Why the Green Party should endorse the NUT's Manifesto

The Green Party is the only one of the mainstream parties that challenge the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM). The GERM seeks to move both the structure and content of education in a neo-liberal direction. It reduces the role of education to competition in an ever expanding global market and opens the system to private profit.

I have written about this in an article on the Open Democracy website LINK

The National Union of Teachers and the Green Party both recognise the need to challenge this threat and so there is underlying agreement on principles between the NUT Manifesto for the 2015 General Election and Green Party education policy.

I have published a paper on the Green Party members' site giving a detailed comparison of the two documents and here publish the main findings. I think there is sufficient overlap for the Green Party to broadly endorse the NUT Manifesto with some more discussion needed on particular aspects.

Here are some major areas of agreement:

VISION AND CURRICULUM

• Both want to develop an exciting new vision for education and move away from a narrow prescriptive curriculum. Greens reject market driven models of education that see  its role only in terms of international economic competitiveness  and preparation for work. they advocate a system that enable people to participate fully in society and lead a fulfilled life.
• Both want a broad, balanced and enriching entitlement curriculum with the Greens emphasising that learners and teachers should be able to develop their own content within this context.
•  The NUT and Greens agree on the need for 14-19 qualifications framework which give equal value to academic, vocational, creative and practical subjects.

ACCOUNTABILITY

• There is agreement on the need for a new approach to evaluating schools include much wider involvement of parents, teachers and community. The Greens would replace Ofsted with an independent National Council for Academic Excellence, linked with the NfER. This would work collaboratively with schools and local authorities on school improvement.
• The Greens want to abolish league tables and the NUT wants to replace them with national sampling. More discussion is needed on how the latter would work.

TEACHERS

• Both want to reclaim teachers' professional respect, responsibility and autonomy with the NUT citing the successful London Challenge.
• Greens and the NUT agree that all children should be taught by qualified teachers or those in training towards qualification and the need for quality initial teacher education and in-service  education and training.
• The NUT wants a recruitment strategy that reflects the diverse nature of school communities while the Greens emphasise education on diversity issues for teachers and other school workers and the effective equality and diversity monitoring of recruitment and staff development.
• The NUT wants to reduce teachers' workload, restore a national pay structure and professional levels of pay, and opposes the extension of the retirement age to 68. The Green Party promises  to work with the teaching unions to reverse the process by which teachers have gradually been deskilled and their professional autonomy eroded and will review pension arrangements and retirement age with then. The Green Party opposes performance relation Pay for teachers.

CHILD POVERTY

•  This is a concern for both the NUT and the Green Party and there is agreement on the immediate need for the abolition of the Bedroom Tax, high quality nursery education , restoration of the Education Maintenance Allowance or a similar scheme. The Green's proposal on a Citizen's Income could replace the allowance in the long term and would begin to tackle child poverty.
• Both agree on the urgent need to tackle youth unemployment.

SCHOOL PLACES

•  There is agreement on the need to strengthen local authorities' role in educational provision and in particular the need for the restoration of the LA's power to provide new school places though building new LA schools.

PRIVATISATION

•  Both Greens and the NUT call for an end to the marketisation of education and oppose schools being run for profit. Greens see education as a right and an entitlement that should be free at the point of delivery to people of all ages.
• Greens oppose the creation of more academies and free schools and would integrate them into the local authority school system. The NUT call for the end of approval for new free schools and support the right of all schools to return to the status of local authority schools. The Greens support parents and communities fighting the forced academisation of their schools.
• Both agree on the need for the restoration of funding to local authorities and their role in overseeing the quality of education in their locality.

INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION

•  The NUT calls for the restoration of education funding to at least 2010 levels in real terms. There is nothing explicit in Green Party policy but it is certainly something we should explore.

Does Michaela's 'private school ethos' mean they can ignore safety concerns as enquiries blocked?

The only street entry/exit from Michaela Free school 

Photo: Nick Wright (via Facebook)

Reflecting concerns about teacher and children safety at the new Michaela Free School in Wembley Park, Jenny Cooper of the Brent Teachers' Association  has attempted a dialogue with the management.  It appears that not only have her concerns been ignored but Michaela has now blocked any communication from her

This is the sequence of events as recorded by email:

September 30th by email.
Dear Ms Birbalsingh,

I am writing to you in my capacity as Brent NUT Health & Safety Adviser and London representative on the National NUT Health & Safety Working Group as a result of concerns that have been expressed to me regarding fire safety procedures in your school.

