Boris Johnson fails to answer key questions on his free school policy

Following Boris Johnson's announcement that he wanted to encourage more free schools in London and find GLA surplus property for them, Darren Johnson Green Assembly Member put a number of questions to him in order to delve deeper into his policy which could threaten equality of access for children with disabilities and special educational needs as well as reduce public accountability of schools.

The answers indicate that in fact there is no depth to the policy and that it has not been thought through. Londoners deserve more than 'off the top of the head' thinking when it comes to educating our chidlren. Today's league tables for regions and local authorities show London local authoirty secondary schools are rated higher by Ofsted than the England average.

Here are the questions which Boris Johnson apparently found too hard to answer:

Accountability of Free Schools

Question No: 3469 / 2012

Darren Johnson

How will you ensure that free schools you support, financially, with sites or otherwise, are democratically accountable to the local community as well as to the Secretary of State for Education?

Written response from the Mayor

Policy on free schools is set nationally. Please contact the Department for Education for information about free schools and accountability. More information about free schools is available at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools.

 

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Free School policies (1)

Question No: 3470 / 2012

Darren Johnson

How will you ensure that there is fair access to free schools for pupils with special education needs, disabilities or on the free school meals register?

Written response from the Mayor

Policy on free schools is set nationally. Please contact the Department for Education for information about free schools and Special Educational Needs, disabilities, and Free School Meals. More information about free schools is available at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools.

 

Free School policies (2)

Question No: 3471 / 2012

Darren Johnson

How will you ensure that all free schools you support, financially, with sites or otherwise, commit to a close working relationship with the local authority in order to maintain an appropriate focus on borough-wide priorities, including local authority nomination of a member of the governing body and a commitment to sharing performance information?

Written response from the Mayor

Policy on free schools is set nationally. Please contact the Department for Education for information about free schools and their relationship with local authorities. More information about free schools is available at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools.

 

Free School policies (3)

Question No: 3472 / 2012

Darren Johnson

How will you ensure that all free schools you support, financially, with sites or otherwise, commit to appropriate staffing arrangements to ensure high quality teaching and learning from qualified staff and good employment practices, including in relation to support and contracted staff?

Written response from the Mayor

Policy on free schools is set nationally. Please contact the Department for Education for information about free schools and staffing. More information about free schools is available at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools.

 

Free School policies (4)

Question No: 3473 / 2012

Darren Johnson

How will you ensure that all free schools you support, financially, with sites or otherwise, commit to community access and use of facilities through agreed extended opening and lettings policies?

Written response from the Mayor

Policy on free schools is set nationally. Please contact the Department for Education for information about free schools and community access. More information about free schools is available at http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools.

 

Free School policies (5)

Question No: 3474 / 2012

Darren Johnson

Will you rule out financial support and the provision of GLA group owned sites for free schools that teach creationism as scientific fact?

Written response from the Mayor

The Department for Education has made very clear that it will not grant approval to any free school application that plans to teach creationism as scientific fact.

 

Building new community schools

Question No: 3467 / 2012

Darren Johnson

Will you press the Government to allow London boroughs to build new community schools in areas where there is a shortage of school places?

Written response from the Mayor

London is facing a severe shortfall of school places and I am grateful that the Government has doubled its funding for basic need addressing the shortage left by the previous Government. I will continue to make the case for London to the Treasury as I have previously successfully done when making joint representations with London Councils. Government funding for new schools, including free schools, presumes that they will be academies. I also want to encourage a new generation of free schools in our capital, to help address the shortage of school places and give parents more genuine choice.

 

Building schools where they are most needed

Question No: 3468 / 2012

Darren Johnson

What steps are you taking to ensure that public funding for new schools is directed towards areas of London where there is the largest anticipated shortfall in school places?

Written response from the Mayor

The GLA currently runs a pan London school roll projections service for boroughs. I will explore how we can expand this to cover all boroughs, and how we can work more effectively to develop an improved, strategic picture of school places in the capital. I will also support the creation of new free schools where there is strong parental demand though not necessarily a shortage of places.

 

Gladstone Free School proposers answer some key questions

William Gladstone makes a point...

 The proposers of a secondary free school in NW2, the four form entry Gladstone Free School, have supplied the answers to questions I sent them about their plans. They have now met with an officer from Brent Council and think that their proposal ticks all the boxes of the  partnership principles set out by the council LINK

The Questions and Answers

1. How will you ensure that all children have access to the school and what will your admissions criteria be?

Our aim is to create a non-selective community school for the Cricklewood/ Gladstone Park area. The school will be open to all but if we are oversubscribed then distance from the school will be the main criterion. We want this school to reflect the local community and will try to place it where it is accessible, though we can’t select a site until we have been approved for funding.

2. Will your school reflect the socio-economic profile of its neighbourhood as measured by the proportion of children admitted who are entitled to free school meals.

We actively want a community school that reflects the profile of its neighbourhood and are planning for at least 27% (Brent's average) of pupils on free school meals. We have chosen distance as the main criterion with the intention of siting the school in the heart of that community. We hope this will ensure a fully representative pupil intake.

3. Will you give priority to children with statements of special education need and those who are Looked After?

Pupils with Special Education Needs who have the school named on their statement will be guaranteed a place. Looked after children are given priority, as they would be with a local authority school.

