Cllr Michael Pavey, lead member for children and families, took part in a heated debate last night on the future of Copland Community High School, which faces forced academisation through a takeover by Ark Academies.
Pavey turned up the heat by stating that Copland had failed all pupils but especially the most disadvantaged for whom education was most important: Afro-Caribbean , special needs and refugee pupils. That was why he supported academisation. It was his job to make sure Brent children got the education they deserved: 'Pupils come first'. He pointed out that Brent Council did not have the resources to takeover Copland and improve it.
He was immediately challenged by a black member of the audience who said, 'How dare you use the black community to justify your policies. You are not one of us, you do not know our experience from the inside.'
His assertion that 'This is not a "done deal",' brought derisive laughter and he clarified by saying that academisation would happen but that it may not be Ark Academy but another academy chain or provider. When an audience member pointed out that they did not want any academy, Pavey said 'It's the law that it must be an academy' and under closer questioning said he was not prepared to break the law. 'We live in a democracy and the way to change laws is through the ballot box.'
Pavey said that he did not think all academies were great and remarked that Brent has some awful academies.He said that there had been discussions with the Cooperative College over them becoming Copland's academy sponsor but Whitehall had blocked the move. Hank Roberts of the ATL pointed out that this had been before the Ofsted inspection. He challenged Cllr Pavey to demonstrate that it was not a 'done deal' by exploring other possibilities.
Jean Roberts of the NUT, speaking from the floor said the Interim Executive Board (IEB) had put a stop to talks with the Coop, preferring Ark as sponsor. She called on Michael Pavey to look at the Coop as a sponsor because at least it had emerged from the labour movement. In response Pavey said that he was a member of the Cooperative Party and a passionate supporter but the government had put a stop to its possible sponsorship of Copland.
Roberts gave the example of Snaresbook Primary in Redbridge where a campaign supported by parents, unions and the community, but especially by the local council which was Tory, had succeeded in avoiding being forced to become an academy. She said that the council had never provided that sort of leadership.
Several teachers spoke passionately against what they saw as a politicised attack by Ofsted on the school which Michael Pavey was reinforcing. One said, 'You are Michael Gove in a different suit!' Supported by school students they talked about their commitment to pupils, the hard work they put in and improvements that were already apparent. Pavey said that Ofsted was an independent body and he accepted their report as true.
Jenny Cooper, NUT member and special needs teacher, told Cllr Pavey that it made her angry when it was claimed that teachers were against all change. Of course teachers recognised the need for a change, it is not that they think no change needs to happen but the way it is gone about. Teachers were opposed to Copland becoming an academy, and particuarly opposed to it becoming an Ark Academy. Academy chains are the fast route to marketisation of schools.
A school student, delivering a powerful speech from the platform, said that pupils had been denied a role in the consultation. They had submitted a petition to the council 7 months ago with no response. The media had made a mountain out of a mole hill with their comments on what was supposed 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Staff gave up their own time to help pupils and understood them. She said that 'unsatisfactory' was an insult to students. Ofsted had come with a mindset and had been biased in advance with an expectation that it was a 'rubbish school'.
One teacher speaking calmly, but clearly controlling her anger, told Cllr Pavey, 'I am working hard. I am working all hours for the children. I don't care what you say - you make the school an academy and I am leaving. You'll have to tell the children it's your fault that I've left.'
Earlier in the meeting, speaking from the platform I had traced the history of academisation in Brent starting from the City Academy which replaced Willesden High School, the Labour and then Lib Dem-Conservative support for the Ark Academy and the competition with other secondary schools that had resulted. Firstly Preston Manor became an all-through school in order to compete, and then, despite earlier denials, went for academy status. Other secondary schools then followed with the exception of Copland which had always had comprehensive values.
Outlining what would be lost through academisation I spoke about 'post admissions selection' where pupils who did not conform to the school's expectation were spotted and move out through formal exclusion or other means, about the strict discipline which made the school a hostile environment for some pupils, about a teaching force that did not represent the communities from which the pupils come, and a lack of democratic ability which left parents with no recourse to another body to which to appeal.
A black teacher who had attended a discussion about academies with the NUT Black Teachers Group said that the evidence was that black teachers, in the political sense of ethnic minority, were being forced out of academies because their faces didn't fit, they did not match the profile the school wanted. He linked this with Michael Wilshaw's speech to headteachers where he had advocated cracking the whip. He said that the resulting stress and pressure would not help students' motivation. There would be a lack of role models in the academy schools.
A Copland parent, who had been on the previous governing body, told the audience how democratic accountability had disappeared from the school with the imposition of an IEB. here had been complaints recently that Year11s had been give only 13 days notice of mock examinations that would set out their path for the real exams. English language students had fared worse with only 8 days notice for examination areas last studied in May. Those studying History had been affected by the end of term break-up of the humanities department (see previous blogs) because during the move their text books and the exercise books in which they had made notes were lost.
His son had been helped y the mentoring department which was available to help the vulnerable, the bullies and the bullied and had been a safe place to talk, had been scrapped. The student led Gay-Straight Alliance that had received national acclaim had been scraped. The School Anti-Bullying Council had met a similar fate despite the new headship adopting zero bullying policy.
He said that schools were not all about examinations, they were also about quality of life and preparing young people for a changing world.
In his opening speech Hank Roberts said that the academy issue was all about money. Stanley Fink the hedge fund speculator behind Ark would be welcome to give money direct to Copland School but instead they were helping themselves (as they had in the economic crash) taking public money with an eye on eventually running schools for profit. Fink was also Tory Party Treasurer and academy chains had people in the upper echelons of Ofsted.
Ark, already with a longer working week, had tried to get teachers to work two weeks longer, but had to give up when it became clear they would not be able to recruit on those terms.
A speaker from the floor summed up the feelings of many asking, 'What faith will young peple have in democracy when they have been treated like this?'
