Showing posts with label forced academisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forced academisation. Show all posts

Saturday 2 May 2015

Parents and politicians support fight against forced academisation of St Andrew and St Francis CofE Primary


 Compiled from a press release from Brent ATL and NUT
Mr Gorsia, a parent, addressing the meeting
Staff at St Andrew and St Francis CofE Primary in Belton Rd, Willesden, Brent took their fifth day of strike action  on Thursday in protest at their school being forced to become an academy. The theme on the picket line was ‘Democracy denied: IEB refuses parents’ ballot’. After the picket line staff and parents went along the Willesden High Rd asking shopkeepers to display no academy notices which they were very happy to do. These notices are also being displayed in parents’ front windows and some are putting them in their cars to make sure the message is spread – no academy.

At the meeting yesterday evening in St Andrew’s Church attended by staff and parents Bridget Chapman, a speaker from the Anti Academies Alliance, said she had seen all the notices in the shops as she came from the tube station. It made a real impact. She fully supported the parents’ ballot. She said, “What are they so afraid of? She praised staff and parents for their stand against the privatisation of our education. “This is just giving away land and buildings to businesses,” she expalined.

Dawn Butler, Labour candidate for Brent Central, told parents that if Labour won the general election then she would do her utmost to get the decision to force the school into an academy reversal. She said that whatever happens on Thursday she would give full support to the campaign to have a parents’ ballot. “I say this because I believe in it. You are pushing at an open door”, she said.

Irene Scorer, parent, then handed over a petition against the academy to Dawn signed by 200 parents accounting for 290 children out of the 400 at the school. This is clearly a large majority and outstrips the 32 who said they supported the academy in the sham consultation. Many of these parents have since learning about academies changed their minds and signed the petition.

Three parents gave their views.  

Hamid El Hadi said:
I support everyone who is against this academy. This is affecting our children and the teachers are stressed. All we want is a ballot. We’re not asking for the earth.
 Bharat Gorsia said: 
We are being lied to by the school. We are told nothing will change. If it isn’t broken why fix it.
Syed Karrar told the audience that his daughter has had five teachers since Easter and that all this move to an academy had unsettled everyone. 

Hank Roberts, Brent ATL secretary also spoke and praised the commitment of staff and parents and said there was still all to win. Others who spoke from the audience agreed and there was an overall enthusiasm to continue the fight until justice prevails. Parents were informed that there would be two further days of strike action on Tuesday 12th May and Thursday 14th May. The unions had called off one of the strike days this week in an act of goodwill to try and reach agreement with the IEB on a ballot and TUPE negotiations. They heard on Wednesday that nothing had been agreed on any of the issues. Parents agreed that two days had to go ahead as the pressure needed to be kept up.

The unions, staff and parents have been trying to meet with key people from Brent and the LDBS to discuss things. The Bishop of Willesden declined a meeting but did say that the HMI inspection last Thursday and Friday, “they [the school] received a very favourable outcome indeed”. So, as the parents and staff say, why change the school into an academy if it has made significant improvements and likely to come out of special measures?

Messages of support from around the country were relayed to the meeting including this statement from Martin Francis, Brent Green party spokesperson on children and families.
Please convey the support of Brent Green Party for the staff and parents in their fight against forced academisation. We see academies and free schools as a form of privatisation that removes democratic accountability and prepares the way for profit making from education. Green Party policy is to integrate academies and free schools into the local authority school system.
Muhammed Butt did not attend and did not send any statement about his position with regards a ballot as he had been asked to, much to everyone’s disapproval.

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Parents chain themselves to school entrance in protest against forced academisation

Parents chained themselves across school entrance

Report from Brent NUT and ATL


Parents and their children used 20 metres of chains and padlocks to chain themselves across the front entrance of their primary school. They were there to support the teachers and support staff who were taking strike action against the school being forced to become an academy. St Andrew and St Francis Cof E Primary in Belton Rd, Willesden, Brent had taken their first day of action last week and this week they are on strike for two days.



