Academy conversion of The Village School would complete privatisation of special education in Brent

If The Village School were to academise it would be the third Brent special school to take this route. Woodfield converted in April 2014 and Manor formed the Brent Specialist Academy Trust, along with The Avenue special free school, in April 2017.  This would remove all the borough's  specialist special education schools from Brent Council oversight and open the way to them combingin to form a Multi-Academy Trust. The vehicle already exists in the Brent Specialist Academy Trust.

All three schools co-operated in setting up the free school and claimed that the move was supported by Brent Council.

Brent Labour as represented by councillors has never taken a firm stand against academisation or free schools. It claimed the local authority did not have the resources to support Copland High School when it failed Ofsted and supported Ark taking it over as Ark Elvin. Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, is the local authority representative on the Ark Elvin governing body. The authority has supported Ark in opening a new primary 3 form entry free school on the York House site in Wembley.

The stance taken by Brent Central CLP, Brent Central CLP trade union liaison officers and Cllr Jumbo Chan is therefore a significant departure from this policy of acquiescence.

They are not only up against Muhammed Butt but also Cllr Sandra Kabir (Queensbury) who chairs The Village School governing body - the same governing body that wants to convert the school to academy status!  The lobbying of the Labour Group to oppose the position of its own chief whip is rich in irony.  Cllr Mili Patel, lead member for chidlren and families, is relatively inexperienced and does not appear to have made any statement on the issue.

The lobby of the Labour Group which will include NEU officials and staff from The Village School will take place at 6pm this evening in the antrium of Brent Civic Centre.

For the arguments against academies see the Anti Academies Alliance website HERE    The TUC, NASUWT, NUT, ATL, UCU, UNISON, UNITE, GMB, PCS, MU and FBU are affiliated to the Anti Academies Alliance.

Lobby of Brent Labour Group on The Village School academisation plans on Monday

The Brent Labour Group  of councillors meets on Monday and will be lobbied by opponents of the academisation of The Village School. Brent Constituency Labour Party recently passed a motion opposing the academisation and the Brent Labour Party Trade Union Liaison Officers wrote to Labour councillors calling on them to publicly oppose the privatisation of the special school in which Brent Council has heavily invested. The school building and grounds, currently the property of Brent Council, would be handed over to an academy trust and the school would no longer operate under the over-sight of the Council. Parents with complaints would no longer ne able to have them taken up by the Council.

The Group  meeting begins at 7pm and members will be lobbied from 6pm in the Civic Centre antrium. Althugh councillors have no direct control over whether a school governing body decides to academise it is hoped that a strong stance from them could help bring about negotiations that would avert strikes planned for January16th and 17th.

Call for Brent Labour Group to declare opposition to The Village School academisation bid

The Trade Union Liasion Officers of Brent Central Constituency Labour Party have written ot the Labour Group on Brebt Council asking them to make a public declaration of their opposition to The Village School Governing Body's proposal  to convert the school into an academy. 

Their letter reads:

It was good to see many of you at the House of Commons in December celebrating the Brent Central election victory with Dawn Butler, Jeremy Corbyn, Ian Lavery (chair of PLP), Kate Osamor and others.

You will recall that the issue of the Governors’ attempt to privatise Village School through academisation was discussed.It was great to have an assurance from Jeremy at the meeting that the national Labour Party policy is opposition to academisation and Dawn has already made clear her opposition to this privatisation.

The National Education Union (formerly NUT and ATL) was forced to stage a one day strike on 14 December which closed the school.120 teachers at the school were on strike in order to prevent this huge resource and vital service (as one of the largest and most modern special schools in England it serves the whole of Brent and is rated Outstanding by OFSTED).

Sadly more strikes are being prepared for this month as Governors press on with a plan to take this resource out of the public sector (losing £millions of Brent Council investment).

We urge you at the Labour Group meeting on 8 January 2018 to make a public declaration of opposition to the Governors proposal and publicise this widely 

With best wishes for the New Year 

Graham Durham and Hank Roberts
Trade Union Liaison officers - Brent Central CLP

Cllr Chan opposes The Village School move towards academisation

From this week's Kilburn Times LINK

Click on image to enlarge

Anti-academisation strike to go ahead at The Village School after negotiations fail

The  £19m Village School building could be handed over to a MAT

Staff at The Village School in Kingsbury, Brent will take strike action against the proposal to turn the school into an academy, part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT). 

The strike will be going ahead at this special school on Thursday December 14^th because negotiations so far have failed to change the situation and the governors will not meet again until January. There will be a picket and rally from 7:30am to 9:30am.

An NEU spokesperson said:

In September there were 32 NEU members. Now there are 125. Staff are joining every day because they say they want to strike against the school becoming an academy with the consequences to their terms and conditions and the negative impact on the teaching and learning of the pupils.

The strike has been backed by the Green Party. Pete Murry said:

As Green Party Trade Union Liaison Officer for Brent and for the London Federation of Green Parties, I wish to send support to the teachers at The Village School in Kingsbury who have voted to take strike action against the proposal to turn the school into an academy. If this retrograde step takes place it means the loss of a substantial educational asset for the people of Brent which large amounts of council resources have been paid to develop.

I would like to second the question of NEU (National Education Union) reps who ask why Brent Council is not opposing this proposed academisation, in spite of the reported opposition of Brent Central Constituency Labour party which the council purports to represent on behalf of the communities of Brent.

NEU call on Brent Labour leadership to follow Corbyn's policy on privatisation of education ahead of Village school strike

From the National Education Union in Brent
 

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Staff at The Village School in Kingsbury, Brent have voted to take strike action against the proposal to turn the school into an academy, part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT). Unless the proposal to become a MAT is withdrawn, NEU* staff will strike before Christmas.