NUT members have expressed concern that there appears to be only one entrance and exit from the building, through the wooden hoardings on the building site and that there appears to be no area for fire assembly purposes. This is a concern to the NUT for two reasons: potential danger for NUT members who may be working at the school and potential danger for the pupils.

To reassure us over these concerns, could you please send me a copy of your fire risk assessment? I am requesting this document under the provisions of the "Safety Representatives and Safety Committees regulations 1977", specifically regulation 7 which allows for inspection of documents and provision of information necessary to enable me to carry out my function. As an appointed Brent NUT Safety rep, part of my function is to promote health and safety in Brent schools on behalf of members that may be employed in those schools.

Hopefully I will be reassured by the fire risk assessment that everything is in place and that members' concerns have been unfounded. However, if I do not get sight of this document or a reply to this request, I will be forced to take this concern elsewhere.

Thank you for your help,

Jenny Cooper,

Brent NUT Health & Safety Adviser 

London rep on national NUT HSWG

NUT Safety rep on Brent Schools' Health & Safety Committee

No response was received so follow up email on October 16th:

Dear Ms Birbalsingh,

Do you have a response to my earlier email, below?

I will be actioning this matter in another way if I do not hear from you within the week.

Jenny Cooper

Response from Michaela

officeadmin@mcsbrent.co.uk

Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted to authenticated Sender.
For more information about this issue see DSN code 5.7.12 in Exchange Online.

This is the same Michaela email address as Jenny had used before in communicating with the school and has not been rejected before. It appears that she has been blocked from raising these legitimate concerns.

Brent NUT told me:

We have been leafleting the parents about the H&S issues at Michaela. We leafleted the parents meetings for the new intake. When we were handing out letters to children at the end of the day to take home to all parents, some staff came out and asked why we hadn't written to ask about the situation with regards to fire safety and other issues. We replied that the H&S Advisor Jenny Cooper had written but there had been no response. That is why we were handing out letters as we were so concerned. This took the wind out of sails somewhat. We alerted Ruth Moher, Lead member for Education that we had not had any response and she is checking what is happening. A Brent Council H&S Officer is supposed to making a visit to the school and may already have done. Interesting that now Jenny has been blocked.

 

Caroline Lucas ensures powerful teacher voices are heard in Parliament

It is unusual these days to have speeches in Parliament fully reported. Today I am making an exception because I feel the issues raised by Caroline Lucas in her adjournment debate on education on Tuesday were so important. Please do read on after the text break.


This evening I want to pay tribute to the incredible work being done in schools in Brighton and Hove. Last year the city’s young people got their best ever GSCE results. This year the key stage 2 results were in the top quarter in the country and 54% of A-level students got A* to B grades, an improvement in results for the third year running. Brighton and Hove was also named top local authority in the country for tackling homophobia in schools. That really is a track record to be proud of, so I want to applaud the many teachers and other staff who make such achievements possible.

However, those achievements have been reached in spite of Government policy, not because of it. Research from the National Union of Teachers reveals the extent to which Ministers have been taking teachers for granted. The NUT found that 87% of teachers said that they know one or more teachers who have left the profession because of work load; that 90% of teachers have themselves considered leaving the profession because of work load; and that 96% said their work load has had negative consequences for their family or personal life.

Tonight I want to do two things: first, to share some of what I have been told by local teachers about the daily reality behind those statistics, and to ask the Department of Education and the Secretary of State to start listening to teachers and to review their current policies; and secondly, to make the case for statutory PSHE—personal, social, health and economic education—teaching in all state-funded schools. I have a private Member’s Bill before the House designed to achieve exactly that. I very much welcome the Minister’s views on that proposal.

Tristram Hunt's 'Oath' ridiculed as teachers turn to the Greens for education policy solidarity

How the Hands Off Hove Park campaign successfully opposed academisation

Natasha Steel of the Hands Off Hove Park campaign told the Anti Academies Alliance yesterday how a group of parents, teachers and community activists successfully opposed the academy conversion of their school.

Greens strengthening links with trade unions

The NUT, RMT and PCS trade unions all have stalls at the Green Party conference this weekend. Max Hyde, President of the NUT , spoke at a fringe meeting organised by  the Union today, with Natalie Bennett  and Richard Hatcher guest speakers.