4. Will you insist that all teaching staff have Qualified Teacher Status?

We anticipate that the majority of teachers will have qualified teacher status (QTS). However, in order to best support the anticipated range of educational needs we will be using a wide variety of innovative strategies, including bringing in expertise from cultural organisations, industry, universities and so on. We can't therefore guarantee that all those teaching will have QTS. What we won’t be doing is using non-qualified teaching staff to cut costs or to make profits.

5. Will your teachers enjoy the same conditions of service as local authority school teachers?

Recruiting, developing and supporting the very best teachers is a key part of our vision. We will have fair terms of employment and will consult on those terms. Our hours and our term times might be different from the Local Authority and therefore we can’t guarantee at this stage that the terms of employment will be identical. We intend to seek the two ticks for disability rating as an employer.

6. How will you ensure democratic accountability for the school and its expenditure of public money?

Our published annual accounts will be publicly available to ensure accountability. We are forming a company with charitable aims to make the bid and run the school. A partnership with Brent council remains a possibility, and we welcome other proposals to ensure accountability.

7. Have you any premises ear-marked for the school?

We are not able to select or earmark premises until we have been approved for funding and have the buildings grant. If anyone knows of any large derelict sites which might suit our proposed school please get in touch. We want something in the heart of Cricklewood/ Gladstone park with good transport links and access to open space to support our active approaches to learning.

8. How far have you got with the application/approval process?

The DfE application submission window is from December 17th to January 4th. We have been recognised by the New Schools Network as a high potential new school and so are confident that our application is on track. We need to demonstrate demand for the school with 240 signatures of parents with children in years 4 and 5 on our pledge, and welcome assistance from parents and other members of the local community with that process. Please ask your readers to take a look at our website at www.gladstoneschool.org.

9. Would you consider a partnership with Brent Council for the school?

We have invited Brent Council to consider exactly that.

10. How will you consult with neighbouring schools and the community about your proposals?

We have made considerable efforts to communicate the plans about Gladstone School to local primaries, and have invited 40 headteachers to a special information briefing. We have put information on the NorthWestTwo residents association page and we are grateful for the opportunity to seek the views of readers of Wembley Matters. We had a stall at the Brent Golden Summer festival in Gladstone Park, and have an informal information briefing session at 11.00am every Thursday in the reception area of the Crown Moran Hotel on Cricklewood Broadway. We encourage feedback, either at the Crown briefings, or via our website. To date we have had an overwhelmingly positive reception to our proposals from local residents.

Anyone who seeks further answers is very welcome to use the "questions and answers" service on our website.

Does Labour support Adonis's academies policy?

During the Brent Education Debate, when Melissa Benn was expressing optimism about Labour's Policy Review producing a better policy on academies and free schools, and some faith that Stephen Twigg was clarifying his position, I said, "What about Lord Adonis?"

I thought I should explain.  Andrew Adonis, former Labour schools minister,  wrote an article in the New Statesman on September 14th LINK entitled Beyond Our Berlin Wall about the division between state and private education. His ideas are a long way from the support for the public sector and an accountable local schools network that were being expressed in our debate.

Adonis states:

It is academies that are systematically eradicating failing comprehensives, And academies - as independent state schools - are the vehicles by which private schools can become systematically engaged in establishing and running state-funded schools.

Explaining  how private schools should sponsor academies, he says:

I don't just mean advice and assistance, the loan of playing fields and the odd teacher or joint activity... I mean the private school or foundation taking complete responsibility for the governance and leadership of an academy or academies and staking their reputation on their success, as they do on the success of their fee-paying schools.

Taking for granted the superiority and success of academies and free schools, Adonis ignores fundamental issues such as selection, funding and small class sizes, as well as democratic accountability The day after the debate I took a class of children from a local private primary school to Fryent Country Park. There were 17 in the class; last year there were just 12. In contrast both community primary schools visiting that week had classes of 30. Is Adonis proposing that private school sponsored academies should have funding and class sizes to match their sponsors?

The New Statesman had a special reader offer of Adonis's new book, "Education, Education, Education", signed and with a "personalised inscription" at a special reduced rate of £8 (rrp £12.99). Somehow it seems to sum up Labour's confused position.

What Future for Brent Schools? Video of recent debate

Many thanks to Pete Murry of Brent Green Party for filming the second half of the What Future for Brent Schools debate. The video picks up after the presentations by the panel and the initial questions and statements from the audience.

The panel is from left to right (physically, not politically!) Cllr Mary Arnold, Brent Council leader member  for children and families;  Martin Francis Brent Green Party spokesperson on children and families; (Gill Wood, local parent, governor and chair); Jon O'Connor, Cooperative College; Melissa Benn author and governor and Hank Roberts, National President, ATL.

Clive Heaphy spoke out on Brent school victims of IT scams

Yesterday I tweeted about Brent schools being featured on Panorama's 'Reading, Writing and Rip-offs' last night. This was based on a circular from the council to headteachers.

In fact Brent weren't mentioned as such but Brent schools have had similar experiences, although not as expensive as some reported.

Clive Heaphy  Brent Director of Finance (since suspended while allegations of gross misconduct are investigated) spoke to the Times Educational Supplement about it earlier this year and reported on this blog LINK

Furness Primary is being sued by a finance company for £301,083 plus interest calculated at £14,579 in April and still rising. But Brent Council said the equipment involved was worth just £9,150 when it was sold off by the finance company in February.

Kensal Rise Primary is being sued by the same company for £287,000. Both schools have made counterclaims for money they say they have already paid “in error” - £805,000 in the case of Kensal Rise. The same school has also received a more recent claim from a second finance company for £253,000.

Brent says schools have been tempted into such deals by offers of up to £15,000 “cash back” a quarter from equipment suppliers that make initial lease repayments appear more favourable than the real long-term cost. Clive Heaphy, the authority’s finance director, said that primary heads were not always “business savvy” and cannot always “see through” such offers.

Given the political disagreement about academies Heaphy was very clear with his warning:

 “Inevitably there is a recipe there for difficult times ahead and potentially for some mismanagement issues and possibly some fraud issues,” he told TES, adding that increased autonomy for local authority schools had already made it much harder for town halls to guard against them misusing public money.

“I still retain personal accountability for schools’ finances and yet I see less and less data and have fewer and fewer levers to be able to do anything about it,” Mr Heaphy said. “There is very little action in reality you can take.”

On academies he said: “The only watchdog over them is the Department for Education itself. We have no relationship with them, but who does?”

 

Time for a Brent campaign for accountable and equal education?

'At the heart of every child...is a unique genius and personality. What we should be doing is to allow the spark of that genius to catch fire, to burn brightly and shine'

Michael Morpugo          

'Though this (Exam and Test) cult pretends that it can discern differences between people and makes judgements on their worth, this has little relation to real people's real worth in the real world, where all kinds of other capabilities are needed which the cult can't and doesn't test. eg ability to contribute to and learn from others in the process of performing a task; being flexible when confronted by the unexpected; knowing what to do and how to do it if required to research, investigate or enquire - particularly if the enquiry is going to involve more than one person; being able to motivate oneself (or a group of people) without an outside authority demanding that you do so' 

Michael Rosen        

Getting carried away at the Brent Education Debate

I cannot offer a comprehensive summary of the speeches made at the Brent Education debate this week by Cllr Mary Arnold (lead member for children and families), Jon O'Connor (Cooperative College), Melissa Benn (local parent and author) and Hank Roberts (President ATL). This was because I was due to speak further down the list and constantly updating what I was going to say as other speakers raised the issues that I had planned to cover.  Always a problem with a list of speakers. I hope to publish something more from an attendee later.

What I can do, however,  is outline some of the key themes that emerged.

Melissa Benn spoke about the introduction of the market into education and the way the state sector was being opened up to profit makers. She spoke about the continuities of approach of both Conservatives and Labour but also expressed hopes about Labour's current policy review. I broadened the analysis to suggest that the destruction of the post-war settlement which created the welfare state was an attack on the alternative, communitarian values of the public sector because of the threat they posed to the market values of competition and profit making.  The bottom up innovations by teachers in the 1970s and 80s and their broad and progressive definitions of the nature and purposes of education had been attacked through the abolition of the ILEA, removal of teachers' wage bargaining, the national curriculum,  testing, league tables and centralised systems such as the Numeracy and Literacy strategies. There has also been changes in teaching training which served the new agenda. Teachers, as well as pupils, were being disciplined into the market.

The threat of fragmentation of the school system through  academies and free schools was also a recurring theme.  The lack of democratic accountability, limited parental representation and the  limited powers of the LA to intervene could not bring about just fragmentation and limit the ability to plan school places, but could also create segregation and limit access for children with disabilities or special needs. I pointed out that although we didn't talk about it there was already segregation in Brent schools. I mentioned two cases of places in Brent where a community school and a faith school were next to each other. When children left at the end of the day, one school's pupils would be mainly white and Afro-Caribbean and the other mainly Somalian and Middle Eastern. (Clearly here religion and ethnicity overlap).

Cllr Mary Arnold said that in order to provide school places, and because all new schools had to be either free schools or academies, the council were trying to find an acceptable free school partner. This was better than having a less acceptable one turn up in the borough. The council had devised criteria LINK that the partner would have to meet.  I expressed doubt that a partner would come forward that would meet these criteria as justification for creating free schools and academies was not to be bound by such demands. I expressed concern about council's policy of increasing the size of primary schools to meet the school places shortage. Primary schools of more than 1,000 4-11 year old pupils would be the result and I questioned whether this was a suitable size of institution for young children. I said that the Green Party favourd small schools where the staff knew all the children and their families and where special needs and vulnerable children could be catered for. I was especially concerned about safeguarding in large schools.

