Preston Manor covenant costs approach half a million

Brent Council has incurred legal costs payable to Druces LLP of almost £170,000 including VAT and disbursements in the legal case over restrictive covenants at Preston Manor School an FoI request by Wembley Matters has discovered.

The covenants forbade any new school build on the land and residents had objected to plans for a new primary school on the site. After a risk assessment the council decided to go ahead anyway and seek a removal of the covenants at the Land Tribunal. Residents then objected to the removal of the covenants at  the Tribunal and a negotiated settlement is in process which if successful would remove the necessity of a hearing.

Druces was instructed by the school but the council agreed to indemnify the school's legal costs so that the borough's families and children could benefit from 'the new much needed school building'.

In addition the council's legal services have spent 142 hours on the case. The response states that officer time in other departments involved was not recorded.

The council refuse to give the compensation costs involved in settling the case quoting legal advice that the information is exempted from disclosure under section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In fact I revealed in a previous posting that according to a reliable source, residents had been offered £303,000 to settle their claim. LINK

This makes a total of £473,000 excluding the hours of officer time but this may not be the end of the matter. The council state:

If the matter is not concluded by negotiated settlement before the hearing, the Council will incur further legal costs and fees for the attendance of expert witness at the hearing.

The failure of Children and Families officers to exercise due diligence over the original proposal is proving very costly.

The full response to my FoI request can be found HERE

Preston Manor teachers strike as Co-operative values betrayed

Values betrayed?

 Members of the National Union of Teachers at Preston Manor All Through school are to strike against the governors' intention to convert the school to become a Co-operative Academy.  Staff,  parents and the community had all been assured by the school's  headteacher Matthew Lantos and the then Chair of Governors, last year that forming a Co-operative Trust was not the first step to becoming a Cooperative Academy. The first strike will take place on Wednesday 23rd January in an attempt to force the governing body to step back from their intention to convert the school on February 1st.

The NUT wrote the following letter to parents this week.

 Dear Parents/Carers

You will be aware of the consultation over academy status. The joint education unions sent you a communication during that consultation (see overleaf) about why they believe this is NOT the right move for Preston Manor. In a secret ballot the staff rejected the move by 86.5% - a massive vote against an academy. This was also on a large turnout of staff. Parents have also voted by a good majority against the school converting.

Due to this overwhelming opposition the NUT, by far the biggest teachers union in the school,
balloted our members on possible strike action. This is particularly after the governors decided to ignore the staff and parent ballot and continue down the academy path. NUT members have voted YES by 94.6% on a high turnout to take strike action if the Governors do not listen to staff and parents.

None of our members want to go on strike and we are hoping to negotiate with Governors to at least postpone the process. Currently the school is a co-operative trust school supposedly run on a democratic basis. There has been no opportunity to develop this with almost immediate academy conversion.

The Governors are not following the Co-op values they and you agreed to.We therefore are asking the governorsto heed the democratic vote and not convert. The school, Co-op and unions have had the opportunity to put their arguments to both staff and parents/carers. No-one can claim that the facts were not clear to those voting. People clearly voted against an academy.

We ask that you support the NUT members in their action. The first day for action is proposed for Wednesday 23rd January. We really hope that this can be averted by the Head and Governors deciding to step back from conversion on 1st February.

Please contact the parent governors (details on school website) and tell them that you support the teachers and that governors should follow the democratic wish of staff and parents

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.

Break up of Brent's local authority school system continues

The headteacher of Preston Manor was annoyed at me when during September's Education Debate at Copland High School I included Preston Manor in a comment about academies. 'We are not an academy,' he said and then got more upset when I responded, 'Not yet!'. 

Anti-academy campaigners in Brent were always concerned that when schools became Cooperative Trusts there would be an almost automatic progression to becoming Cooperative Academies. This was denied by the Cooperative College when they spoke to local schools and trade unions.The Cooperative Trust model was sold as a way of staying within the locally funded network of schools but in a more cooperative way and alternative to private sponsorship.

Preston Manor is currently a Cooperative Trust foundation school but is consulting on becoming a Cooperative academy. The consultation started in November and will finish in on December 7th.  A meeting for parents took place yesterday evening.

In a letter to parents the headteacher said:

Earlier this term I wrote to explain that the Governors had agreed to my recommendation to apply to the Secretary of State to be considered for conversion to Co-operative Academy status. I stressed that over the last eighteen months Governors have discussed the potential benefits and any drawbacks or risks of conversion to Co-operative Academy status as well as listening to the views of staff, students and parents.