John Roche, NEU ATL section Brent Secretary said:

The school passed its last Ofsted in with an ‘Outstanding’ judgement in all categories in October 2016 so clearly there is no educational reason to seek to become an academy. Furthermore, Brent Local Authority has put millions of pounds into this special school and now a state asset, our asset, is proposed to be privatised. Staff ask why is a Labour Authority not up in arms at this attempt to foist a Tory policy on one of their schools?

Lesley Gouldbourne, NEU NUT section Brent Secretary said:

The Government’s academy programme has proved a corrupt shambles that has done nothing to improve education and lacks accountability, in particular with finances. The Wakefield City Academy Trust (WCAT) has collapsed leaving 21 schools in chaos affecting 8500 children. Joining a MAT means all the school’s assets and any surpluses are handed over. A small group of unaccountable, unelected trustees control the finances. I am also finding it hard to understand why a Labour Council is not opposing the privatisation of this jewel in Brent's crown, especially at a time when it is taking other services back in-house. Cllr Butt has not replied to my email about this.

A report on BBC news in Leeds and West Yorkshire stated, “During a Wakefield Council meeting it was claimed that the Trust (WCAT) moved millions of pounds of school reserves into its centralised accounts prior to collapse. Leader Peter Box said he would be talking to the police about his concerns”. 

Hank Roberts, NEU ATL section London Executive said:

The NEU believes that the Labour Council leadership is not following the democratically established overwhelming majority of Brent Labour Party members that oppose the loss of more Council LA controlled schools to be handed over to be privately run by Trusts. This is clear from the resolutions passed unanimously at Brent LP meetings and the London Region of the LP. Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to the privatisation of state education has been made clear. Instead, it appears that they are doing the bidding of senior paid Council employees with an agenda.

Brent Central CLP urge support for anti-academisation strike at The Village School

Brent Central Constituency Labour Party has sent the following message to members. Also see the report on page 10 of the current Kilburn Times LINK

The Village School, currently a Local Authority school, provides an excellent education for pupils in Brent with complex special educational needs, receiving 'outstanding' in all areas in its last Ofsted inpsection last year. It has a high staff-to-child ratio with highly experienced staff who are committed to ensuring that every child reaches their full potential.

That philosophy is under threat, as the school management has decided the school should become an academy as part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT). An academy is run as a private business using taxpayers money. This Tory Government wants to privatise all of education. The staff and parents at the school oppose this move, but the management are pressing ahead with their plans and asking the Department for Education to approve this privatisation in the New Year.

Now the staff need your support to make the management put the needs of the children first. Around 100 staff will be taking strike action next Thursday 14th December, and there will be a protest outside the school gates in the morning to show the level of support in the community for keeping the school in the local authority.

Come along on Thursday 14th December to join the protestors any time from 07:30 to 09:30 at the Stag Lane pedestrian entrance (Kingsbury, London NW9 0JY). Brent Central Labour Party’s Executive Committee supports this strike action and we hope to see many of you there too!

The Village School MAT proposal was discussed at the Teachers Joint Consultative Committee on November 29th and although Minutes are not published for this committee I expect that strong opposition to academisation was voiced by teacher representatives.

Brent academies propose new free school and special schools a new free special school

With the present government snot allowing local authorities to build new schools to meet growing demand for school places, Brent Council has said it will pursue options with academy and free school providers.

As all local secondary schools are academies it is unable to force them to expand on existing sites. Now local academies that are not part of a chain have claimed they have been backed by Brent Council in proposing a new secondary free school in the north of Brent.

Separately a consortium of special schools have forward a bid for a new special school to meet growing demand. This also claims to be backed by the Council.

In both cases a headteacher will be appointed from an existing school and will head up the new school in addition to their present post.

Both bids will have to be approved by the DfE.

The secondary proposal is for Brent North School in the north of Brent/Wembley area and is backed by Terry Molloy, headteacher of Claremont High School; Mike Hulme headteacher of Queens Park Community School and Gil Bal, Executive headteacher of Wembley High Technology College. Gil Bal would me headteacher of the new school in addition to her role at Wembley High.

The proposers have no site in mind at the moment and readers will know the difficulties various free schools have had in finding a site in Brent. A site in the north of Brent will add to the imbalance of schools between the north and the south of the borough.

Wembley already has Ark Elvin (previously Copland), Ark Academy, Michaela Free School,  Preston Manor and Wembley High with the new 1,000 plus private French School also in the area. Elsewhere in the north of the borough there is Claremont, Kingsbury High and St Gregory's RC - the only non-academy. The Jewish Free School, situated in Kingsbury, takes few pupils from Brent.

Despite not having a site the school intends to open in September 2018 with 180 places for Year 7 pupils. It promises to admit children of 'all faiths and none, giving priority to siblings and children at local primary schools'.

The proposers  justify the need for a new school on the basis that Claremont, Queens Park and Wembley High collectively received over 3000 applications for Year 7 in 2016, including almost 1,000 first preferences for the 670 available places.

This is their brochure:


The second proposal is for a new special school and is led by Woodfield Special School Academy, Manor School and the Village School. This may prove to be controversial as there are many who want to see special needs pupils integrated into mainstream schools rather than segregated into special provision. This is dependent on resourcing that ensure high quality provision.

The school would be sited at the junction of Christchurch Avenue and Brondesbury Park NW6 which is possibly the same site that Marylebone Boys Free School had their eye on. LINK

It would provide 100 places for children aged between 4 and 18 with complex needs including ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). The proposers say that the school is needed because the existing special schools are full.

Ms Jardine, Head of Manor School, would be headteacher of the new school in addition to her existing post.

This is their brochure: