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Islington Tribune - by TOM FOOT
Published: 21 March 2008

School facing axe ‘should be hailed’

TONY Benn described the city academy programme as a “disease” after hearing an Islington school is to be closed despite being praised as London’s most improved.
The veteran politician boiled with rage at a major education conference in Bloomsbury when teacher Ken Muller revealed that Islington Green’s SAT results had soared above expectations.
Mr Muller said: “Lord Adonis and Gordon Brown should be naming it a beacon school and lauding it as an example of how comprehensive schools can succeed against the odds in difficult circumstances.”
The school is to close and re-open in September as the City of London Academy, specialising in business studies.
Terry Wrigley, a former Ofsted inspector, told the conference: “I can only find eight, out of 36 academies, showing this level of improvement at Islington Green.”
When differences in catchment populations were taken into account, only two academies had performed as well as Islington Green, he added.
Mr Benn said academies were part of a “counter-revolution”
against democracy.
He added: “Thatcher started it. She started to smash the unions. She began the process of privatisation that has been carried to such lengths by New Labour. It is about transferring power back from the polling station to the market place.”

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