Beware: Sham consultation ahead

Guest blog by Save Roke Campaign, Parents at Roke Primary in Croydon have been campaigning against their children's school being forced to become an academy. They have been working with the Save Gladstone Park campaign. The process at Roke is further along the line and Harris Academies (run by Lord Harris the Carpetright millioniare and Tory Party donor) has been chosen by the DfE as sponsor. Harris have been carrying out a 'consultation' with parents...


The results of the Harris consultation have finally been published. It is a government commissioned document that will enable the Secretary of State to make his final decision on Roke. The consultation cost £5k of taxpayers money. Yet it contains biased reporting of statistics and omission of data that is unfavourable to Harris. It is alarming but not surprising because the consultation was not run by a neutral or independent arbitrator but by Harris themselves.

Harris have twisted their stats making it look like 62.5% parents support a Harris academy, when in fact only 19% of respondents said this, meaning that 81% did not voice support for them!

So how strong is the support for Harris at Roke? Support is miniscule. Only 15 parents from a school with 442 pupils voted for a Harris academy. If we go by one vote per child, this is a measly 3% of parents. This means 97% of parents were either against, undecided or did not bother to express an opinion by abstaining from the vote. Many parents felt it was a fait accompli and a fake consultation. They did not believe that we would be listened to, so they did not bother to fill in their consultation forms.

Harris will argue that there only 80 people returned their forms. They will state that only around 17% bothered to vote and will deduce that most parents are indifferent. We beg to differ. Of course there is always some indifference or apathy, but we think this figure actually captures two things: 1) the powerlessness parents feel at controlling the outcome and 2) the fact that no one has actually explained in an accessible way what academisation actually means. There were no verbal presentations or explanation. Some parents just don't feel informed enough to have an opinion. What is clear is that there was absolutely no ringing endorsement of Harris.

Given that there has been such a spirited campaign against the forced academy at Roke, this was the opportunity for pro Harris parents to really make their voice count in an anonymous ballot, the fact that only 3 % came out to support Harris- speaks volumes about how welcome they are at Roke.

Incredibly, Harris manage to present the results in such a way that makes it appear that 62.5% of parents support them sponsoring Roke. They achieved this by only including the responses of the 24 parents who voted 'yes' to a question asking if they supported academisation at Roke, of these just 15 went on to say they supported Harris as sponsor. These are tiny numbers. Harris completely ignored the opinions of parents who voted 'no' to an academy. Their opinions on whether Harris should sponsor the school were not included in the analysis. It means everyone who voted that they did not want to be an academy - had absolutely no voice about whether or not they wanted Harris to be the sponsor.

The school ran their own poll to gauge parent opinion which had a much larger response than the Harris poll (129 families- only one vote was allowed per family), probably due to greater faith in the way the poll was being run. As a final blow to transparency, only half of these results were included in the consultation report, despite these being submitted by both the school and the Save Roke committee. Results pertaining to whether parents wished to become an academy were included, but a question about whether parents supported Harris as sponsor should we become an academy, was completely omitted. We can only think that they were omitted because the results were clearly unfavourable to Harris. It showed that 83% of respondents were against a Harris academy and preferred Riddlesdown Collegiate as sponsor. We know which survey we trust. We are dismayed that Harris have completely written out Riddlesdown as a legitimate alternative, from the consultation.

Here is the missing information.

Q2 If the school does become an academy, who do you want as the sponsor?

Riddlesdown Collegiate 83%

Harris Federation 17%

Brent tells Gove Gladstone Park improvement should be via local school partnership

Yesterday I had another letter published in the Brent and Kilburn Times responding to Mary Arnold's letter of the previous week when she accused me of having 'distorted views' on Brent Education.

In yesterday's letter I wrote that 'Brent Labour Party appears to have given up the fight against Michael Gove's policies and instead seeks to work with them. Parents (a reference to Gladstone Park parents fighting forced academy status) have been left on their own to challenge DfE bullying.

A posting appeared on the Brent Labour website by Mary Arnold containing the very welcome news that Brent Council has written to the Michael Gove asking him to accept that Gladstone Park's school improvement plan is 'most effectively delivered with the support of a local school partnership'.

