Brent Council accepted Michaela Free School as a 'fait accompli' in letter to DfE

In Brent Council's  letter to the DfE regarding the application by Michaela Community School to set up a secondary free school in Wembley, Krutika Pau reported on the views that came out of a meeting of a group of Brent headteachers, councillors and council officers who met with the Michaela proposers. She said  that Katharine Birbalsingh's 'highly laudable intention to provide excellent education' in a way that 'helps them overcome social disadvantage' accords with the aims of existing Brent secondary schools. However concerns are expressed about the 'experimental character' of the school and the risks arising from this and the fact that it does not have a track record.

The position of Arena House and the facilities offered, even after refurbishment, also concerned the Council and particularly the need for external play space.

In a key sentence Pau accepts that the school is a fair accommpli despite the fact that the results of the very poorly attended public consultation have not yet been reported:

It is fair to say that this local authority would not have invited the Michaela Community School into the borough as part of its school expansion plans but given that its opening is a fait accompli, we plan to work with the school both constructively and with vigilance.

In another (redacted) document released as a result of my freedom of information request, Sara Williams, Assistant Director, reports on her meeting with Tome Legge and Katharine Birbalsingh of Michaela Community School. The report is undated but before March 2013:

·         The purchase of Arena House has gone through

·     The school will open with 4 forms of entry in September 2014.  They will open in Year 7 only though they are open to suggestions for provision in Year 10 if we need it

·      Under the free school legislation, there has to be a period of consultation (Section 9/10?).  The timing of this hasn’t been nailed down yet.

·     Tom has agreed that the school will do a presentation to a group of Brent stakeholders as part of the consultation:  I will organise this once we know the timeframe of the consultation.  It needs to be handled carefully (including the invitation list) but will be a good opportunity I think.

·      The school will enter the authority’s admissions process

·      It will sign up to the Fair Access Protocol

·      They will send their admissions policy for us to vet

·      They want to balance the intake through banding like Capital City (good practice in my view)

·      They are interested in an admissions ‘node’ in the south of the borough (like Ark).  We are suggesting near QPCS as that school is very oversubscribed yet the transport routes to the undersubscribed schools are not good.  Carmen will talk to Mike Hulme about this to give him the heads up.

·      They will admit SEN pupils like any other school and aim to be inclusive

·      The curriculum will be depth before breadth – extra Eng, Ma, Sci with no D&T or ICT as discrete subjects

·      Music and art will be included in the curriculum

·      There will be an extended school day

·      They will look to rent PE space from other schools

·      They will recognise TUs if their staff want to be members

·      They will require QTS (Qualified Teacher Status)

·      They will have an LA rep on their governing body

·      They will have parents on their governing body

·      They will share performance data

They will let the premises to the community and encourage suitable community uses

 Williams notes:

The consultation is not a process whereby the local authority can realistically prevent the school opening – or this is my understanding from reading up on it.  Jean can you look into it and give me some wording on the legal position? 

LINKS

Krutika Pau's full letter with additional information on banding and catchment HERE

Sara Williams' full notes HERE

Pavey attacks Copland strikers and accepts the school's academisation

Copland High School was closed yesterday by a strike involving members of the ATL, NASUWT and the NUT. The strike followed the DfE's decision that the school should become a forced academy following a Grade 4 Ofsted report.

If the school become an academy the staff's employer changes along with their pay and conditions.

Michael Pavey, the new lead member for children and families, despite the fact that pupils taking national examinations were able to do so, tweeted: 

To those teachers who went on strike today: children's needs must always come first. Striking during exams harms kids’ education.

Logically his comments means that teachers should never strike which is a strange position for a Labour politician to take. It presupposes that strikes are never in the interests of children which is clearly an assumption that can be challenged. Striking against academisation is striking against privatisation of education with money being diverted from educational provision to fat salaries for academy sponsors, as well as worsening conditions for teachers which give less time for lesson preparation and marking and longer hours, and enabling the employment of unqualified teachers. I would argue that striking against those changes IS striking in the long-term interests of children.

 Pavey went further at the Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party meeting last night saying that he had 'become convinced' that the only way to 'save' Copland was through academisation, while admitting that it was no 'silver bullet', dashing hopes that his ascent to the children and families position would mark a change in the Labour Council's acquiescence to academisation.  Copland's conversion would mean that all Brent secondary schools are academies or faith schools. This is in marked contrast to neighbouring Camden where there is only one academy.

Cllr Pavey went on to assure Labour Party members that he wanted to work with the unions. It will be interesting to see how he will go about this given his comments.

Meanwhile Jenny Cooper, Health and Safety Adviser to the Brent Teachers Association has drawn attention to the impact of the poor state of Copland's building on the quality of the school students' learning environment - an issue that the Ofsted report particualrly focused on and an issue out of the control of teachers.

News of the outcome of the Ofsted inspection at Copland school makes for very sad reading. Inspectors placed great emphasis on the state of the school building which, many of us agree, is a very poor physical environment for its students and staff. Previous risk assessments and safety reports have highlighted poor conditions, maintenance and the presence of risky asbestos.

Isn’t it ironic, then, that the week that this Ofsted report was published coincided with the physical handover of the new Village School building and the grand opening of its Short Break Centre. After years of campaigning, by unions and the schools, Brent Council recognized that the former Hay Lane and Grove Park school (now The Village) buildings were not fit for purpose and were riddled with dangerous asbestos. These were demolished and we now have one of the best school buildings in the country for some of our most vulnerable children in Brent.

Just the week before, it was announced that the Village School had achieved its “Good” report from Ofsted. What a complete travesty and dis-service to the children of Brent that the abolition of “Building Schools for the Future” meant that Copland missed out on its promised rebuild and was left to struggle on in an environment not fit for the 21^st century.

We must all get behind the teachers and students of Copland and make sure that the real story behind this school is heard.

 Will the local authority and Michael Pavey 'deliver' on that last sentence?

12 year old Khadija drew David Cameron's attention to the poor state of the Copland building in March and this was followed up by the World at One on which Khadija was interview by Martha Kearney. The World at One's Facebook page carried picture of the state of the school building which should have shamed the government.

Martha Kearney interviews Khadija

Muhammed Butt urges mutual respect and support after Woolwich

Muhammed Butt, leader of  Brent Council has issued the following statement after yesterday's killing in Woolwich:

On behalf of Brent Council and Brent residents I would like to express the dismay felt by all at the brutal murder that took place yesterday in Woolwich.

As a Muslim I know that there is no basis in Islam for this kind of barbaric action and my thoughts and prayers, as I know yours are as well, are with the family and friends of the young soldier who died yesterday.

Here in Brent we have strong communities that come together every day to live and work, and I urge all of us to continue to respect and support each other during this time of unease.

Beware: Sham consultation ahead

Guest blog by Save Roke Campaign, Parents at Roke Primary in Croydon have been campaigning against their children's school being forced to become an academy. They have been working with the Save Gladstone Park campaign. The process at Roke is further along the line and Harris Academies (run by Lord Harris the Carpetright millioniare and Tory Party donor) has been chosen by the DfE as sponsor. Harris have been carrying out a 'consultation' with parents...


The results of the Harris consultation have finally been published. It is a government commissioned document that will enable the Secretary of State to make his final decision on Roke. The consultation cost £5k of taxpayers money. Yet it contains biased reporting of statistics and omission of data that is unfavourable to Harris. It is alarming but not surprising because the consultation was not run by a neutral or independent arbitrator but by Harris themselves.

Harris have twisted their stats making it look like 62.5% parents support a Harris academy, when in fact only 19% of respondents said this, meaning that 81% did not voice support for them!

So how strong is the support for Harris at Roke? Support is miniscule. Only 15 parents from a school with 442 pupils voted for a Harris academy. If we go by one vote per child, this is a measly 3% of parents. This means 97% of parents were either against, undecided or did not bother to express an opinion by abstaining from the vote. Many parents felt it was a fait accompli and a fake consultation. They did not believe that we would be listened to, so they did not bother to fill in their consultation forms.

Harris will argue that there only 80 people returned their forms. They will state that only around 17% bothered to vote and will deduce that most parents are indifferent. We beg to differ. Of course there is always some indifference or apathy, but we think this figure actually captures two things: 1) the powerlessness parents feel at controlling the outcome and 2) the fact that no one has actually explained in an accessible way what academisation actually means. There were no verbal presentations or explanation. Some parents just don't feel informed enough to have an opinion. What is clear is that there was absolutely no ringing endorsement of Harris.

Given that there has been such a spirited campaign against the forced academy at Roke, this was the opportunity for pro Harris parents to really make their voice count in an anonymous ballot, the fact that only 3 % came out to support Harris- speaks volumes about how welcome they are at Roke.

Incredibly, Harris manage to present the results in such a way that makes it appear that 62.5% of parents support them sponsoring Roke. They achieved this by only including the responses of the 24 parents who voted 'yes' to a question asking if they supported academisation at Roke, of these just 15 went on to say they supported Harris as sponsor. These are tiny numbers. Harris completely ignored the opinions of parents who voted 'no' to an academy. Their opinions on whether Harris should sponsor the school were not included in the analysis. It means everyone who voted that they did not want to be an academy - had absolutely no voice about whether or not they wanted Harris to be the sponsor.

The school ran their own poll to gauge parent opinion which had a much larger response than the Harris poll (129 families- only one vote was allowed per family), probably due to greater faith in the way the poll was being run. As a final blow to transparency, only half of these results were included in the consultation report, despite these being submitted by both the school and the Save Roke committee. Results pertaining to whether parents wished to become an academy were included, but a question about whether parents supported Harris as sponsor should we become an academy, was completely omitted. We can only think that they were omitted because the results were clearly unfavourable to Harris. It showed that 83% of respondents were against a Harris academy and preferred Riddlesdown Collegiate as sponsor. We know which survey we trust. We are dismayed that Harris have completely written out Riddlesdown as a legitimate alternative, from the consultation.