Jon O'Connor, who has been involved in talks in Brent about setting up Cooperative Schools and Cooperative Trusts, stressed that such schools still followed LA admissions guidelines, were financed through the LA, did not take funds away from other schools and had a positive democratic ethos. He did not go into detail about Cooperative Academies which are a different kettle of fish. Melissa Benn, who is a parent at Queens Park Community School which has become an academy despite parental opposition, joined O'Connor in pleading that schools making very difficult decisions in the present climate, particularly in terms of the financial benefits of academy status, should not be harshly judged by others.  Hank Roberts said that he against academies and would carry on fighting even if only one survived, said that there was a hierarchy of preferences starting with the community school, through cooperative trusts and federations, cooperative academies to free schools and sponsored academies. O'Connor said that becoming a cooperative trust could protect schools from being 'enforced' academies but Roberts retorted that Gove would quickly close that loophole if it proved effective. He praised the staff and parents of Downshill  Primary in Haringey who had fought Gove's decision to enforce academy conversion. Cllr Mary Arnold said that the formation of a federation between Furness Primary and Oakington Manor Primary had prevented the possibility of the former being forced to become an academy.

The two Michaels quoted above introduce the next theme which is that of the impact of all these  'reforms' on childhood, the role of education, the nature of teaching and learning and much else beside. It is significant that they are both children's writers in regular contact with children and schools. The narrowing of the curriculum, exam and test driven teaching, the target culture (an audience member said that in one primary school children responded to their name being called in the register with their targets rather than 'Yes Miss') and packed timetables all impact on children. With the pressure of testing, even now extended to phonic testing of infants, the abolition of the EMA, introduction of  tuition fees and prop[sects of unemployment our children are under pressure as never before. I described how when I was a headteacher, a parent accused the school of putting so much pressure on her daughter regarding SATs that she was being robbed of her childhood. I urged that children,  rather than the needs of industry and international PISA comparisons, be put at the centre of education. We needed to reclaim the right to childhood as well as reclaim our schools. 

The last theme, proposed by Pete Firmin of Brent TUC, was that of resistance to what was going in education just as there is resistance to the destruction of the health service. A parent voiced, to loud applause her determination to resist the increasingly political role of Ofsted by promoting a parent strike when Ofsted visited, with children being kept off school. Cllr Mary Arnold spoke about demands that were being formulated through  London Councils that would mean a united strategy across London and cooperation between boroughs.  I suggested that with the demise of the local Campaign for the Advancement of State Education (CASE) and the Brent Federation of School Governors that from the meeting we should build a broad-based campaign involving parents, teachers, governors and students  on the basis of the  basic principles emerging from the meeting.

Jon O'Connor had been been busy with pen and pad as I was speaking and suggested a campaign called Building the Right Education Now Together (BRENT).

A little clumsy perhaps?

More than 70 people attended the debate which was very ably chaired by Gill Wood a local parent and governor. The audience included students, parents, teachers, governors and the headteachers of Copland, Kingsbury and Preston Manor High Schools. Unfortunately, although I don't know them all by sight, I could see no primary headteachers at the meeting.

Schools in turmoil - debate the changes on Thursday

Changes in education are coming thick and fast and it is hard to keep up, let alone work out what they mean for children, parents, teachers, headteachers and governors in our schools.

There is an urgent need for a discussion about the changes that are taking place. Brent teacher unions, supported by Brent Fightback, have organised a debate open to everyone in Brent who is concerned about the future of our education system, both nationally and locally.

Academies and free schools, changes in the curriculum, the crisis in the exam system, increases in the size of primary schools, the shortage of primary school places which will soon extend to secondary schools, the role of school governors, changes in the way schools are supported by the local authoirty and privatisation are all issues which cry out for debate.

The debate that will take place on Thursday 20th September at Copland Community School from 7-9pm.

Speakers will include

Melissa Benn, a local parent, writer and journalist who recently published 'School Wars - the battle for Britain's Education'

 Jon O'Connor, regional manager of the Cooperative College which supports schools setting up as cooperatives, cooperative federations or cooperative academies

Mary Arnold, Brent Council's lead member for Children and Families

Martin Francis, Brent Green Party spokesperson on Children and Families

Hank Roberts, ATL President and a Brent teacher

The meeting will be chaired by Gill Wood, local parent and school governor

What future for education in Brent?

Education has been very much in the news recently from parental protests over the ending of hot meals at Our Lady of Grace Junior School hitting today's front page of the Wembley and Willesden Observer, to the failure of several free schools to open leaving children adrift and Michael Gove admitting the GCSE marking was 'unfair' but doing nothing about it.

In Brent the headteacher of Newman Catholic College (formerly Cardinal Hinsley High School) has admitted there is a danger of forced academy conversion after poor results and other schools are considering academy conversion or becoming cooperative federations. In nearby Harrow the biggest free school has just opened.

Brent Council has embarked on another round of school expansions creating primaries with more than 1,000 pupils and the possibility of more 'all through' schools. Headteachers are promoting a consortium public enterprise to replace Brent Council's School Support Service.

Sarah Teather has lost her job as an education minister but Michael Gove holds on to his position and will continue his 'reforms'.

So there couldn't be a better time (for the worse possible reasons!) to hold a debate about the future of education in Brent.

I hope as many people as possible make it to the debate that has been organised for September 20th at Copland High School. Details below:

Gove's Olympic legacy in a nutshell

Brent Executive agrees free schools, academies and privatisation

Brent Executive took a few more strides along the privatisation road this evening.