The parents are demanding an independently overseen ballot with full information of the arguments for and against an academy. The so called consultation was a mere letter supporting an academy and a form that asked parents if they did or not. On a small turn out the majority agreed. But the IEB ignored a meeting of parents held at the school who made it clear they were unanimously against an academy. This was not even mentioned in the consultation report sent to the DfE.  Both parents and the education unions have been talking to and handing out information to parents about why the school should not be an academy. The parents’ petition has reached over 360 signing to say they are totally against a forced academy and demanding a fair ballot.



The staff, parents and children sang songs, blew whistles, banged drums and shouted No academy! There was a fantastic feeling of solidarity among the crowd and a determination to continue the campaign.



Irene Scorer, a parent, said, “Today was fantastic. We really showed that we support our teachers and support staff. We’ll keep going until they give us a ballot. We’ll be looking at how we can escalate the campaign. We won’t be bullied into becoming an academy.”



Lesley Gouldbourne, Brent NUT secretary, who represents the majority of the teaching staff at the school, said, “It was great to see so many parents with their children supporting the staff today. The IEB still refuse to recognise the parents’ democratic right to be heard – and we will keep shouting until they do!”


Hank Roberts, ATL Secretary, who also represents staff at the school said, “Today shows that support for the staff taking action against the school being forced to become an academy is growing. 

We also have more staff joining the strike this week. Some children were in school today taught by strike breakers from senior management. But with the growing support from staff and parents to continue and increase such action, the IEB needs to start listening and agree a ballot.”



After Easter more strikes are planned if the IEB do not agree to a ballot for parents which the Unions have even offered to pay for. What have they got to fear from this?
The Brent and Kilburn Times gives the following quote from Brent Council:
A Brent Council spokesman said: “It is central government policy that schools in special measures become academies. Since this is inevitable, it is better that the future of the school is resolved speedily.
“We are aware that trade unions are against St Andrews and St Francis School becoming an academy, however it is important to note that the majority of parents who took part in a consultation earlier this year on the school becoming an academy, said that they were in favour of the proposal.”
The statement ignores the parents' views and is misleading in suggesting that forced academisation is automatic and inevitable. Other schools, with support from their local authorities, have successfully fought of forced academisation proposals.  Unfortunately Labour in Brent acquiesce in such policies even as a General Election approaches where that policy can be challenged.

Friday 20 March 2015

Anti forced academisation strike well supported


Parents and support  staff joined teachers on a strike picket line on Wednesday at St Andrew and St Francis C of E Primary School in Willesden.

Teachers from the NUT and ATL were striking against  the Interim Executive Board's plan to academise the school following a criticval Ofsted report. Staff and parents argue that this is unnecessary as improvements are already in progress.


Friday 14 February 2014

Feisty parents fight off forced academy conversion

In a victory that may have wider repercussions for schools facing forced academisation, St James' Church of England School in Gloucester have been told that it will not face academy conversion for the foreseeable future.

Parents at St James' have been campaigning vociferously over the issue. Recently Michael Gove has not be very pleased with Ofsted Inspection reports that have noted forced academisation takes schools' attention away from getting out of special measures. The problem is referred to here.

A letter from the school on February 12th stated:
Since receiving the Academy Order which was referred to in my last letter, the governing body, Local Authority and Diocese have collectively sought approval from the Department for Education (DfE) to defer the academy conversion process for the foreseeable future. I'm please to be able to tell you that yesterday we received formal notification that the request has been approved.

The specific reasons for the agreement is that the DfE have acknowledged that the school needs to prioritise coming out of special measures and would have been distracted from this by the amount of administration involved in academy conversion. In addition, the Local Authority has yet to complete its audit which determines whether additional school places may be needed in the city for 2016 and beyond.

