Preston Manor strike may be called off after conditions of service concessions by management

NUT members at Preston Manor All-through School  will be deciding next week whether to accept the advice of their leaders and call off the strike planned for Wednesday January 23rd after concessions by the school management on conditions of service but with academy conversion going ahead.

Brent Teachers Association Secretary Jean Roberts wrote to NUT members:

Because of your determination and collective strength, your tremendous unity and solidarity throughout this whole process, you have won on EVERY point you asked for to protect your terms and conditions after conversion.

Together you have won probably the best conditions in any converter academy, not just in Brent, but in the whole of England.

This will mean that a Co-operative Academy will still go ahead but the strike ballot is still live and the union reserves the right to strike if the concessions are not written into agreements by February 1st.

Jean Roberts told members:

You all have been magnificent in your determination to oppose this conversion, first voting overwhelmingly in the staff ballot and then as NUT members voting for action when your views were just ignored – not even a governors meeting was called to discuss the result. I would hope that Matthew Lantos and the Governors realise they need to regain your trust over what had happened and to apply those Co-operative values which they signed up to.

Governors torn over Preston Manor academy decision

Guest blog from someone who attended  Wednesday's meeting about Preston Manor's possible conversion to a Co-operative Academy.

Both Matthew Lantos, the headteacher, and the education unions made presentations to staff and parents.  No-one spoke up for an academy. The financial argument about the loss of money if the school didn't convert was put as a key reason by  Lantos for converting now and not waiting.

Not many parents attended, the weather not conducive but also, as one parent said,  many had decided  'its a done deal so why bother'. However there was a good debate with the parent governors and those from the PTA plus some other parents. They asked Matthew Lantos detailed questions about finances, quality of provision, potential use of unqualified teachers, changes in the curriculum and what powers the governors would have if the secretary of state had the ultimate say. 

Everyone agreed that no-one could predict what will happen financially. There was a large deficit of £1bn  in the DfE academy budget. The unions said that this was why both staff and parents should say no to an academy. Things may be OK in the short term but if a certain point was reached with a large number of schools converting - currently only about 10% of all schools in England have converted - then Gove could decide to take over individual converter academies and make them part of a chain. 

The move by Gove to have schools run for profit had already started.  The Co-op principles were seen as very important by the Governors as they would be enshrined in law in the articles. This would make it very difficult to change them. It was clear that governors are very torn and have a difficult decision to make. Do get back to me if you need anything else.

Preston Manor High School to take the Coop route to academy status?

Preston Manor All-through Foundation School is considering applying for academy conversion, along with several other Brent secondary schools using the Cooperative Trust model.   They are approaching neighbouring primary schools to see if they are interested in joining in the process.

Matthew Lantos, following in the steps of the headteachers of Kingsbury High and Claremont, is arguing that his school community should not be deprived of the additional £600,000 that conversion would bring. During the debate surrounding Preston Manor expanding into primary provision, he denied that eventual conversion to academy status was on his agenda. I argued on this blog that competition with Ark Academy made that likely and since then Claremont and Kingsbury High have converted.

The argument is of course that schools converting to academy status may gain for themselves but at the cost of the schools remaining within the local authority because the central education fund is cut as a consequence - up to £900,000 per secondary school according to Brent's Budget Report.  Such a loss, multiplied several times over, would severely affect Brent  being able to carry out its role as an education authority.  Ironically one of the arguments put forward for this strategy is that the role of the local education authority has been weakened making conversion more attractive.Conversion will weaken the education authority even more.

If the main reason for adopting a cooperative school model was the adoption of cooperative principles this could have been done without becoming an academy and without the funding implications. By adopting the cooperative school approach of working in clusters alongside academy conversion, academies are extended into the primary sector.

The cooperative model may on the surface look attractive in terms of ethos and values but will need close scrutiny during the consultation process.  Preston Manor's plans should make for an interesting debate when headteachers and chairs of governors meet with Krutika Pau, Brent  Director of Children and Families on Thursday evening.

More on Cooperative Trust Schools HERE