Parents and headteachers demand ‘education emergency’ to stop forced takeover of schools

‘It is going to be the next uprising,’ parent campaigner warns

Opposition against the removal of schools from local authority control has resurged as families march in the streets and headteachers reignite calls for forced academisation to end.

Parents are increasingly leading the battles against schools being converted into academies, which are state schools independent of local councils, as they become more aware of negative stories.

The increased use of WhatsApp and social media groups connecting opposing parents across the country, including those who have been successful in their fight, has also spurred families on.

Labour’s pledge to end the forced conversion of local schools into academies at their annual conference, where they condemned the “fat cat” salaries of CEOs at academy chains, added fuel to the fire.

Hundreds of children and parents have taken to the streets with placards in two separate marches against school takeovers in the past week – and more demonstrations look to be on the cards.

The opposition from parents comes as school leaders at the National Association of Head Teachers conference in Telford this weekend debate a motion calling on the teaching union to reaffirm its opposition to forced academisation.

Some headteahers and parents fear that joining an academy trust, which sets its own policies on admissions, behaviour and the curriculum, could result in the school’s identity and staff being lost.

High-profile reports of the large salaries of academy chain CEOs, at a time when schools are struggling to provide even the basics to pupils amid cuts, has also fuelled opposition to the system.

Figures this year revealed that nearly half of the academy chains that have been ordered by ministers twice to justify their awarding of excessive salaries to bosses handed out more pay rises.

A one-school academy trust Holland Park, an academy in west London – once dubbed the “socialist Eton” – featured in the group, after it awarded its head £260,000 following a pay rise.

Around 250 parents, teachers and children marched in Peacehaven in east Sussex on Wednesday against plans to hand three schools to an academy trust. Placards read “Pritt sticks not BMWs”.

Cherry Lean, whose child attends Telscombe Cliffs Primary School, one of the three schools, is concerned that vital support staff could be cut to fund larger salaries for academy bosses.

“I’m just a normal working mum that’s just standing up for what I believe is an unneeded risk to take with our children’s education,” Ms Lean said.

And last Sunday, more than 100 children and parents marched with signs in Waltham Abbey, a market town in Essex, to stop Waltham Holy Cross Primary School from being taken over by an academy trust.

Shaunagh Roberts, whose child is in Year 4 at the school, told The Independent she’d be willing to carry out another march in Harlow — where the opposed academy chain Net Academies is based — to be heard.

“It is a big problem when you have children outside their own school saying they don’t want to be part of it,” she said. “We need an education emergency right now.”

A number of campaigns have sprung up across the country in recent months. Earlier this year, children wore masks of their headteacher as they marched in Swinford in Leicestershire as part of a campaign to save the leader from losing his job amid a restructure by the Diocese of Leicester Academies Trust.

Parents, children and teachers took part in a day of action in Peacehaven (Alice Burchfield)

And some parents are fundraising for legal action against academisation. Ms Roberts compared the growing movement to the climate change school strikes. “It is going to be the next uprising,” she said.

This month, campaigners against the academisation of The John Roan school in London are hosting a fundraising event and parents and teachers are set to lobby the Department for Education headquarters.

Currently local authority schools that receive an “inadequate” rating from Ofsted – such as The John Roan school – can be forced to become an academy in a bid to intervene and drive up educational standards.

Jon Coles, CEO of the United Learning academy trust, recently wrote to the John Roan campaigners and said the poor Ofsted report made a “compelling case for a change of management and control”.

He added: “Children only have one chance at their education and they should not have to endure what is described in the report.”

But Kes Grant, who has three grandchildren at The John Roan, remained sceptical. “We want an education grounded in the community, not a business. We see it as a bigger problem than just John Roan,” she said.

Parents and children protested outside Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School against academisation (OLOL E11 Parents ) (OLOL E11 Parents)

Other parent-led campaigns in Wakefield and Brentwood have not ruled out stepping up protests, with some saying they could host a march in the summer term if they do not get the answers that they want.

The number of schools becoming academies is growing and there are now more than 7,000. Nearly three in four secondary schools are academies as well as more than a quarter of primary schools.

The first academies were set up in 2002 by Labour to improve standards. But from 2010, the numbers increased after the coalition government said it would allow all schools to convert to academies.

Protesters against academisation marched in Peacehaven (Cherry Lean)

Since then, the Conservative government has been pushing academisation as their flagship policy for school improvement. In 2016, former education secretary Nicky Morgan announced plans to convert all state schools to academies by 2022. But the proposals were later shelved following large opposition.

Last year, education secretary Damian Hinds told school leaders at the NAHT annual conference that he wanted to move away from “forced academisation being seen as this punitive threat” for schools.

But a motion at this year’s NAHT’s annual conference this weekend warns that the “threat remains” and it calls for the forced government intervention after a poor Ofsted inspection to be dropped.

A number of schools have improved since becoming academies, but studies have found that the type of school you attend – academy or maintained – does not automatically lead to improvements.

Michelle Sheehy, head of Alumwell Junior School and Millfield Primary School in Walsall, who is proposing the motion, told The Independent: “I don’t know why it is still an option for improving schools. I thought that the popularity of it would decrease but it hasn’t.

“It is still perceived as a threat to heads. They are worried about losing their jobs. It is a culture of fear.”

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Campaigns against academisation are a real phenomenon now that parents have really understood what the forced academisation programme is all about and they are taking the lead in these campaigns.”

He added: “Parents are very fearful of the ethos that may come about if their school has to join a multi-academy trust. They don’t like the methods that they see being adopted. I think parents are now recognising what the unions have been saying – that privatisation of schools is not appropriate.”

Libby Nicholas, chief executive of Astrea Academy Trust, which runs 27 academies, said: “The whole point of academy trusts is to raise standards in schools that have been failing children for far too long.”

Ms Nicholas added that all their schools that were previously rated as either “requires improvement” or “inadequate” by Ofsted have improved.

“Academies are breathing new life and new hope into communities that were being left behind, and we’re proud to be playing our part,” she said.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are striving for a world class education for all children, regardless of background and when we see issues of underperformance we will not hesitate to take swift action.

“Since 2010 we have converted around 8,000 schools to academies – many of which are in the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

“More than half a million children studying in sponsored primary and secondary academies are now rated “good” or “outstanding”, with standards rising faster in many sponsored academies than in similar council-run schools.”