With the NUT's manifesto for  children's education 'Stand Up for Education' distributed, hot off the presses to a packed room, it soon became clear that the NUT and Green Party have much in common on education policies.

Both want an end to 'sausage factory' schooling and the dominance of testing, every teacher to be qualified,  restoration of LA powers to build new schools, an end to the fragmenting of the education system, halt to privatisation of education  and are opposed to performance related pay.

Tomorrow there will be a PCS speaker at a fringe on fuel poverty, the Big SIx power companies, and fracking.

There is an active Green Party Trade Union Group and a Trade Union Liaison Officer post was created last year. Both are busy building  links not just with national leaders of the unions but with  rank and file members.

The  policies of the Labour Party increasingly appear insipid in contrast to the strong anti-austerity social justice stance of the Greens.

I hope that our links and solidarity with trade unions will continue to strengthen ahead of the General election. As Max Hyde and Natalie Bennett both said, we won't agree on everything, but we are allies in the struggle.

Michaela parent interviews cancelled as school remains a building site

Guest post by Violet Potter

This morning a small group of Teacher Union Officers representing the ATL, NASUWT and NUT arrived at Arena House the 'new' venue for the Michaela Free school to welcome the teachers and explain why it was so important to be in a union especially in a free school.

But it still looked like a building site. 

We checked to see if there were any entrances we had missed. But no, there was only one way in and that definitely looked like only builders should enter wearing the required hard hat. On the Michaela website it had announced that staff would be in from today and parents would be invited in over the next two weeks for interviews. 

On checking the website again today it now says the parent interviews have been cancelled. Oh dear. Does that mean those much vaunted behaviour contracts won't be signed before children are allowed in the school? Will children arrive with the wrong socks and different coloured shoe laces and be sent home before they get a chance to set foot in the door? 

Well, as you can see from the photo there may not be a door ready for them to come in. Wondering what was happening, I checked with the foreman. No-one was expected on site and no-one had requested permission to do so. He was confident that everything would be ready on time for the children in two weeks time (but actually it's only 8 days away) well at least a few rooms on the first and second floor. But ready in what sense? No playground area for sure, not that there will be much of that anyway even when it is finished.  

Greens support the Public Sector strike in Brent and Central London

Shahrar Ali (Green party) with pickets

Greens stand alongside unions in million strong public sector strike on Thursday

On July 10 the Green Party will stand alongside unions in the largest one-day strike over pay by public sector employees since 2010.

The Green Party have pledged to support the employees’ right to strike and to picket peacefully in order to assert their right to fair wages and proper treatment. Public sector employees are facing unprecedented financial hardship with part-time and female employees the most affected under the Government’s ideological austerity agenda.

The strike will see more than one million workers protesting the Government policy of frozen and restricted pay and will include workers from the PCS, The National Union of Teachers, Unison, and others.

Thousands of people around the country are forgoing a day’s pay to express their unhappiness with the Coalition Government’s economic attack on public sector employees.

Greens across the country will show their support:

Green MP, Caroline Lucas said:

"It is very clear that austerity isn't working. It's cruel and counterproductive. It should not be the most vulnerable who are paying the price of an economic crisis that was not of their making. People are struggling, the cost of living is rising and it's time the Government recognised the value of workers who provide us with crucial services every day.

"People have had enough, it is time for plan B and it's time for the Government to listen. On July 10, people from all over the country will stand together to make their voices heard loud and clear."

Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett said: 

 "This government's austerity agenda is making public sector employees, joined with benefit recipients, the increasing numbers of poorly paid, and insecure private sector employees, pay for the financial crisis that was not of their making.

“George Osborne is cutting the tax rate for multinational companies and inviting them to dodge even that reduced rate of taxes, and at the same time has slashed the real pay of the dinner ladies, the cleaners, and the local officers who keep our communities running. I'll be showing my support on Thursday by visiting picket lines around my local area of Camden before joining the march and rally in central London.

"We cannot continue to see soaring poverty and dependence on foodbanks in Britain; we need to make the minimum wage a living wage, and ensure local government employees have a chance of decent progression beyond that."