Gladstone Park is the latest school to be challenged by Michael Gove's obsessive drive to academise all schools nationwide. 

When Ofsted comes and finds weaknesses, the DfE has a single solution to insist on a 'management change' which Gove equates with status change and imposing a sponsoring academy. This is regardless of the school's track record, the improvement plans or the parents' views.

We have a major responsibility to represent our parents and pupils to ensure high standards. We have written to the Secretary of State to ask him to accept the school improvement plan that would be most effectively delivered with the support of a local school partnership that is both knowledgeable and experienced in our children's needs.

The Academy Commission Report pointed out that academy status alone is not a panacea for improvement - some academies are good, some can turn round schools and others are failing or have weaknesses. As the Gladstone plan is declared fit for purpose and the school is keen to deliver with early signs of raised achievement already, it is more sensible to concentrate on this rather than disrupt the structure and disadvantage the pupils and teachers.

Our schools must not have inadequate standards or under perform but we know in Brent, based on sound evidence, that local federation and partnership is the best solution

Cllr Mary Arnold is the lead member for Children & Families at Brent Council

Teather cancels her meeting with Gladstone Park parents

Sarah Teather has cancelled her appearance at tonight's meeting with Gladstone Park Primary's Parents Action Group on the grounds that the meeting had been advertised to a wider audience and might raise the temperature when calm was required to maintain a dialogue between the DfE and the school.

She said:

I have spoken to the Secretary of State about Gladstone Park school and will continue to push the Department for Education to work with and not against the school. I am hopeful that a constructive solution is possible here.

My offer to meet separately with the parents action group as originally agreed remains open.

I understand that the parents will still meet tonight to discuss the campaign against forced academisation. 6pm Pakistan Coommunity Centre, Marley Walk, Station Road next to Willesden Green station.

Sarah Teather to meet with parents over forced academies

Gladstone Park Primary School Parents Action Group is to meet with their local MP Sarah Teather to hear her report back on a meeting she has had with Michael Gove on the forced academies issue. Sarah Teather worked in Gove's department until her sacking at the last reshuffle.

When in opposition Teather was a vociferous opponent of Labour's academy programme but appeared to change her mind when she became a minister in the Coalition and took action to enable special schools to convert to academy status.

The latest strategy shift, in which Gove forces primary schools to convert to a sponsored academy after only one poor Ofsted result,  may be a policy that Teather finds repugnant. Certainly her democratic principles must be offended by the bullying nature of the 'brokers' who are charged by the DfE with the conversion process, the refusal to consult until AFTER governors have accepted a sponsor, and the failure to take account of the views of school staff and parents.  The most glaring issue is that the process does not at present allow any of the parties involved (staff, parents, governors) to reject forced academisation outright.

The meeting is public so I am sure if you are interested in the fundamental issues raised by forced academisation that you will be welcome to attend. It is expected that some of our Brent councillors will be attending.

Dudden Hill Labour Councillor supports Gladstone Park Parents' forced academy resistance

Councillor Aslam Choudry (Labour Dudden Hill) has responded to an e-mail from a resident whose grandchildren attend the school with this message:

Let me make my position clear. I have been associated with Gladstone Park School for over 20 years . All of my four children attended Gladstone Primary School and I firmly believe that the school does an excellent service to the local community.

Last Friday, I spoke at the local mosque in Willesden Green before the Jummah Prayers in favour of the demonstration outside the school and, in fact encouraged the congregation to take part.

I am aware that at least 5 parents came to the demonstration .

So, I support your efforts and I believe the Gladstone School is already doing a great deal to improve the education for all children and therefore it should not be forced to go the academy route.

Please let me know if you wish to talk further on this.

Support Gladstone Park protest against forced academy on Friday

A message from the Parents Action Group at Gladstone Park Primary School who are campaigning against forced academy status:

A public protest will be taking place in front of Gladstone Park School on

Friday 8 February against academy status being forced upon the school.

The protest will take place at 3.15pm by the front entrance to the school in Sherrick Green Road.

Please come armed with placards and banners and please try to mobilise support in the wider community so that as many people as possible attend.

We believe the event will be covered by BBC London news and various other media.