They agreed to look for free school and academy partners in order to meet the demand for school places and approved school expansions increasing the size of some primary schols to more than 1,000 pupils. Although Cllr Arnold, lead member for children and families, said that this was an 'educational approach'  I fear for young children in such large institutions - particularly those on the autistic spectrum. Andy Donald's report did not mention the Gwenneth Rickus Building, currently the Centre for Staff Development Centre, in Brentfield Road. This was formerly part of Sladebrook High School and will become redundant when the Civic Centre opens next year.  It  may be put on the market along with Brent Town Hall - or perhaps it is ear-marked as a potential free school?

 The Executive  agreed to set up Brent Meanwhile Partnership (see previous blog LINK) which gives further powers to Andy Donald, Director of Regeneration and Major Projects - although Cllr Crane did not mention this in his very brief report which did not do justice to the wider repercussions of the policy..Donald will be delegated  to set up a London wide organisation as well as a local one and will be Brent's representative.

The public are not allowed to see how much of their money the council is going to pay to out-source the facilities management of the Council's entire property portfolio to Europa Facilities Services Ltd in a contact that will run from November until June 30th. Andy Donald's report outlines TUPE procedures for existing staff and says that the contractor has agreed to a staged voluntary redundancy process which he 'believes is acceptable to the GMB'. The staff concerned are older than the council average and have a higher proportion of ethnic minorities.

Following delays in setting up a new management agreement for the Brent Housing Partnership (BHP) the  Executive  agreed to delegate authority ot the Director of Regeneration and Major Projects (Andy Donald - of course)  in consultation with the Director of Legal and Procurement any  subsequent amendments between now and March 2013.

We MUST hear from Children and Families about these vital issues

Brent Council's website is acting up but there still appears to be no report from Children and Families going to the Executive this evening.

I have posted before on this silence regarding a major area of Council business.  Here are some of the things happening right now that the Executive really should be asking about:

CHILDREN'S SAFEGUARDING - The possible injury or death of a child is quite high up in Brent Council's Corporate Risk Assessment and the Council's last Ofsted inspection in this area was only 'satisfactory' with some inadequate areas.

CHILDREN NOT IN SCHOOL - Failure to meet statutory obligations regarding offering all children of school age a school place is another issue on the Risk Register and it appears that some expansion programmes are falling behind.

FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT IN BRENT SCHOOL - A forth Brent headteacher hit the headlines in the Evening Standard last week after being suspended while investigations into financial management issues take place and the Copland accused appeared in court. These matters are damaging the reputation of Brent Council and Brent schools and deserve some scrutiny.

FREE SCHOOL - The School Expansion Report confirmed that the Council was seeking partners to set up a free school and this is something that split the local Labour Party.  Have any sponsors been found? Are they the rumoured Christian organisation?

ACADEMIES - Staff at Alperton high School have been on strike following the governing body's decision to seek Cooperative Academy status and Queens Park and Wembley High are  considering co-op conversion. All this will mean a further loss of money to the hard-pressed local authority. Meanwhile Sudbury Primary, already a foundation school, is also trying to fast-track to academy status. Sudbury was in the headlines last week for charging children to listen to the children's poet (and socialist activist) Michael Rosen.

COOPERATIVE TRUST - A public notice was published last week indicating Preston Manor All-though School's decision to go for Trust status with partners including The College of North West London, the Wembley Primary School Cluster and Woodfield Special School. The LA will have one trustee on the board.  

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SERVICE - It appears that Brent Primary Headteachers' Group  has rejected all the possible options for future school improvement services and in-service education provision put forward by the Council and appear to be determined to 'go it alone' unless the SIS comes up with something better. This raises all sorts of questions about whether schools have the ability to provide such a service, how it will affect the workload of headteachers, and whether it will be sufficiently stringent to ensure that failing schools are spotted early on before children are damaged.


Neither the Lib Dem nor Tory opposition groups have a spokesperson on Children and Families, despite it being a major department, and it seems to me that these issues are not being given the attention they deserve.

The lack of leadership on education from either Brent officers or councillors has created a vacuum which ate present appears to have been filled by the two Johns: Yates and Simpson who as consultants are advising Brent primary headteachers.

"We're going on a Gove hunt, what a beautiful day, we're not scared!"

Michael Rosen, broadcaster and writer, publishes an entertaining blog HERE as well as monthly letters in the Guardian.


This one LINK is particular relevant as some Brent schools consider converting to academies:

Dear Mr Gove,

 Letter from a curious parent

I know you're proud of your policy of creating academies, but something happened on 23 April that pressed my panic button. You told the Commons education select committee that eight academy schools have been served with "pre-warning notices" because they are severely underperforming. I immediately thought, how come? Aren't academies the solve-all, the system that will rid us of "underperforming" schools? For the record, let's say it out loud: we now know that academies can and do fail. Perhaps, though, I should suspend my judgment, because the great advantage of the academy system is that the moment something goes wrong, the parents' complaints will be heard and the secretary of state will be on to it?

Let's look closer. First, we're not allowed to know what or where these academies are. With local authority schools, we have accountability and transparency with online Ofsted reports, sometimes followed by local newspaper headlines and TV fly-on-the-wall documentaries, but with academies, we have the schools that dare not speak their name. And we have the academy accounts that dare not be made public.