Green Party Trade Union Liaison Officer of GPEW national executive, Romayne Phoenix:

"The economic crisis was caused by the banks; how could it ever be fair - or effective - to fix it by cutting workers' pay? Our public services benefit the majority. This is about not letting those at the top blame the rest of us for problems we didn't cause."

Green MEP for South East, Keith Taylor:

“When the government decides to stop spending their time dismantling public services and oppressing the low paid and unemployed, and instead focusses on reigning in the power and wealth of the top 1%, then I'll have a shred of sympathy for them.

“Until then I am 100% behind the strikers and their efforts to defend our services, and seek decent terms and conditions for public sector workers.”

Kirklees Green Party Councillor, Andrew Cooper commented:

"I'll be joining staff on the Picket line in Huddersfield. Kirklees Jobs and services for local people have suffered greatly due to Coalition targeting of local government for cuts.”
 
 Dudley Councillor and Deputy Leader, Will Duckworth said:
 “I will be on the picket lines early in the morning and then going on the planned demonstration in Birmingham with Dudley Trades Union Council.  We need to fight the Government's attempts to destroy decent pay and pensions for normal working people.”

 The Group of London Green Party Councillors said:

“It can’t go on like this. We can't continue with rapacious cuts to the NHS, the closure of local children's centres, and mounting queues at foodbanks. The government must hear the public's message that cuts are hurting the people of Britain. An alternative economic strategy and an alternative future is possible and together with communities up and down the country we will be out promoting that message on Thursday.”

North West Green Party Representative, Laura Bannister commented:

“In the North West, members will be visiting and taking part in picket lines and supporting the mass rally in Manchester. We are also sending letters of solidarity to regional TU branches on behalf of the regional party"

As a member of the Green Party and the Green Party Trade Union Group, I will be supporting the picket of Brent Civic Centre and the Central London march.

Caroline Lucas supports July 10th public sector strike

Greens are backing the Great Public Sector Strike on July 10th

The Green Party will be supporting the strike of public sector workers taking place next week on Thursday July 10th. Six public sector unions and more than a million workers will be on strike over fair pay and pensions.

The Green Party is strongly supportive of the public sector and the millions of its workers who contribute positively to society as fire fighters, teachers, teaching assistants, council workers and in many other roles.

Government attacks in the form of worsening conditions of services, a virtual pay cut and rise in pension age have been accompanied by privatisation and a substantial cut in local government funding.

This is not just an attack on workers and local government but part of the Government's agenda to roll back the welfare state and the post-war settlement.

Green Party members will be joining picket lines, marches and rallies next Thursday.

In Brent there will be a picket line and demonstration outside the Civic Centre before workers travel to the Central London demonstration which will assemble at Portland Place.

The People United Against Austerity Today in London

Thousands marched today in London against the Coalition's austerity policies and for an alternative. Romayne Phoenix of the Coalition of Resistance and the Green Party was on the platform as the MC and Caroline Lucas received  great applause for her speech.

Here are some images from the day:

Christine Blower (General Secretary NUT) and Kevin Courtney (Deputy General Secretary) review the Green Party's Reclaim Our Schools flyer, 

Birmingham affair reinforces need for accountability through LAs

Today's  report on Birmingham schools has revealed many contradictions but the one that strikes me most is that some of the most serious allegations are about an academy school which of course is allowed to ignore the national curriculum and exercise its own 'freedom from local authority control'.

Ignoring that Gove is to require all schools to promote 'British values' that could easily become, given Gove's record on history become 'Gove values' or 'Daily Mail' values. Poor kids, but not far away from some of Katharine Birbalsingh's comments about what will be promoted at her Micheala Free School.

I welcome then the calm and balanced comment from Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT:

From an unsigned and undated letter has grown this so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ affair. 

The highly inflammatory deployment of an anti-terrorism chief to head up the inquiry, the unprecedented and clearly political inspection of 21 schools by Ofsted, and the public squabble between Theresa May and Michael Gove has not been positive for Birmingham schools and the children they educate. 

There seems to be a redefinition of ‘extremism’ from the Secretary of State for Education, and as yet lots of speculation and not a little hyperbole.
What all this does show is that if schools sever their connection with a local authority, the levers to monitor or effect change available at local level are lost. 

What is clearly needed is local authorities with powers to monitor and support schools, clear national agreement on the importance of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) and the need to promote community cohesion and the aim to create schools in which individuals feel at ease with themselves and are respectful of difference. Knee jerk reactions from government on the basis of personal predilections are not what is required. 