Governors acknowledge that some parents have expressed their concerns about academy consultation. Please be assured that all parents, as well as other local stakeholders, will be fully consulted about future plans for thye school once the Local Authority have undertaken this work. 
The letter goes on to invite  parents to hear about the latest HMI monitoring report at the meeting which was to be held about academy consultation.

The letter concludes:
We do hope that as a community we can now all collectively focus on the immediate priority - to ensure that St James' moves out of 'special measures' and appoint a sunstantive headteacher with the energy and ambition to ensure that St James' is the school of choice for parents in this locality. 
The St James' Campaign  Facebook was jubilant with this heartfelt message posted about one of the leading campaigners:
You are a true inspiration to others your drive passion and fight for a cause you believe in have done you proud you are a woman to aspire too who has gone to extraordinary lengths to fight for Save St James....since September you took this on as a full time job as well as being a full time mum and all the voluntary work you do to help others...even when you were at your lowest point kicked in the teeth by the very people that are in charge of our children you never gave up hope...may your children also see you for the remarkable strong and dedicated woman that you are...a true fighter to the end!!!! so proud of you and may many children benefit from this x x
Congratulations. I hope Brent and other local authorities and governing bodies will note the importance of standing together against forced academisation and getting behind parent campaigns..

Thursday 6 February 2014

Parents and students join Copland strikers' picket line

Parents demand a voice
Students demand a voice
Photo: Stefan Simms

Parents and students joined striking teachers on the picket line at Copland Community School this morning. Teachers are striking for the 6th time against forced academisation which means a takeover of the school by ARK.

They are calling for an independently supervised democratic ballot over the issue.

Monday 16 December 2013

4th Copland teachers' strike against Ark Academy takeover


'Santas' support the last Copland strike

Copland Community School will be closed again tomorrow (Tuesday 17th December) as staff take their fourth day of strike action to oppose the attempt to force them to become an ARK academy. Staff who met today at lunchtime voted absolutely overwhelmingly for the strike to go ahead as the management had obviously not taken the attempts by the Union to come to a negotiated settlement, which could have avoided the strike. (See guest post below). This shows the staff's resolve not to be manipulated and to stand up against the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove's drive to privatisation, not even allowing any proper consultation.

Barking and Dagenham councillors have voted unanimously to ballot the parents of any school that is consulting on whether or not to become an academy through choice or by direction. This is a direct challenge to attempts by Gove to force schools to become academies. It's a shame that Brent Council have not followed their example. They should now do so.

There will be a picket outside the school from 7.30 am tomorrow.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Fundraiser: Walk the Walk to enable Copland to Talk the Talk


The Anti-Academy Working Party at Copland School has organised a pub walk to take place on Friday 22nd November around London Bridge.

The purpose of the walk is to raise £300 to book a room for a public meeting.

Those wishing to take part should gather in the Old King's Head (King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1NA) from 6 o'clock on Friday.  The walk will start at 7 o'clock.

There will be a Dickensian theme to the walk as participants will visit some of the places mentioned by Dickens in Barnaby Rudge, Little Dorrit and The Pickwick Papers.

Places familiar to Edmund Burke, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Pepys and William Shakespeare will be visited.

The walk will finish beside London Bridge tube station.

There will be a cost of £5 for joining the walk

Sunday 17 November 2013

‘I’m an Ark Academy apologist. Get me out of here!’


Copland staff  and parents underwhelmed by  ‘consultation’ process.  

Guest blog by 'Participatory Democracy'

Copland staff have always been a little sceptical about ‘consultation’, possibly since ex-Head Davies once announced to a full staff meeting (on applying for Trust status) : ‘the consultation period is over’, having omitted to do anything to indicate that it had ever actually begun. So when various Ark representatives, including the Ark Academy Head, Dame Delia Smith OBE, and IEB members fronted a ‘consultation’ meeting for Copland staff last Thursday, no one was expecting them to get a warm reception. And that’s exactly what they didn’t get. Still, as almost all the staff had only ever seen one member of the IEB before, it was, if nothing else,  a chance for them to get a glimpse of this year’s latest  new bosses. Or, as one ‘deleted’ teacher put it: ‘it’s always nice to be able to put a face to your redundancy notice’.