Even so, should I have confidence that the matter is being handled competently? It doesn't seem so. The education select committee chairman, Graham Stuart, tried to work out whose job it was to deal with what parents think about these underperforming academies. Was it the Young People's Learning Agency – now closed – where parents with children in local authority schools used to go with their complaints, or perhaps the Education Funding Agency?

No one in the world, least of all you, seemed to know. When some parents (who are presumably under some kind of gagging order to not reveal where this is going on) called the YPLA, they were told this wasn't in its remit. The Special Education Consortium seems to have approached the EFA to find out if this was in its remit. Nope. The EFA said that dealing with complaints about academies wasn't its problem either. I'm sure you would agree that it's a shame these parents can't talk to the press about their frustrations in this matter.

The problem was: it was no one's problem. Not the YPLA's, not the EFA's, not yours. It's not good enough, is it? In fact, it's a scandal. Can I make an observation? Over the last 20 years, your predecessors and you have been very keen to point the finger at what they say are "underperforming" schools. You have even taken action to force through a conversion job, turning a "failing" local authority school into a seemingly un-fail-able academy (not so un-fail-able, huh?). Yet when we look at your own process of governance, we find it's underperforming. It's not enabling parents' complaints to be heard. That makes it not fit for purpose. What's more, you didn't know about it. You're underperforming as well.

That to one side, should we be confident these academies will improve? All we hear from you is that if things don't get better, "action" will be taken. What is this action? I read this week that you're very keen to up the involvement of the Church of England in education. Perhaps you have a plan up your sleeve where clerics from areas where congregations have shrunk could be redeployed taking over failing academies?

While we're on religion, can I ask you about the Bibles? I have a clear memory of you saying that you were going to put Bibles in every school. Did you buy the Bibles? If not, why not? Alternatively, if you did buy the Bibles, where are they? In a self-storage depot? I can see them now: thousands of brand-new Bibles jammed into steel boxes in Safestore just off the A1 near Biggleswade. Maybe they're waiting for your team of CofE recruits. And how much is it all costing? I do hope it's not another case of underperforming.

Ann John challenged on free schools

 I hear that there was a right old ding dong at Labour's Brent Local Government Committee last night when they debated the Brent officers' recommendation that the Council should get involved in setting up a free school.

Nationally Stephen Twigg has failed to issue a clear policy and this has left local Labour parties in a quandary. When a new secondary school was required under the last Labour administration it was argued by Brent officers that there was no alternative to an academy because of the Labour government's policy that all new school should be academies. This opened the way for the ARK Academy and the subsequent conversion of other former local authority schools in Brent to academy status.

This  argument is now being repeated on free schools and the Coalition government policy. Andy Donald, Director of Regeneration, who seems to be directing education policy rather than Krutika Pau who is Director of Children and Families, told Brent Labour Group a week ago that in order to address the shortage of school places that there was no alternative to the Council setting up a free school in partnership with an outside body. I have argued before that the 'numbers' approach to school place shortage was leading to school expansions and bulge classes which paid little heed to the quality of education on offer. Putting builders rather than educationalists in charge is likely to have major repercussions in the future.

In my previous post on this issue I remarked that Brent officers' wouldn't have put forward a free schools strategy without the tacit agreement of Labour leader Ann John. This proved to be the case last night at an emergency meeting.  Ann John and Mary Arnold (lead member for children and families) supported by half a dozen others argued that although they didn't like free schools there was no alternative to supporting them because otherwise children would be denied a right to be educated.

Former Brent South MP Dawn Butler was joined by Cllr Moher (not a Trot as far as I know!)  and veteran Brent Labour activist Colin Adams in opposing the principle of free schools and only agreeing if further work by external consultants established that there was no alternative. Their motion was narrowly carried.

Ann John was not happy as she is used to being 'She who must be obeyed' and suddenly the cavalry arrived in the person of several more councillors who appeared to have been mysteriously summoned and a new motion was put. This opposed free schools in theory but stating that Brent Council should choose a free school partner to work with.

This motion was also carried so Labour now has two policies both opposed to free schools in principle with one seeking delay for further research and the other advocating an immediate partnership.

This debate need to move outside the Labour Party so that Brent teachers and parents have a say in the future of educational provision in the borough. Free schools do not have the democratic accountability of local authority schools, take a disproportionate amount of funding and open the way to experimental teaching and curricula with a potentially damaging impact on children. As with the ARK Academy the first free school in Brent will open the way for others to follow, producing an ad hoc competitive system where working class children may well lose out.

"Brent school system works. Don't mess with it." say teacher unions

Brent Pupils ate Carbon Reduction project

 Against the background of some Brent schools considering opting out of the local authority system, the local teacher unions have issued a strong defence of that system as one which has put Brent schools in the top 10% nationally:

A report by Think Tank 'The Centre Forum' has published a list of performance of schools in all local authorities across England. Of the 152 local authorities looked at in the report Brent came in at 13th, putting it firmly in the top 10% in the country.

To quote from the Report, “Indeed, pupils of all types – including the poorest pupils and those from typically under-performing ethnic groups – perform better in London than in all other regions of the UK.”

The Brent joint teacher unions believes that this vindicates their belief in the state system. Shane Johnschwager, NASUWT secretary said, “This report proves that for Brent's schools, and their pupils,  co-operation is better than competition. Brent schools have the evidence now to show the successes of a decade of school improvement. For the academies programme to break apart the family of schools and jeopardise this process would be lunacy. If it ain’t broke don't fix it.”