Any issues which arise in a school should be capable of discussion and resolution at a local level and be addressed speedily and proportionately.
The charge of Islamophobia will stick to this affair unless the schools and their wider communities are seen to be engaged in the solution rather than castigated as being the problem.

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.

Michaela Free School asbestos fears demand answers from Birbalsingh and Gove

The scene at Arena House earlier today

Brent Teachers' Panel has written to Katharine Birbalsingh, headteacher designate of Michaela Academy Free School and Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, seeking information on the asbestos removal programme at Arena House, the ex-College of North West London's Wembley Park building, which was built at a time when asbestos was widely used.

Their concern has been heightened by the fact that Michaela's website says that the contractor Willmott Dixon is working to tight timelines:

Willmott Dixon is our appointed contractor and a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes such as site surveys, detailing of designs and securing planning permission. With all of this now in place, the team is currently preparing to start work on site in just a few weeks’ time.Our contractors have a great deal of experience in preparing free schools to open (often on shorter timelines than ours) [My emphasis] and the Education Funding Agency is involved every step of the way to ensure that everything required will be in place for us to welcome our first intake in September.

Over the next few months in the lead-up to the opening of the school, Willmott Dixon will be stripping out the existing building,  [My emphasis] creating new spaces that meet our specific requirements and installing new IT systems and furniture in preparation for our new school. The work on site will then be the end product of months of planning and we will keep you updated as Arena House undergoes its exciting transformation.

The Teachers' Panel's concern was heightened when they discovered that Willmott Dixon was one of three firms, along with Marks and Spencer, fined for unsafe removal of asbestos during refurbishment works at the M&S store in Reading: LINK

The principal contractor at the Bournemouth store, Wilmott Dixon, failed to plan, manage and monitor removal of asbestos-containing materials.

It did not prevent the possibility of asbestos being disturbed by its workers in areas that had not been surveyed extensively.

 The court heard that the client, Marks and Spencer plc, did not allocate sufficient time and space for the removal of asbestos-containing materials at the Reading store.

There was a considerable amount of debris evident  in the stripped Arena House classrooms today

 The Brent Teachers' Panel letter reads:

Dear Ms Birbalsingh and Mr Michael Gove,

I am writing on behalf of Brent Teachers’ Panel, representing teacher unions in all types of Brent schools (community, grant maintained, independent, academy and free schools) to request information regarding the management and/or removal of asbestos at the site which is being refurbished for use as Michaela Academy Free School.

Our reason for requesting this information relates to my rights as appointed safety rep and elected health and safety adviser for the NUT representing some 1700 member teachers in Brent, some of whom may work at this school. As you will know, under the Safety Reps and Safety Committee Regulations 1977, an appointed safety rep has the right to see documentation and reports associated with works in a building which may affect the safety of his or her members. In addition to this, and as Brent teachers, we are also genuinely concerned for the safety of children and others in our community.

Please could you therefore provide me with the following:

·        A copy or sight of the asbestos refurbishment/demolition (Type 3) survey carried out for Arena House with associated material and priority risk assessments

·        A local asbestos management plan for the school which will be used when it opens in Arena House in September

·        An explanation as to the choice/selection/tendering process of the contractor Willmott Dixon, bearing in mind that they were found guilty in court of contravening sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 between 5 February 2007 and 28 February 2007, and bearing in mind also that when they took this to appeal on the grounds of small risk to health, the appeal was lost in May 2012.

I would like to assure you of our best intentions and that we only have our members’ and pupils’ safety and wellbeing in mind with this request. The Brent Teachers’ Panel has had to deal with the death of a school pupil and enforcement notices for poor asbestos management in the past, in Brent schools, so we always have safety foremost in our minds.

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

Jenny Cooper,

Brent NUT Health & Safety Adviser,

Health & Safety Adviser to Brent Teachers’ Panel

Elected London Representative on the National NUT Health & Safety Working Group

Brent Appointed School Health & Safety Representative

Although free schools are independent of the council, Brent Council does have overall responsibility for the health and well-being of Brent pupils and so should intervene to make sure that this will be a safe environment for pupils and staff.

Caroline Lucas backs parents fighting academisation

From Caroline Lucas' blog (posted last week):

Parents from Hove Park School, many of whom live in my constituency, have been in touch this week to ask for my support for their campaign to oppose plans for the school to become an Academy. I was happy to give it. 