Monday 4 November 2013

Copland to become an Ark academy in September 2014

Copland staff were officially informed today that their school would become an Ark academy in  September 2014. They were told that they would receive a letter about the resultant restructuring later today but this was later changed because the trade unions had not yet been informed. Instead they will receive letters later this month.

Rather late in the day to observe the correct procedures...


Thursday 15 August 2013

'Failing' Copland gets much improved A level results

The Kilburn Times LINK reports improved A Level results at Copland Community School. Copland was labelled 'Inadequate'  by Ofsted last term, its headteacher and governing body sacked, an Interim Executive Board imposed by Brent Council, forced academisation process started by the Department for Education, and the new management took competency procedures against many teachers.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Copland teachers to strike against forced academisation tomorrow

Teaching staff at Copland Community School in Wembley will be on strike for the second time on Wednesday 3rd July.

The school will be closed to pupils due to the action. There will be a picket line from 8am in the morning. Then staff will be marching at 9am, with parent, pupil and local community support, to the new Brent Civic Centre in Engineers Way to call upon the Labour led Council to stop assisting Michael Gove's forced academy programme.

There will be an effigy of Michael Gove which will be ceremoniously dumped in a dustbin (the dustbin of history) and lots of Gove masks to make the point.

Jon Cox, Brent NASUWT Acting President  said, “ A programme of academisation is not about raising standards. It is simply the imposition of a warped political ideology on state schools. Unequivocal
evidence that academies raise the quality of education simply does not exist. What Copland needs is investment in both staff professional development and attractive buildings which give pupils firstly, the decent working environment they deserve and secondly, the message that every child matters”

Hank Roberts, Brent ATL Secretary and National President said, “Michael Gove's dismantling of state education and attempted abolition of parental choice in his forced academies programme is treacherous. For this he should be put in the dustbin of history where he and his policies belong”.

Jean Roberts, Joint Brent NUT Secretary said, “Forcing Copland to become an academy is not the solution and won't bring in the needed funds. How can any pupil learn adequately in such an appalling building. There needs to be a new school building plan agreed and begun as soon as possible in the autumn term.'

Friday 1 March 2013

Please back this bid for a 38 degrees petition on forced academies

Against forced academies and the privatisation of our education system by stealth

Our government is forcing schools to become academies against the majority consensus. They are ignoring parents, schools and local authorities. They are using bullying tactics to hand schools to academy chains, run by major Tory donors. They are not only forcing failing schools but good ones and allowing these chains to cherry pick good schools to give academy policy credibility. Parents all over the UK are starting to organise themselves. 'Parents Against Forced Academies' are calling for a public enquiry into the bullying and likely corruption endemic to forced academy process. Decisions about handing over our public schools to academy chains are being made behind closed doors without proper consultation or transparency.

Please join us in our fight for our Education system and our democracy.

The underlying anti-democratic nature of the Department of Education's handling of these matters points unequivocally to a hidden agenda of privatisation. This is fuelled by political self-interest, by party donations, lobbying and future job offers beyond parliament.

Privatisation will only serve the elite and the sooner it is challenged the better. And the rhetoric that Academies will solve all problems is based on very weak foundations. They are increasingly selective of pupil intake, channel funds to executive figures away from teachers, operate dangerously strict pupil codes of conduct and have increasingly fast teacher turnaround. As parents, this is not what we want for our children or our country.

This issue has largely fallen under the media radar and public awareness. It deserves to be front page news and brought to public attention. Education is our future.

We strongly believe that this issue mirrors the NHS privatisation which has fuelled much public outrage. The public deserves to know what is happening to Education too.

