Headteacher of Kingsbury High challenged by parent

Dear Mr Waxman,

One week ago I sent you the email below. I have not had a reply or even an acknowledgement.

Throughout the so-called 'consultation' process many stakeholders in Kingsbury High School have felt that they have been deliberately cut out of the process, indeed, that the consultation process has been nothing but a sham exercise, held only so that you could tick the relevant boxes rather than take account of stakeholder's views. By your own admission at one of the meetings I attended, you wished to collect parent's views only so that they could be "persuaded" to change their minds if they were against the school becoming an academy.

Your refusal to allow the parents a secret YES/NO ballot, and your failure to respond to my previous email are but further confirmation that you place no value whatsoever on the views of your stakeholders, but are interested only in short term financial reward.

As the Headteacher you should be setting very high standards and an exemplary example to the students. Your statement, repeated many times in meetings, that you are in principle against academies but that the school needs the money, sets a very poor standard and example. You are teaching the students that principles should be sold out for a cash reward, this is not a lesson I wish my children to learn.

Tomorrow the school will be closed as it sees a strike by a majority of its teachers. This could have been very easily avoided by you agreeing to a ballot of parents. I haven't met a single stakeholder in the school who can understand your refusal to grant this. It is time you remembered your school's motto which tells us that we will be judged by our actions.

I would very much appreciate a response to this and my previous email.

Angry Kingsbury parents denounce consultation 'sham'

Kingsbury High School Parents Action Group, who are leading the fight to prevent the school converting to academy status have suffered another 'kick in the teeth' in their fight to secure a full and fair consultation process with the school Governors.

On Tuesday 13^th September they organised a public meeting to which representatives from both sides of the debate were invited to speak. Many different groups turned up and offered speakers, but Mr Waxman, the Headteacher at the school, and his Governing Body were notable by their absence. So, once again, instead of a debate we were given only one side of the argument, albeit ours!

The meeting heard that teachers at the school will be taking industrial action after having their voices ignored, but were told that this would be called off if the school chose to offer parents an independently overseen secret  YES/NO ballot, something we have been asking for since last term when we heard (but not from the school) that Governors were looking into academy conversion. We have since heard that Mr Waxman has turned down this offer from the teachers, which was presented to him by their union representatives on Friday..

The meeting on Tuesday 13^th voted unanimously on a resolution as follows:

“This meeting supports the teachers of Kingsbury High School. We request an independently

overseen secret ballot of parents’ views on academy status for KHS where parents vote YES/

NO after hearing unbiased arguments for and against. We also request a consultation of the

wider community, including feeder and other local schools, councillors, local residents and

students. We request that there is a pause in the academy application process to allow this

full and thorough consultation to take place. We declare that if our request for a parental

ballot is not met, then we will be supporting the teachers who decide to take strike action.”

This was then sent  to the school Governors but has so far not been acknowledged.

That very same evening Mr Waxman sent out an email to parents offering to meet with them on Thursday 15^th September to answer any questions that may have resulted from our public meeting. Members of the Parents Action Group took him up on this invitation and turned up to hear, yet again, his refusal to grant their wish for a simple ballot. Under further questioning as to the reason for this refusal, he eventually admitted that the so-called ‘consultation’ process he set up never had the intention of listening to stakeholder’s opinions with a view to changing the Governors’ decision. He said it was an exercise designed to find out our worries, so that we could be persuaded to change our minds, or, if he couldn’t do that, then to reassure us! We fear he has failed miserably on both these.

It was pointed out to Mr Waxman and his Chair of Governors that they have a massive advantage in that they are able to communicate with all parents via the school’s Parentmail email system and give their side of the argument, whilst parents themselves have no way to widely present their case. A request was made that he offer the parents the chance to do this so that stakeholders could present their views. This has also been turned down.

When asked whether students at the school would be able to air their views after hearing both sides of the argument, he said that this would be the case, but that those presenting the anti-academy view would not necessarily be people who believed in what they were presenting. Students at the school have already organised a petition and refused to attend lessons in an attempt to get their voices heard.

Parents are becoming increasingly worried that Kingsbury High, which under its previous Headteacher was a school renowned for its willingness to engage with stakeholders, is becoming more and more aloof from them. The ‘Kingsburian’ ideals that everyone was so proud of for so many years seems to be disappearing fast, a chasm is opening up with Governors and senior management on one side and the school’s staff, parents, pupils and local community groups on the other.

Kingsbury High School Academy Consultation - but where's the debate and secret ballot?

Following last term's controversy over the Kingsbury High School governors' decision to apply for academy status and a student strike calling for more consultation, the headteacher Jeremy Waxman has organised a series of meetings to discuss the plans. He has told parents that without academy status the school will be forced to make redundancies:

To start with, let me reassure you that there would be no change to the ethos of the school. Kingsbury High has the opportunity to convert because we are a successful school. There would be none of the changes which have taken place where less successful schools have been forced to become academies

The main advantage for Kingsbury High and our communities is that funding will come directly from the government rather than via the Council and, because it comes direct, the funding is at a higher level.

This will help in two very important ways.

• It will enable us to invest in the school, particularly in ICT.
•  Sixth form funding is set to reduce in 2013 and Academy status will enable us to maintain the high standards that led to the sixth form being judged outstanding by Ofsted last year.

Without Academy status, the school will be forced to make reductions in the number of teachers we employ to the detriment of the education we offer. 

If Kingsbury High were to convert to Academy status we will continue to be active partners in the educational community. We have a long history of leading sport in the borough. And with our local primary and special schools we have formed the Kingsbury Schools Together partnership. These partnerships will continue if we convert to academy status. We will also reassure our staff by committing to their current terms and conditions. 

By 1st August, over one thousand two hundred of England’s secondary schools were already academies or had applied to become one. That’s 40%. Soon it will be over half. I do not want Kingsbury High to be left behind. 

I have been Headteacher at Kingsbury High for over 18 months now. I have loved working at the school, getting to know you and your children. I have been proud to lead the school from the poor Ofsted verdict it got in 2009 to a position where in July 2010 we were judged “Good with Outstanding Features”. That success has given us the opportunity to apply for Academy status. I ask for your support in making this decision for the good of the future of Kingsbury High and the communities we are proud to serve.

Waxman fails to note that the additional funding will be at the expense of other local schools and the local authority and that there is no guaranatee that it will continue to be funded at the higher level as the academy and free school projects expand.  There is further documentation on the school website HERE. There appears to be no provision for the through going open public debate that opponents of academies requested.
The school's written questionnaire for parents and carers is HERE and there appears to be no provision for the wider community to make submissions or an independent ballot of all concerned.

The meetings will be held at the K building on the Princes Avenue site  today Monday September 5th at  5pm, 6.30pm and 8pm , Tuesday September 6th at 5pm, 6.30pm and 8pm, Thursday September 8th at 6.30pm and 8pm, Friday September 9th at 5pm and 6,30pm and Saturday September 10th at 10am and noon.

Students are urging pupils to attend  to make their views known and are seeking lunchtime meetings for those who can't make it after school. The student Facebook page is HERE

The timetable for conversion is short but the Department for Education is likely to make a decision on the application in early September before the consultation is completed. An employment Question and Answer paper is being circulated to staff early this term and the consultation closes on September 20th. The full governing body, which voted for the application by 15 votes to 3 on July 14th will decide whether to convert at their meeting on September 29th. If they vote in favour the provision date for conversion is December 1st 2011.