When the Academies Bill was being debated in Parliament I expressed my opposition to removing schools from the control of parents, teachers, the local authority and the local community.

 I warned that one inevitable consequence of numbers of schools becoming Academies in a local area is that there will be less funding to support other, non-Academy schools for provisions such as special educational needs, free school meals, music services and library services. The risk being, that unless the Academies buy into the Local Authority Services, these could be become unsustainable.

The children’s author Michael Rosen has highlighted that asset stripping is also happening every time a school becomes an Academy. The local authority has to hand over the title deeds of a school to whoever runs sponsors or owns the Academy. Those title deeds are worth roughly £5 million per school - yet the Secretary of State has kept no central records and nobody has strategic oversight of who owns our nation’s schools.

The Secretary of State’s not keeping track of how many unqualified teachers are in free school or academy classrooms either. And if Hove Park School becomes an Academy it may not have to tell you, because a growing number of Academies are protected from Freedom of Information laws on the grounds of commercial interests. This also has implications for financial transparency. National education campaigner Fiona Miller reckons between £1-7 bn is being given to schools that are completely unaccountable.
There’s already a vast body of evidence that points to the ways in which Academies and other free schools are letting our children down. Academies are part of how this Government, building on the foundations laid by previous governments, is promoting a marketised model of education, pitching schools and colleges against one another as they compete for funds. This isn’t good for schools, their staff or local communities. It’s definitely not good for our children and I think those at Hove Park School deserve better.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference is taking place in Brighton this coming weekend and I am looking forward to speaking to teachers there. I know from my mailbag and inbox that huge numbers of them are also opposed to what’s happening to our schools in the name of choice. Teachers who, despite the changes foisted upon them, are getting on with inspiring their pupils.  

So I’ll be saying a huge thank you to every single local teacher that’s still in the profession. That’s still committed to our children. That still believes in education as a force for change. And I’ll be standing alongside them, and alongside the parents and pupils of Hove Park School, to demand a fair, accountable education system that puts the best interests of children centre stage.

If you want to support Hove Park School staying within local authority control, please sign this petition.

Natalie Bennett: Teachers are standing up for their pupils' futures as well as their own

Amidst the coverage of the NUT strike earlier this week readers may have missed the statement by Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party. Here it is:

Teachers are understandably angry about a whole host of issues that are currently devastating our education system, and they are standing up for their pupils’ future as well as their own.

They’re defending the professional standing of teachers against Michael Gove’s push to have unqualified staff teaching in academies and free schools.

Performance-related pay threatens cooperation and team-work among teaching staff, reflecting the same approach being taken between schools, which are being urged to compete against each other for pupils and results, despite the fact that there’s strong evidence that cooperation between schools produces better results. That’s been demonstrated in Brighton and Hove, where the Green-run council has significantly improved GCSE results with a cooperative approach.

Hundreds support Michael Rosen for Education Secretary - but he declines...

 

This picture I took on the 11,000 strong London NUT Strike March on Wednesday has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook with many approving comments.  Michael Rosen himself  declined to take up the role:

•  michael rosen for prime minister! uk would definitely be a kinder place.

  
  
• Michael Rosen This has got out of hand...730 likes! Let's take it as an expression of dissatisfaction with the present holder of the office, huh?

  
   at the risk of sounding sycophantic, I'm with the girl holding the placard!

  
  
• Michael, I'm afraid that most of us are pretty serious...

• Michael Rosen Can I make clear that I do not support this motion?!

  
  
• you can make a banner with 'anyone but Rosen or Gove for education secretary' ?

  
  
•  Go for it Michael. You are one of the few writers with decent ideas for education. With special courses you organise you could even get Gove and the rest of this government to rejoin the human race.

  Yes please, Michael Rosen! Preferably sometime before Alexander's in reception so we can avoid the insanity of fonix!

  
  I would be happy to participate in any necessary revolt to make this possible. Who's with me?
  
  Michael Rosen blogs HERE
  
  His letters to Michael Gove Letter from a Curious Parent are required reading for anyone concerned about the future of education in this country.
  
  How about a pre-election TV debate between Michael Gove and Michael Rosen with an audience of teachers, parents and school students? 

Video: NUT Standing Up For Education March 26th