Hank Roberts, ATL Secretary said, “Contrary to what Michael Gove proclaims private is not always best. Local authorities can work as Brent's case amongst others proves. Brent

Authority can be justly proud of its achievements and the Brent population should stand by its retention as opposed to it being dismantled through the government's academy and free school privatisation scheme.”

Jean Roberts, NUT Joint Secretary said, “Teachers in Brent schools work very hard to provide the best education for the wide range of children they teach. The overwhelming majority of them want to remain as local authority schools not to become Gove academies.”

The report should give ammunition for a concerted campaign locally of councillors, teachers, parents and pupils, for a defence of democratically accountable, comprehensive, local schools.

The battle for Brent schools - which side is Labour on?

The battle against academies and free schools has reached a tipping point, author and campaigner Melissa Benn told the AntiAcademies Alliance AGM yesterday. The battle being waged by teachers, parents and governors of Downsides Primary School against enforced conversion to an academy had exposed  the contradiction between Michael Gove's rhetoric of freedom and autonomy and his actual use of coercion.

Benn said that the over-funding of 'good schools' converting to academies or of parents setting up free schools was the government 'empowering the affluent'.  She said that there were three main element's in Gove's programme:

1. A fundamental change in the provision of state education with the academies' links to outside bodies separating them from the local community. Despite government denials the long-term aim, via the 'educational chains' such as E-ACT, ARK and Oasis was privatisation and profit-making. She said that there was no evidence that autonomy itself led to improvement. Where there was improvement it was probably due to increased funding, however that was drying up and the Financial Times recently revealed that the DfE had to bail out eight financially failing academies at the cost of £10m to the tax payer.

2. Gove wants to preserve and expand all forms of current non-LA provision including the expansion of grammar schools via 'satellite' schools and changes in the Admissions Code. This will increase selection and social class and religious segregation.

3. Fundamental changes in the learning culture of schools. She contrasted the broad and creative curriculum and relaxed learning culture of Eton and Wellington public schools which she had visited recently  with the narrowing of the curriculum in academies (depth replacing breadth) and a coercive ethos producing a climate of fear. Academies had in effect 'captured' children for longer hours (often 8.30am until 5pm) and teachers, parents and pupils were often frightened of the management as the school pursued its aim of 'results at all costs'. Anyone arguing against this culture was told that they were supporting failure.

Melissa Benn advised the audience to keep an eye on the US Chartered Schools which served as a model for Gove. We need to argue that some of the most successful schools internationally are non-selective and make the case for increased government funding, small classes, time for teachers to prepare lessons and ongoing teacher assessment rather than SATs.  Subsequent discussion focused on how Ofsted was being used as a political weapon against local authority schools  with the appointment of ARK adviser Sir Michael  Wilshaw as Chief Inspector.

A group of parents from Downside Primary School started by extolling the virtues of a school that did not just concentrate on SAT results but had a broad and enriching curriculum in a child-friendly atmosphere. The children had recently won a national art prize. They were shocked at the enforced academy move by Michael Gove based solely on SAT results but quickly organised, speaking personally to members of the different communities of the school, publicising the issue and using social media to spread the word, They have been lucky in that local MP David Lammy was an ex-pupil of the school and although pro-academy had been against enforcement and had spoken at their public meeting attended by more than 600 people LINK as well as raising the issue in the House of Commons. LINK The parents said that the under-funding of Haringey schools compared with neighbouring boroughs was of fundamental importance and a campaigning on the issue would appeal to parents. There will be a demonstration on Saturday 28th January at noon in support of Downside. I will post details when they are available. It seemed to me clear that primary schools with their strong parent links, good school gate communication opportunities and community ethos will be in a good position to fight academy conversion compared with the more isolated secondary schools.

In my contribution from the floor I drew the meeting's attention to the importance of making the link between cuts and academy conversions. Conversions took money away from the local authority while the cuts in services made by local authorities made arguing  for the benefits of remaining a local authority school harder.In Brent the council in planning to set up a 'public enterprise' provider along the lines of the Cooperative Trust offer, was undermining its own existence.

Alasdair Smith, National Secretary of the AAA, said that Gove was pursuing a full 'for profit' agenda. The shortage of school places was being used as an argument for more 'energetic providers' (private chains) to move in. He felt Downshill was a turning point with Michael Gove worried about the slow down (perhaps because of forecasts that extra money was drying up) in conversions that had taken place since October 2011. He said that he had addressed 50 meetings on the issue over the lasy year but that we now needed a mass movement against Gove's policies.  He praised the Green Party for its consistent anti-academies policy.

The last session was devoted to a discussion on the Labour Party and Academies.  There was recognition of the divergence of local Labour group's attitudes with some fiercely for academies and some militantly against (The Brent Executive has both within its ranks). Stephen Twigg, the Labour shadow had avoided the issue by saying that he did not want to 'get into a hackneyed debate about structures' while Labour was not saying the same thing bout the NHS. Labour needed to live down its pro-academy history and think again, adopting a clear policy against academies and free schools. A Labour councillor said that we should beware of 'friends' such as the Cooperative Trust with their ethical cooperative claims when schools had always been cooperative institutions. Local authorities needed to come out and defend their role rather than be supine in the face of the Coalition's attacks.

