Kingsbury Teachers' Strike Given Go Ahead

The national action committees of the NUT and NASUWT have given the go ahead for a strike at Kingsbury High School on Thursday 29th September. Approval was given in the light of the 84.5% of staff who voted against becoming an academy,  the headteacher's and governors' refusal to hold a ballot of parents and the lack of any cast iron legally binding agreements on maintaining teachers' statutory national pay and conditions. The Kingsbury Parents' Action Group have told the unions that over 60 parents have supported th call for a parents' ballot and the number is growing.

In an e-mail to members Hank Roberts Secretary of the Brent NUT and John Schwager Secretary of Brent NASUWT say:

No educator would take strike action except as a last resort and in the most exceptional circumstances. Kingsbury High becoming an Academy would overturn 90 years of national pay and conditions and potentially destroy a long history of cooperation between schools in the London Borough of Brent.

For those who question the medium to long-term consequences of the Gove agenda to state education, look no further than America, where similar reforms in charter schools have led to a wide range of damaging consequences to the teaching profession. This is from the Texas Tribune 27.01.2010 ‘Charter Schools Battle High Teacher Turnover’:

In all, more than 40 of nearly 200 charter operators the state tracked — some which oversee multiple schools — had to replace more than half their teaching staffs before the last school year. Even more established and successful operators, including KIPP and YES Prep in Houston, lose nearly a third of their teachers annually. In contrast, just six of more than 1,000 non-charter school districts statewide had more than half their teachers leave, and none of the 20 largest school districts had a turnover rate higher than 16 percent.

Huge increases in workload and the decimation of Teacher Unions in these schools have led to teacher burnout rates sky-rocketing. Does anyone seriously doubt this is what Gove intends? Does anyone seriously doubt that Gove thinks teachers are lazy and overpaid and that the union’s role is to defend this? And that by opening up markets and atomizing the state system he will achieve what the Charter schools have achieved in America and point to it as a success?

All teachers must ask themselves what kind of profession – our profession – we want to see. We are fighting for a profession that allows a long, sustainable career. We are fighting for a profession that has fair pay and conditions set nationally. We are fighting for a profession that allows teachers to teach and children to learn without excessive hours chained to a desk. We are fighting to preserve our state comprehensive education  system.

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.