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Upfront
Academy overturned
Governors at Petts Hill Primary in Ealing, London, have revoked their decision to convert to academy status, to the delight of NUT campaigners.
The school was to join an academy chain in December, but at a meeting in November this decision was overturned following months of campaigning by the NUT with staff, parents, governors, councillors and local MP Steve Pound.
Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary, said: “This is a clear demonstration that academy status can be opposed and local democratic accountability upheld.”
Local NUT assistant secretary Stefan Simms regretted the pressure to become academies put on schools by the Secretary of State for Education, saying: “It’s not the structure of a school that makes a difference to children’s lives. It is the quality of teaching.”
Academy expansion halted
A huge community fight-back in Huddersfi eld has defeated a local academy’s plan to expand, enabling it to accept students from age 11.
Parents, who feared Shelley Academy’s expansion would cause two popular local middle schools, Kirkburton and Scissett, to lose pupils and close, led the campaign. After being contacted by over 1,000 people, Dewsbury MP Simon Reevell announced he would not support the expansion. This led the academy’s head, John McNally, to recommend that the proposal be withdrawn.
Hazel Danson, NUT Kirklees division joint secretary, said: “It seems the local Tory MP realised party policy might bite him where it hurts – in the ballot box.”
Sinfin says no to academy
NUT members at Sinfin Community School in Derby remain resolutely opposed to the imposition of academy status against the wishes of teachers, governors and the community.
The school was placed in special measures in February 2012. The follow-up in October 2012 found that inadequate progress had been made (though Sinfin does not meet the government’s criteria for being forced into academy status).
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools Lord Hill imposed an interim executive board on the school, sacking all but one of the governors. He wants to hand the school to the academy chain Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust.
Joint NUT division secretary for City of Derby, Sue Argyll, said: “Parents are starting a campaign against the takeover by Greenwood Dale and plan to leafl et the local area and call a public meeting. Quite rightly, they are demanding a full and proper consultation over the future of their children’s school.”
Ninety-six per cent of NUT members at the school voted in favour of strike action against changes to their conditions of service which would result from forced academy status.
Unity tunes
Gary Kaye, NUT rep and teacher at King James’s School, Knaresborough, has enlisted a group of folk musicians to record two tracks in support of the action being taken by trade unions. ‘Union Made’ and ‘No Pasaran!’ are supported by the NUT and rail union RMT. Proceeds will be split between their hardship funds. Available from iTunes and Amazon downloads.
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