Richard Hatcher (joint author of No country for the young: Education from  new Labour to the Coalition- Tufnell Press) said that Labour needed to fight on both structure of education and content of education, support campaigns against academies and free schools , and debate what a Labour government would do with what it will inherit in 2015 if elected. One speaker from Unison said that she had joined the Labour Party in  order to influence their education policy. Other speakers aid there was a need to focus on the huge salaries paid to academy headteachers and chief executives as well as the amount of public money being spent of academies and free schools as a whole.

All these issues are extremely pertinent as Brent Labour has organised a meeting for Labour nominated governors and anti-academy teachers on Wednesday, 7.30pm at the Stonebridge Hub which will be addressed by Melissa Benn.

Melissa Benn, School Wars-The Battle for Britain's Education, Verso

Rousing seven minutes on all that's wrong with academies

Brilliant rousing stuff from  Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT, on the fight against acadsemies and free schools. She was speaking at Downshill Primary School in Haringey where a community campaign is resisting Michael Gove's attempt to force it to become an academy.

Beware - he may try similar things in Brent soon.

AntiAcademiesAlliance AGM Jan 14th

Click to enlarge

With Brent schools exploring options for various forms of academies, including the Cooperative Trust model; and following Claremont and Kingsbury High converting last year, the forthcoming Anti Academies Alliance AGM should be a good source of information and campaigning ideas.

Register at: office@antiacademies.org.uk

What happens when academies fail?

A spirited anti-academy campaign. More in 2012?

A repeated theme of my postings on academies on this blog has been the lack of democratic accountability. Although he leaves out the 'democratic' bit Sir Michael Wilshaw the incoming Ofsted  Chief Inspector  recognised the problem of accountability over the holiday, acknowledging that some of the increasing number of academies are likely to fail. LINK

His solution however seemed to indicate a new layer of supervision which would expand Ofsted's role and run in parallel with the existing local authority system. This duplication (and expense at a time of retrenchment) would be unnecessary if all schools remained within the local authority system - and of course we don't vote for Ofsted but we do vote for local Councils. Wilshaw however proposes that his 'Commissioners' would report directly to the Secretary of State - centralising power further,

There is an interesting piece on this on Brian Lightman's blog LINK   Lightman is General Secretary of the ACSL (Association of School and College Leaders). He describes Wilshaw's proposal as:

....effectively an devastating critique  of government policy, based on the premise that the move  an autonomous system of academies without local accountability has massively increased the risk of school failure?

He describes how much education policy is made up on the hoof and based on policy makers' personal experience. He suggest that the Crown should appoint a Chief Education Officer, along the same lines as the Chief Medical officer whose role:

...as a leading expert with the highest levels of specialist knowledge and experience would be to evaluate proposed and existing government policies with complete independence. In such a context  a proposal of this kind be would substantiated by a robust, credible and above all independent evaluation of its merits before a Chief Inspector announced it on the front page of a national newspaper.

After 36 years in primary schools I am certainly truly fed up with the way education policy seems to change on a whim with little research to back up proposals, but am not sure that a CEO is the answer.

Meanwhile there have been some responses to my question about Coop academies on the Anti Academies Alliance website HERE

A 'new look' education authority for Brent?

Following moves by various Brent schools towards Cooperative Trust status or Cooperative Academies, the Children and Families department of the Council  has put forward some proposals to headteachers for a possible  'new look' education authority. This would reduce the services provided  by the authority to a small statutory core with many more being provided through collaborative arrangements between schools. The collaboration could be formalised into a social enterprise.

I understand that this is based on:
1. An expectation of a sharply reduced central education budget.
2. A recognition of the enormous amount of expertise that exists within the schools.
3. A recognition that schools want more autonomy.

Although this addresses the attraction of the Cooperative model's ethos and criticism of the deteriorating quality of some LA services, it does not deal with the short-term financial gain some secondary schools hope to get through academy conversion.

In this week's Brent and Kilburn Times (see below) I called for an open debate on the future of the Brent education system. The initiative from the Council makes this even more necessary.

Click on image to enlarge

Newcastle: teachers, students and supporters unite at Kenton School picket

Kingsbury High School unions are not the only ones taking action against academy conversion:

September 22, 2011

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Teachers from the NUT, ATL and NASUWT unions at Kenton School, a large secondary school in Newcastle, began the first of three days of strike action today. They are taking action over plans to turn the school into an academy.

A picket of around 80 had assembled at the school gate by 8:15 this morning. They were joined by students from the school & supporters from anti-cuts campaigns like Northern Public Services Alliance and Coalition of Resistance.

The striking teachers have the support of the Labour-led local authority. The deputy leader of Newcastle city council spoke at a recent meeting to oppose conversion. The Headteacher is intent on pursuing academy status, despite only half the governing body having voted to do so and clear opposition from staff.

As well as further strike action next Tuesday and Thursday, picket-line discussion raised the idea of a weekend public march in the centre of Newcastle. The hope is to rally support for anti-academies campaigns both in the city and across the region.

Please send a message of support to: northern@nut.org.uk