brent Council only acted to stop his activities after being embarrassed into intervening  by union action,  have never made any attempt to retrieve the alleged £2.7 million taken from the school and did not even seek costs at his trial. (Why not?  The judge didn’t know either. Choose your own conspiracy theory).

More importantly, this is what Ark Schools, in a written answer,  told Copland staff would happen  to  this deficit when the school becomes an academy in September 2014:

It is normal practice for the deficit to be set to zero by the local authority when a school becomes an academy.

Copland staff should not have to rely on outsiders like Ark Schools  for information affecting their futures  which their own governing body should supply them with.  It would appear that, at the date the current sackings take effect (end of academic year 2013/2014), the deficit will be ‘set to zero by the local authority’.  So in August, yet more  Copland staff will lose their livelihoods in order to  reduce a budget deficit which will not any longer exist. The IEB’s reference to the ‘accumulated budget deficit’ as a justification for  dismantling the school and sacking the majority of its staff  is therefore disingenuous, an obfuscation. 

Or, in plainer English, a lie.

         I  EB?          Or Lie  EB?      Or does it just amount to the same truth-twisting  thing?

 

Copland teachers strike for 6th time over Ark Academy takeover

Teaching staff at Copland Community High School are taking their sixth day of action tomorrow (Thursday). They have made the following statement:

How is it that a school staff can feel so united, that their pupils and their school and they themselves have been so badly treated, that they are willing to take such strike action?

Staff have passed a motion of no confidence in the IEB (Interim Executive Board) now running the school. (Please see below for the full text.) Staff have asked that a possible legal challenge be looked at as well as a complaint being made to all relevant authorities.

Michael Gove, supporter of ARK and their proposed takeover, almost daily shows the dystopian version of education by dictatorship and containment. He proposes, and is using academies and free schools, to bring in a 10 hour days for pupils. Schools to stay open 51 weeks out of 52. We say “give pupils a childhood”.

The Copland IEB's so called consultation was laughingly inadequate. Even their inadequate 'feedback form' gave a result of 86% of pupils against and 89% of staff against. Very few parents responded and though a majority were for conversion there had been no adequate correspondence with parents, no letters or documents translated to help understanding and no document explaining why the staff were against.

The Unions offered to call off the strike if the parents were given an independently overseen ballot but the IEB refused to communicate at all with the local unions.

There will be a picket at the school between 8 and 9 am tomorrow.

Copland Joint Unions Meeting 22/1/14

This Copland joint union open meeting supports;

1.        The motion of no confidence in the IEB

2.        That a complaint be made to all relevant authorities and bodies** on the basis of it and any other irregularities that come to light

**E.g. Brent Local Authority, Brent Audit and Investigation Department, The Audit Commission, Teacher unions, Michael Gove, DfE

3.        That legal action be investigated following the successful judicial review by Barking and Dagenham Council in support of Warren Comprehensive school with a view to taking legal action over the attempt to force academisation without proper information or consultation

Copland staff have no confidence in the IEB as they;

1.        Continued and oversaw a massive, indiscriminate, hugely expensive voluntary redundancy programme in the summer that took no proper account of the curriculum and failed to protect it to the detriment of pupils' education and the school.

2.        Failed to take action to improve the intake

3.        Failed to press action to get any of the money (£2.7 million) returned that was removed from the school under a previous administration, while at the same time claiming every cutback and redundancy was necessary on financial grounds.

4.        Secretly applied to the DfE to turn Copland into an ARK academy without informing, never mind consulting, and not even providing a time line to staff or parents.

5.        Have refused to allow an independently overseen secret ballot of staff or parents regarding their proposal, or properly negotiate on it, despite the Unions offer to pay for such a ballot.

6.        Have engaged in a fundamentally flawed and unfair 'consultation' procedure over support staff redundancies and are seeking such wide scale redundancies both in teaching and support staff that the education and well being of the pupils can only be harmed.

7.        Have adversely affected the school's finances by drastically reducing the 6th form numbers.

8.        Have actively pursued an anti union agenda;

a)    unilaterally abolishing the school's JCC

b)    declining to formally consult the unions over the ARK proposal

c)    unlawfully not allowing school union reps to go on training courses