The Governors’ thinking has always focused on the best interests of the students and children at the school;  they are adamant that if Preston Manor does convert to Co-operative Academy status it would  continue to offer inclusive and comprehensive education to our students and children but would have the benefits of greater curriculum freedoms;   continue to embrace the Co-operative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity; continue with the same admissions policy; retain national and local terms and conditions for all existing and future staff;  utilise the additional finances to improve the school even further, with a particular focus on teaching and learning, standards and progress;  continue to work collaboratively with other local schools to benefit students, children and staff;  continue to have a majority of Governors who are parents or staff; and  keep our school day and school year within the local context.

The joint education unions in a letter to staff and parents said:

The joint education unions welcome Preston Manor Governors commitment to having a full consultation over the possible move to academy status.

As supporters of locally accountable comprehensive state education, we view with grave concern this Government's plans to privatise the whole of the education system through academies and free schools. We expressed these concerns when the school was consulting over the move to Co-operative Trust status .

We hope that where our members oppose conversion the Co-op would respect this. The NASUWT has a good relationship with the Co-operative movement but remains opposed to Academies . As the Unions representing the overwhelming majority of staff we are concerned the impact that such a change of status could have on the children's education and the conditions of service for the employees.

Preston Manor is a good and improving school. Why does it need to change?

This proposal has nothing to do with improving education for pupils. If it was, your child's teachers would all have been calling for these changes . They have not, and are not.

Academies , though state funded, are in the independent sector- the tax payer pays but academies are democratically unaccountable locally. Academies are accountable directly to Michael Gove, Secretary of State. The whole of the TUC and its affiliated trade unions are opposed to academies .

As you know the teaching and support staff at the school are dedicated and committed to providing the best education for the pupils at the school. They believe that any change to the school  should  be one which makes a positive difference to children's educational attainment. There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that becoming an academy would raise educational standards . Rather, in the long term, we are convinced it will be the reverse and lower them.

Private companies are lining up to take over the provision of school services - and in future to provide and run all schools to make  a profit. They may price cut at the start but increase costs later. We see the Government's true privatising colours in raising tuition fees to £9000 and are now supporting private universities. Gove's long term intention is to privatise the running of schools and education

Though the current Head and Governors may promise things will not change, when  they  move  on  as happens over time , any new leadership can change things very quickly if the school is an academy . These would include for example determining the curriculum, pay, conditions and varying duties.

The only guarantee that national pay and conditions will continue to be applied to staff would be if Preston Manor did not become an academy .

Is there a financial advantage to becoming an academy?

If Preston Manor becomes an academy it initially receives some extra funding but only for only a short period of time . The Department for Education has stated that; 'the government is clear that a school converting to an academy will not have a financial advantage or disadvantage '.

We have requested a copy of the Preston Manor business plan but as yet it has not been forthcoming . We would urge the Governors to ensure that the financial implications are fully explored . Some heads present academy status as a short term funding expedient, but the consequences for the school are long term and serious. In the funding context , academies undermine the  key principle of accountability in public funding - they  are publicly funded , but not subject to the same reporting requirements as maintained schools.

 If Preston Manor becomes an academy it will leave Copland High School as the only community secondary school in Brent.

The shape of Brent secondary education will be:

South of the North Circular Road:
Newman College (Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided), Capital Academy (private sponsor), Crest Boys and Crest Girls (private sponsor), Queens Park (Cooperative Academy), Convent of Jesus and Mary (Converter Roman Catholic)

North of the North Circular Road:
St Gregory's  (Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided), JFS (Jewish Voluntary Aided applying for converter status),  Ark Academy (private sponsor all-through) Kingsbury High (Converter), Wembley High (Converter), Alperton High  (Cooperative Academy), Preston Manor (Cooperative Academy - all-through), Copland Hugh (foundation school)

Amongst primary schools Sudbury has become the first academy. A question mark may hang over Preston Manor's partner schools once it becomes an academy.  They are Oakington Manor Primary,  Preston Park Primary and  Woodfield Special school.

The break-up of the network of local authority, democratically elected secondary schools is almost complete. I expressed fear that Preston Manor's expansion into primary provision as a result of the Ark Academy would  inevitably lead to Preston Manor seeking academy status. To its credit it hasn't taken the private sponsor route and appears to be holding a fair consultation process but the decision, if it goes ahead, will still undermine the local schools system and open the way to further disintegration.