Teaching staff at Copland Community High School are taking their sixth day of action tomorrow (Thursday). They have made the following statement:
How is it that a school staff can feel so united, that their pupils and their school and they themselves have been so badly treated, that they are willing to take such strike action?
Staff have passed a motion of
no confidence in the IEB
(Interim Executive Board) now running the school. (Please see
below for the full text.) Staff have asked that a possible legal
challenge be looked at as
well as a complaint being made to
all relevant authorities.
Michael Gove, supporter of ARK and their
proposed takeover, almost daily shows the dystopian
version of education by dictatorship and containment. He proposes, and is using
academies and free
schools, to bring in a 10
hour days for pupils.
Schools to
stay open 51 weeks out of
52. We say “give pupils a childhood”.
The Copland IEB's so called consultation was laughingly inadequate.
Even their inadequate 'feedback
form' gave a result
of 86% of pupils against and
89%
of staff against. Very
few parents
responded and though a majority
were for conversion there had been
no adequate correspondence
with parents, no letters or documents translated to help understanding and
no
document explaining why the staff were against.
The Unions offered to call
off the strike if the parents
were given an independently overseen ballot but the IEB refused
to communicate at all with
the
local unions.
There will be a picket
at the school between
8 and 9 am tomorrow.
Copland Joint Unions Meeting 22/1/14
This Copland joint union open meeting supports;
1.
The motion of no confidence in the IEB
2.
That a complaint be made to all relevant authorities and bodies** on the basis of it and any other irregularities that come to light
**E.g. Brent Local Authority, Brent Audit and Investigation Department, The Audit Commission, Teacher unions,
Michael Gove, DfE
3.
That legal action be investigated following the successful judicial review by Barking
and Dagenham Council in support
of Warren Comprehensive school with a view to taking legal action over the attempt
to force academisation without proper information or consultation
Copland staff have no confidence in the IEB as they;
1.
Continued and oversaw a massive, indiscriminate, hugely
expensive voluntary
redundancy programme
in the summer that took no proper account of the curriculum and failed to protect it to the detriment
of pupils' education and the school.
2.
Failed to take action to improve
the intake
3.
Failed to press action to get any of the money (£2.7 million) returned that was removed from the school under a previous
administration, while at the same time claiming
every cutback and redundancy was necessary on financial
grounds.
4.
Secretly applied to the DfE to turn Copland
into an ARK academy
without informing, never mind consulting, and not even providing
a time line to staff or parents.
5.
Have refused to allow an independently overseen secret ballot of staff or parents regarding their proposal,
or properly negotiate
on it, despite the Unions
offer to pay for such a ballot.
6.
Have engaged in a fundamentally flawed and unfair 'consultation' procedure over support
staff redundancies and are seeking such wide scale redundancies both in teaching and support
staff that the education
and well being of the pupils can only be harmed.
7.
Have adversely affected the school's finances by drastically reducing the 6th form numbers.
8.
Have actively pursued an anti union agenda;
a) unilaterally abolishing the school's
JCC
b) declining to formally consult the unions over the ARK proposal
c) unlawfully not allowing school union reps to go on training
courses