This is a serious request at a serious time, and we urge you to support us.

Parents Against Forced Academies

To vote follow this LINK

Battle against forced academisation is a fight for democracy - Roke parents


With Gladstone Park Primary parents continuing their campaign against the school being forced to become an academy and suggestions that this might happen to other Brent primary schools, it is worth hearing about the experience of parents in other parts of London. Roke Primary in Croydon has also experienced the bullying nature of the DfE's  'brokerage' department and the parents' campaign has written to the local paper about the experience: LINK
Parents recently received a copy of a letter about forced academy at Roke Primary school from Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Schools to Richard Ottaway, our Conservative MP for South Croydon.
Lord Nash's letter casts Roke Primary as an 'underperforming' school, yet our school is not underperforming under any possible definition of the word and certainly not over a 'long time', which is specified in DfE's own guidance for forced academies. The latest SAT results are above the national average and place the school in the top 20% of Croydon schools. Teaching is regarded by Ofsted, the Local Authority and parents as at least good. Let's be clear forced academy at Roke is NOT about substandard education at Roke.

The reason the school is being forced to academy is that it was placed in an Ofsted category of 'Notice to Improve', mainly due to a lack of data caused by computer problems and leadership/management issues. The Ofsted report was published in mid June 2012. Areas for improvement were outlined and the school, LA and Riddlesdown (as partnering
school) sprung into action and made positive changes very quickly. Yet only 3 months later, in September the DfE informed the head governor that Roke would become an academy.

Factoring in the school summer holiday, the school was given less than 6 weeks to improve. There was no return visit by Ofsted to check on the improvements made and no chance to prove that they could be sustained. This action defeats the purpose of giving a school 'Notice to improve', if they are then denied the chance to demonstrate improvements made.

Lord Nash states that improvement is required in relation to leadership and management. This could happen without removing the school from Local Authority control. It does not need such drastic action as being forced, against the wishes of parents, governors and local community, to become an academy and to be sponsored by Harris.

It would be far more cost effective to simply replace the leadership. Let's make no mistake this is about political ideology not standards.

Lord Nash omits the fact that the Ofsted monitoring visit happened in January 2013, the day after parents launched their campaign and a damning article appeared in The Guardian, stating that Oftsed had not visited before the decision was made. He also omits to make it clear that this was not a full Ofsted inspection and therefore it did not matter what rating for improvement was received it would not lift Roke out of the 'Notice to Improve' category. His letter reads like Roke somehow failed to improved enough to be reclassified which is untrue.

Furthermore, we have been told that the Ofsted inspector said on arrival before the monitoring inspection took place, that Roke would not get a rating better than 'satisfactory' because there was insufficient time between inspections to prove that improvements had been embedded or were sustainable. This is the real reason which, as Lord Nash writes, there is 'limited evidence that (improvements) are secure and sustainable'. It has little to do with the school's efforts but rather with the government failing to give the school enough time to achieve this within its' own inspection frameworks, before rushing to turn the school to an academy.

Lord Nash says, 'Harris has confirmed that it wishes to support notice to improve and bring about the improvement needed' at Roke. Therein lies the crux of the matter. It is highly likely, if a full inspection was to take place today that the school would perform much better, and would come out of 'Notice to Improve' or its new equivalent category.

As it stands, Harris will simply come in and take all the credit for improvements that have already taken place. We believe that Roke may have been targeted as a school where, a relatively small nudge is needed to return us to our previous 'outstanding' status. This will give Harris and academy policy false credibility.

Lord Nash says that the government recognises the 'importance of formal local consultation' and that it is 'a legal requirement before any school can open as an academy'. We suggest that his definition of 'consultation' is different to everyone else. His letter makes it clear that all decisions about Roke, its future as an academy and its sponsor have already been made. To suggest that consultation takes place after the fact is ludicrous. Moreover, to suggest that the consultation is most meaningful when it is run by the preferred Sponsor, in this case Harris, is also ludicrous and bordering on corrupt.

The consultation must be operated legally, and cannot be a presentation or a deliverance of a decision already made - it must be legally meaningful. It must be an actual consultation - you consult and decide as a result, not in advance.

As it stands key decisions about our school have been made behind closed doors before consultation has taken place. The DfE is withholding crucial information about the decision making process, as evidence by failure to disclose information requested by parents under the Freedom of Information act. The DfE has also flouted its own rules regarding forcing a school that is not actually failing. The DfE is not operating by the Principles set down by the Committee of Standards in Public Life (1985) particularly the principles of accountability, openness or honesty.

Put simply, our own British government is breaking all the democratic values that this country holds dear.
The Save Roke Campaign Committee

Thursday 21 February 2013

The fight against austerity a major focus for Green Party Conference this weekend

I will be off to the Green Party's Spring Conference this weekend and hope to see the party strengthening its opposition to austerity, privatisation and cuts and committing to building broad alliances with others fighting on these issues.

In that regard one of the most important fringes will be on Saturday afternoon on Building the Movement Against Austerity and Privatisation with Sylvian Savier of Front de Gauche and Peter Allen of Green Left. An emergency motion will propose the Green Party  support the Coalition of Resistance's People's Assembly Against Austerity which will take place on 22nd June 2013.

Cuts will remain a controversial issue in the light of the decisions facing the minority Green Council in Brighton and Hove and support for Councillors Against the Cuts. There is a fringe on Sunday which will focus on 'the way the Greens (in Brighton and Hove) have sought to resist town hall cuts, the compromises that have to be made and how the wider party in the city has been galvanised into taking the arguments back to Secretary of State for Local Government and Communities Eric Pickles and the city's Tory MPs.'

Significantly the blurb adds, 'This won't be a debate about the merits or otherwise of the council's budget decisions'. It may not happen in that forum but the debate will certainly take place.

I will be hoping to gather support for my own emergency motion on forced academies which I reproduce below:
Conference recognises that Michael Gove has recently escalated his policy of forcing primary schools to become academies so that now only one poor Ofsted report is required to trigger such a move. This has currently resulted  in several strong parent-led campaigns in defence of  community schools.

The Green Party believes forced academisation:

  • Undermines the role of local authorities and school governing bodies in school improvement
  • Undermines local democratic accountability of schools
  • Ignores the wishes of major stakeholders including governors and parents
  • Hands over local assets to an external provider without recompense
  • Opens the school to eventually being run on a profit-making basis
Conference therefore instructs the GPEX campaigns coordinator to facilitate a campaign against this policy at national level over the next 6 months and calls on  local parties to take up the issue where appropriate.
The failure of the Green Party to make much impact in the polls despite the Coalition's unpopularity and Labour's lack lustre performance will merit some soul-searching. The fact that an ex-Green Party parliamentary candidate for Eastleigh, Dr Iain Maclennan,  is standing for National Health Action in the current by-election and gaining broad-based support is also worth discussion.

The Green Party holds conferences twice a year and remains a conference that actually makes and debates policy rather than one which merely  showcases the leaders which is increasingly the case with the major parties.






Sunday 10 February 2013

Whose schools? OUR schools!

Children grasp the key question and answer outside Gladstone Park on Friday
Today's news in the Independent LINK that Michael Gove is looking to privatise academies and free schools, and thus open them up to profit-making comes as no surprise. It would also decouple them from Whitehall removing any semblance of democratic accountability which has  of course already been lost at the local level.

Anti-academy campaigners have always thought this was the long-term intention. Why else would carpet millionaires and hedge fund speculators be interested in running schools? Cleverly getting their foot in the door at an early stage,  academy chains will be in a position to harvest the profits from seizing community assets.

