Islington Tribune - News: Anti - academies campaigners

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Islington Tribune - by MARK BLUNDEN
Published: 15 June 2007

From left, anti-academies campaigners Julie Hunt, Ken Muller and Tom Eastwood

‘We want a school that’s fair to all’

Anti-academies campaigners put their case at Commons meeting

A CATALOGUE of failings in the government’s flagship city academies programme was laid bare at a House of Commons meeting on Tuesday.
Campaigners fighting the controversial “super schools” planned for Islington joined comrades from across the country to present their evidence.
The committee of inquiry, chaired by Labour MP Ken Purchase, was sponsored by the Anti-Academies Alliance and will present its findings to ministers.
Islington has one city academy under construction – on the site of St Mary Magdalene primary school in Holloway – and another on the way at Islington Green School in Angel, although this is still being fought by parents and teaching unions.
Each scheme has £2 million sponsors – the Diocese of London at St Mary Magdalene, and the City of London and City University at Islington Green.
Julie Hunt, a mother-of-two from Danbury Street, Angel, told the committee about the flawed consultation process over Islington Green and a chaotic voting system that allowed education chiefs to approve the scheme.
She told the committee the sponsors were being presented as responsible but in her view the school’s ethos was unapologetically business-orientated.
Ms Hunt added: “I said to the sponsor: what if my daughter wants to play an instrument, or be a historian or have an ice cream van? Whatever she wants to be?
“He said, quite seriously, that she should apply for the London Oratory school of music.”
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a local comprehensive school that’s mixed sex and secular. I just want something that’s fair to all children in the borough.”
The committee heard evidence that:
n Academies are not obliged to reveal anything under the Freedom of Information Act.
n The programme freezes out poor and less able pupils.
n Many academies have “major problems” retaining staff.
n Some sponsors do not recognise or negotiate with trade unions.
n There is too much emphasis on getting children – some as young as five – involved in the business ethos of sponsors.
Union representatives from Sandwell in the West Midlands told the panel how they grilled their local academy bosses on procedures for selecting pupils.
They were told the academy did not select on the basis of ability but had “a robust process for coping with over-subscription”.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

Your Comments: