WEMBLEY MATTERS

Sunday, 20 March 2016

Labour decision to back HS2 will anger local campaigners

The Independent, which sadly publishes its last Sunday edition today, reports that Jeremby Corbyn and John McDonnell, despite earlier opposition, will whip Labour MPs to support the HS2 Bill when it goes to the House of Commons on Tuesday LINK

The newspaper reports that Sir Keir Starmer, Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, a fierce opponent of HS2, may be persuaded to support the Bill via a Labour amendment that would protect social housing around Euston and mitigate construction disruption. Starmer was opposed at the General Election by Green Party leader Natalie Bennett. The Greens oppose HS2.

In the South Kilburn Estate opposition arose when Brent Council who are in favour of HS2, persuaded HS2 to move a vent shaft to a site right next to St Mary's Primary School on the Estate. LINK

Pete Firmin gave evidence on behalf of South Kilburn residents to the Select Committee. LINK

Kensal Triangle Residents Association have been vehemently against the project.

Corbyn raised issues around HS2 and its impact on other necessary rail projects as recently as last October LINK leading to this comment from the Stop HS2 Camapign:

Stop HS2 Campaign Manager Joe Rukin responded:

“It is a breath of fresh air to have a party leader who is actually trying to assess what the real-world implications of HS2 would be, opposed to simply swallowing the spin put forward by proponents. It has been clear since the outset that spending such a vast amount of money on HS2 would only mean other, more deserving projects will be squeezed out, and even the Department for Transport have admitted that HS2 could suck up all the rail investment money.”

“Following the on-off and now delayed status of some rail upgrades, there is still the Hendy report to come which will surely cut back on other projects. In this climate, we simply cannot see Mr Corbyn getting the guarantee he seeks.”

“With the costs of HS2 set to spiral when they are finally worked out on current prices, there is no way other projects can be guaranteed. We welcome the fact Mr Corbyn is seriously looking at the implications of HS2, and remind him that if he finds the project to be deficient, it can be stopped when the bill comes back for third reading.”

100k petition against forced academisation wins consideration for parliamentary debate

From Anti Academies Alliance

The public have spoken – they want an inquiry into academies!

The Anti-Academies Alliance is delighted that our petition for a public inquiry and referendum into academies has raced to hit 100,000 signatures in under four days.

The speed with which the public have reacted shows that they understand just how damaging and dangerous the government’s latest education white paper is.

The ironically titled ‘Education Excellence Everywhere’ will force all schools to become academies, cut the need for consultation, get rid of parent governors on school governing bodies, and remove the need for qualified teachers in school. This is the complete dismantling of state education. It is a scorched earth proposal.

We fully expect the government to hold the inquiry that the public have demanded. If they do not we will work with parents, students, unions and academics to build our own. If academies are the educational panacea that the government claim they can have nothing to fear from a full and forensic examination of the evidence.

London along with other cities across the world stood up to racism yesterday

Video reports from yesterday's UN Day Against Racism demonstration in London opposing racism,fascism,Islamophobia and anti-semitism:

Friday, 18 March 2016

Ofsted and Academy Trusts

I am grateful to 'Reclaiming Education' for this. CfBT took over Gladstone Park Primary School following forced academisation, despite a strong parent campaign to keep it as a local authority school. E-Act runs the Crest academies.

Chris Dunne's letter, "We will come to regret not having defended our education system", in the Financial Times can be seen here

Henry Stewart's piece looking at the progress of academies against maintained schools can be read here.

And, in case you missed these pieces on where the money is being wasted and who benefits, there is this piece in localgov.uk and this piece in Schoolsweek

Ofsted condemns Academy Trusts: The Government has announced that it plans to force all schools to become academies. The major problem is going to be who will run these schools, given that Ofsted has some major criticisms of at least 8 of the large academy trusts.

Ofsted Inspections of Academy Trusts

Ofsted has carried out focused inspections of academies within 9 multi academy trusts. Significantly, only one, the last and smallest one, is positive. The full reports can be found on the Government website here. A map of where the academies are can be found here.

CfBT: 11 primary/8 Secondary

“CfBT took on too many academies too quickly. The trust did not have a clear rationale for the selection of schools, a strategy for creating geographical clusters or a plan to meet academies’ different needs. As a result, standards are too low. The trust relied heavily on external consultants but did not ensure their accountability in securing rapid and secure improvement. Headteachers were unable to provide each other with the much needed mutual support or share available expertise. Current CST leaders openly acknowledge these errors.” Full report

Academies Enterprise Trust: 32 primary/30 secondary/5 special

"After operating for nearly eight years, the Trust is failing too many pupils. Almost 40% of the pupils attend AET primary academies that do not provide a good standard of education. It is even worse in secondary, where 47% of pupils attend academies that are less than good......
"Children from poor backgrounds do particularly badly in this Trust. The attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils, in both the primary and secondary academies, still lags behind that of other pupils, and gaps in performance are not narrowing quickly enough......
"The outcomes of the focused inspections failed to demonstrate that the Trust is consistently improving its academies. Full report

Collaborative Academies Trust: 9 schools

“Collaborative Academies Trust was set up in 2012 by EdisonLearning ......
.........Too many academies have not improved since joining the trust. Of the five academies that have had a full inspection since joining the trust, only one has improved its inspection grade compared with its predecessor school. Two have remained the same and two have declined. This means that, at the time of the focused inspection, there were not yet any good or outstanding academies in the trust. “ Full report

E-Act (formerly Edutrust): 23 academies (was more)

“...Nevertheless, the quality of provision for too many pupils in E-ACT academies is not good enough.
......Standards in the secondary academies are too low. Previous interventions by the Trust to raise attainment and accelerate progress have not had enough impact and any improvements have been slow.
....Pupils from poor backgrounds do not do well enough. These pupils make less progress than other pupils nationally. This is an area of serious concern. “ Full report

Kemnal Academies Trust: 15 secondary/26 primary

“Less than half of your academies were good or better and there are no longer any outstanding academies in your chain. .........

.. an overwhelming proportion of pupils attending one of the academies inspected are not receiving a good education. “ Full report

Oasis Community Learning Trust: 50? Schools – DfE list and Oasis website appear to disagree.

The academy trust has grown rapidly, taking on 30 new academies in the last three years ...
Across the trust, some groups of pupils do not achieve well. Disadvantaged pupils, particularly boys, make significantly less progress than their peers nationally.......... there is no evidence of an overall strategy or plan that focuses on these particular issues. Full report

School Partnership Trust: 41 schools

“The impact of the Trust’s work in bringing about improvement where it is most needed has been too slow. Where standards have been intractably low for some time, the Trust is not driving significant, sustained improvement. ...

......The standard of education provided by the Trust is not good enough in around 40% of its academies inspected so far. “ Full report

The Education Fellowship: 12 schools

“There is no clear record of improvement in the trust’s academies and standards across the trust are unacceptably variable. In around three quarters of the academies, standards are poor.
Standards declined in five of the eight primary academies in 2014. In the majority of the trust’s 12 academies, the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their better off peers, both within the academies and compared with pupils nationally, remains unacceptably wide.” Full Report

Wakefield City Academies Trust – the only positive one!

“Two years into its development, WCAT is making a positive difference to the quality of provision and outcomes for pupils within its academies. “ Full report

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Green councillors come out strongly against forced academisation of all schools

From Brighton and Hove Green Party

Green Councillors have come out strongly over plans announced by Chancellor George Osborne to force all schools to become academies and eliminate the role of local authorities as a provider of education, in the biggest change to education in 50 years.

Proposals were announced in the Conservative governments budget statement today, and follow a longer-term agenda privatisation of education which began under the Labour government in 2002. Brighton and Hove currently has two academies but this latest announcement will convert all schools to academy status by 2022, despite widespread opposition from parents and teachers unions.
Green councillor and Convenor of the Green Group, Phelim Mac Cafferty, said:

The Conservative agenda for the mandatory academisation of schools will be bad news for children and parents in the city, who have consistently spoken out against this privatisation of children's futures. Greens were proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with parents to oppose the establishment of an Academy in Hove Park school when in administration. Now, that hard work looks set to be undone.

There is growing evidence that academies are simply not delivering improved performance or tackling inequality for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a finding just last month that pupils in one of the largest academy trusts, AET, do particularly badly. In addition, they have come under significant criticism for the lack of democratic accountability underpinning the system, which has allowed financial mismanagement and poor performance of some academies to go unchecked. This move is the latest in a long standing agenda initiated by the Labour government in 2002, which has sought to transform the education system into little more than an exam factory, narrowing learning to the sole function of preparing children for work.

This is entirely the wrong approach to school provision and we fundamentally oppose this announcement. Greens' vision for education is of a system whereby children and adults are given the knowledge and full range of skills they require to participate fully in society and lead a fulfilled life. It should promote equality, inclusivity, social and emotional well-being and responsibility, in schools that are democratically accountable to local communities they serve.

Driive to total academisation will do nothing for the crisis engulfing schools

Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, has made the following statement on government plans to force all schools to become academies

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Finally the Government has come clean on its education priorities and admitted that its real agenda all along has been that every school must become an academy. The fig leaf of ‘parental choice’, ‘school autonomy’ and ‘raising standards’ has finally been dropped and the Government’s real agenda has been laid bare – all schools to be removed from the support of their LA and schools instead to be run by remote academy trusts, unaccountable to parents, staff or local communities.

Parents will be as outraged as teachers that the Government can undo over 50 years of comprehensive public education at a stroke. Only last week HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw pointed out to Government the serious consequences for children’s education of schools being run by multi-academy trusts. But this arrogant Government is choosing to ignore the evidence from the HMCI, the Education Select Committee and the Sutton Trust’s own Chain Effects report, which clearly demonstrates that academy status not only does not result in higher attainment but that many chains are badly failing their pupils, particularly their disadvantaged pupils.

The Government’s ultimate agenda is the privatisation of education with schools run for profit. The NUT will continue to resist the Government’s attempts to privatise our education system and will campaign alongside parents and other allies to Stand Up for Education.

The most urgent problems in schools are to do with the chronic teacher shortage, real terms funding cuts, the school places crisis, chaotic implementation of the curriculum, and workload going through the roof. The drive towards total academisation will do absolutely nothing to fix those problems.

Grand Alliance needed to fight forced academisation

It was fitting that it was the Chancellor of the Exchequer who announced the new government policy of forcing every local authority school to become an academy because the policy has everything to do with the seizing of public assets for private profit and very little to do with education.

On Twitter yesterday I called it a proposal with no democratic mandate to abolish democratic accountability fo schools.

It is now widely acknowledged that there is no convincing proof that acdemisation improves the quality of education, even when judged solely by narrow examination results. At the same time Ofsted has been critical of the educational failure of some academy chains and the high salaries (creamed off from schools) that their CEOs command.

It is easy to ignore the fact that the public service ethos in local government is not just limited to Labour or Lib Dem led authorities but is also shared by some Conservatives. LINK This shared commitment could be the basis of a Grand Alliance to fight to maintain the role of local authorities in the oversight of educational provision.

The statement by the Local Government Association yesterday LINK is particularly significant and an opportunity for dialogue with an influential body that could make an impact on the Chancellor's plans.

The government often claims that parents are in favour of 'freeing' schools from local authority 'control' but there is no evidence for this. London Councils research in September 2014 indicated that parents would like to see MORE powers for local authorities to intervene in poorly performing academies and free schools LINK:

A new report has found substantial variation and confusion about these things. According to research by You Gov for London Councils, parents are most likely to look to their local authority, rather than Ofsted or the Department for Education, if they have concerns about school governance or leadership, inappropriate treatment of their child by staff, educational issues or bullying.

This finding reflects many parents’ imperfect knowledge about where responsibility lies. For example, 38% of London parents with a child in an academy school believe their local authority has the power to step in if the school is under performing, and no less than 56% of those with youngsters in free schools believe the same.

In fact, local authorities have no such formal powers, as academies and free schools are run by central government. Yet many parents clearly wish they did. You Gov found strong parental support for councils having powers to intervention across the spectrum of state schools. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was found to be highest, at 77%, among London parents with children at local authority maintained schools. However, 68% of parents with children at free schools and 63% of those with children at academies felt the same way. Even 35% of parents who’ve “gone private” would like their council to be able to step in in this way.

A campaign uniting education unions, governor organisations, local authorities and parent groups could be very effective in maintaining the democratic accountability of schools, their public service ethos and saving them from privatisation.

In the short term there is the demonstration advertised above and a Twitter storm organised to coincide with Nicky Morgan's appearance on BBC 1 Question Time tonight:

Teacher ROAR ‏@TeacherROAR 1 hr1 hour ago

SPREAD THE WORD FOLKS! Twitterstorm tonight to coincide with Nicky Morgan on BBC QT. When the programme starts use the hashtag #tellNickyNO

A petition against the policy has also been launched: CLICK HERE TO GO TO PETITION

This is the wording of the petition:

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Hold a public inquiry and a referendum over turning all schools into academies

The government has announced that every school in England will become an academy. This was not in their manifesto and is therefore a completely undemocratic move.

There is growing evidence that academies underperform & serious questions about their financial oversight. Buildings & land are being handed over to unaccountable orgs. Once they are transferred there is no legal mechanism to get them back. Before all schools become academies we demand the government holds a full public inquiry - that takes into account educational research and the views of teachers, parents and students - followed by a referendum in order to show that they have a mandate.

Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Refugees Welcome National Demonstration Saturday March 19th

REFUGEES WELCOME - STAND UP TO RACISM. ISLAMOPHOBIA,

ANTI-SEMITISM AND FASCISM

National demonstration Saturday 19th March 2016 - Assembly 12 noon, Portland Place, London W1

Speakers:

Vanessa Redgrave Actor Diane Abbott MP Claude Moraes MEP Jean Lambert MEP Jeremy Hardy Comedian Michael Rosen Children’s novelist & poet Gary Younge Journalist Dave Ward CWU Gen Sec Christine Blower NUT Gen Sec Sally Hunt UCU Gen Sec Maurice Wren Chief Exec Refugee Council Harish Patel National Equalities Officer, Unite The Union Gloria Mills, Chair – TUC Race Relations Committee Talha Ahmad National Council, Muslim Council of Britain Zita Holbourne Co-Chair, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts Marilyn Reed Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice/Blaksox Lee Jasper Movement Against Xenophobia Malia Bouattia NUS Black Students Officer Shakira Martin NUS VP Further Education Shahrar Ali Deputy Leader, The Green Party Yusuf Hassan VP Federation of Student Islamic Societies Mohammed Kozbar Spokesperson, Muslim Association of Britain Maz Saleem Daughter of the Late Mohammed Saleem Stephanie Lightfoot Bennett Co-Chair, United Friends and Families Gerry Gable Editor, Searchlight Sam Fairbarn Secretary, People’s Assembly Against Austerity Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett, Organisers – Stand Up To Racism

info@standuptoracism.org.uk
@antiracismday