She knew what Gove was up to
It is not just the bricks and mortars and land, paid for by taxpayers over many years, sometimes going back to the introduction of universal elementary education in 1870, that is important. It is also schools as a site for community solidarity and values beyond those of individualism and private profit that is being destroyed,. In essence it is another battle in the war against social solidarity and the welfare state, the post-World War 2 settlement, that is taking place.  It is an ideological attack where the proponents will accuse opponents of being ideological. George Orwell would recognise the technique.

In 1986 Michael Joseph and then then Department of Education focused on the individual aspirations of parents for their children. They promoted what could be seen as the 'ideal' parent and argued that establishing a market in education would benefit individual parents as consumers. Back then phrases such as 'wanting what any decent parent would want for their children' , 'hardworking motivated families' were used to try and recruit parents as ideological partners in pursuit of free market solutions to what was percieved as the education crisis.

Their plans were challenged at a practical level when parents at Drummond Middle School in Bradofrd organised a campaign against the alleged racism of headtecher Ray Honeyford. Margaret Thatcher showed where she stood by inviting Honeyford to an education seminar at Dowing Street. Drummond Parents Action Group took to the streets  to protest. The Tory subtext was that the 'ideal parent' did not include ethnic minorities. 'Parent Power' was only for those who accepted the Government agenda? Does this soubnd familiar?

Another comment may also sound familiar. The All London Parents Action Group (ALPAG) said:
But be warned - for a Government that is so keen to encourage parental participation in education, he (Sir Keith Joseph,  Gove's equivalent at the time) is remarkably reluctant to answer parents' letters.
The Inner London Education Authority election of 1986 was unique because the Greater London Council having been abolished by Thatcher it was an election ONLY about education.  Several activists from the parents' movement stood as Labour Party candidates with experience in the Camapign for the Advancement of State Education (CASE), National Association of  Governors and Managers (NAGM), Save ILEA Campaign, Wandsworth Association of School Parents as well as local Parents Advisory Committees.

The Tories used the election to put forward their right-wing, privatisation ideas as a rehearsal for the next General Election. The result was a thrashing. On a relatively high turn-out, considering this was a direct election only about education in a city with many non-parents, of 44%, Labour achieved 46,8% (45 seats), Conservative 30.2% (11) and SDP-Liberals 21.2% (2).  Thatcher then punished the voters by abolishing the ILEA and handing education over to the boroughs, However the election result contributed to the  Tories moving to the centre ground in education. Michael Joseph was replaced by Kenneth Baker.

Gove's policies on privatisation, academies and free schools represent a move back to the days of Thatcher, Tebbit and Joseph (known by some as the 'Mad Monk') and we need to mount a similar challenge against his ideas and policies.

Is there a potential for a 21st century version of the All London Parents Action Group?

A diverse community sharing common values
 In the building of such a group the slogan Whose Schools? OUR Schools  should be central. We are not talking only about the selling off of public assets but of them being given away to the private sector. It is our taxes and council taxes that have funded our schools, but even more fundamentally the investment of the time and effort of generations of unpaid governors and parents that have made them the successful inclusive institutions that they are.

Fund-raising at Spring, Summer and Winter Fairs, volunteering in the classroom, accompanying classes on trips, regular contact with the class teacher are all ways that parents make it 'Our school'.  It is this closeness and identification with the school that make parents, grandparents and carers a potentially formidable campaigning force.

More and more is expected of the governing body who are expected to oversee the financial management of the school, set targets for school improvement and performance manage the headteacher. They are expected to go on training, attend conferences, and visit the school regulalrly to see it in action.


Michael Gove's forced acdemisation tramples over the efforts of parents and governors, devalues the contribution that they have made, and through his threat of replacing non-compliant governing bodies with Interim Executive Boards flies in the face of democracy.

Make no mistake we are in a fight for control of our schools,  for the future of our children's education and well-being, and for an ethos that values social inclusion, equality of opportunity and democratic accountability.

Let the battle commence to reclaim OUR Schools!