Here is the missing information.

Q2 If the school does become an academy, who do you want as the sponsor?

Riddlesdown Collegiate 83%

Harris Federation 17%

Increased police presence in Wembley as Harrow soldarity rally planned for Woolwich victim

There is an increased and highly visible police presence on Wembley High Road today following yesterday's killing in Woolwich.  The Pakistani Society of Harrow and the Harrow Central Mosque will hold a solidarity rally at 2pm on Saturday to mark their solidarity with the victim and his family and their condemnation of the killing.

Police were in attendance outside the mosque this morning.

More HERE

Two more secondary free schools in Brent approved by Gove

Michael Gove today approved two secondary free schools to open in Brent in September 2014.  This is in addition to Michaela Academy which was approved in the last wave.

The Gateway Academy will be in the Wembley Central area, possibly in Madison House in London Road, off Wembley High Road. This is a close to Copland High School which is going through a difficult period at the moment and thought likely to be subjected to a forced academy. My previous posting on Gateway can be found HERE

The rather meagre details about the new school can be found HERE

Gladstone School does not yet appear to have found premises in the Gladstone Park/Cricklewood area. Crest Boys and Crest Girls Academies presently serve that community. The sponsors answered my questions about the proposed free school HERE

Details can be found on the school's website HERE 

Both sets of proposers are thought to have been in talks with Brent Council officers. The issue of free schools has been controversial within Brent Labour Party and concern about it is said to have been a factor in Cllr Michael Pavey replacing Mary Arnold as lead member for children and families in the recent Executive elections.

 Meanwhile the Mayor of London has admitted that he supports the funding of free schools even in areas where there is “not necessarily a shortage of places”. London Councils are lobbying the Government for funding to cope with the estimated 118,000 extra school places in London by 2014/15.

Darren Johnson, Green Assembly Member for London said:

We will have new schools funded in areas of London which don’t need them and no new schools built in areas of high demand. The policy is irrational and based upon the principle of the parents who shout loudest getting their own way. With a dire shortage of funds for new schools, the Mayor is effectively saying that a new free school has priority over a child in another part of London who has no school.

The Mayor can’t say that he is simply following Government policy on this, as his deputy Mayor for culture also admitted that properties belonging to the fire or police authorities may be sold to free schools at ‘red book’ prices, rather than through competitive tendering. The looming shortfall of 118,000 school places in the capital would be far better addressed through the Mayor's co-operation with local authorities in a properly planned programme of school building rather than the hit and miss approach of Free Schools.

 

Boris Johnson admits new free schools may not be in areas of school places shortage

Boris Johnson confirmed at Mayor's Question Time today that free schools he is backing in London may not be in areas of school places shortage. At present the DfE requires that any new school should be an academy or free school. This means that where sponsors do not come forward such areas will be left without a new school and the money will go instead to build schools areas where there are sufficient places or even a surplus. Instead LAs will be forced to expand existing schools often on unsuitable sites and cutting back on children's play space and creating 'super-size' primaries.

Yet more evidence of government money being spent on Gove and Johnson's ideological projects while depriving local communities of much needed resources.

Question from Darren Johnson (Green AM)

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?

Answer by Boris Johnson (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.

The end of the public sector ethos and democratic accountability in Barnet as Capita take over

From Barnet Unison

Yesterday staff were told at a series of briefings that Capita Symonds is the preferred bidder to deliver a whole range of Council Regulatory services to Barnet residents and businesses.

 The services to be handed over to Capita include the following:

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Hendon Cemetery & Crematoria

Barnet Council has a number of statutory responsibilities to monitor the private sector in order to ensure the health and safety of their residents. The recent high- profile national public-health scandal about the use of Horsemeat in processed foods emphasises that private companies do not adequately monitor their own activities, leaving the public at risk. If Barnet Council is allowed to privatise these services, it will set a dangerous precedent for other councils.

Barnet Council has been promoting itself as an innovator for the future of public services by adopting the Commissioning Council model. In the last 12 months the Council has overseen a significant number of services outsourced to other providers. The full list of services are HERE.

John Burgess UNISON Branch Secretary said:

Barnet Council is making a huge mistake in handing over these critical services to the private sector. It is not just about the risks this brings but what it means in term of democratic accountability. Next year we have the local elections in May 2014. What options will there be for the electorate if all the council spend is tied up into complex contracts? As for all the remaining staff the message is stark: no matter how loyal you are, no matter how hard you work political dogma is dictating all services are to be outsourced. Today a number of our members have chosen to wear black armbands/ black clothing as a sign of the demise of the public sector ethos in Barnet Council.