Academies

Schools for profit

Academy schools are paying large sums of public money to private companies linked to their management, according to a report by the Education Select Committee. Academies are state-funded but privately managed schools; many are “sponsored” by private education companies. Still more have individual board members who run or have interests in private companies. It has always been clear that academisation meant privatisation, and private profit, but less clear how companies are making a profit. This report makes it clear. Aurora Academies Trust, for example, is paying £100,000 a year to use it’s...

Lessons from Birmingham

There have been two reports into Birmingham schools; one commissioned by Birmingham Council, written by Ian Kershaw, a former Head Teacher from Coventry, the other by Peter Clarke, former counter-terrorism chief at the Met. Both reports relied on similar sources: comments from people who had worked at the schools in various capacities, including head teachers and teachers who had been forced out because they objected to the way the schools were being run. Clarke’s report was heavily influenced by the testimony of over 50 people he interviewed. Both reports came to similar, shocking...

Solidarity with Lambeth College strikers!

Picket lines in Brixton and Clapham remained strong this week, as teaching staff at Lambeth College continue their strike. Wednesday 11 June and Thursday 12 June will see Unison members strike alongside their brothers and sisters in the University and College Union (UCU). College workers are striking against a contract brought in by the college from April for new staff only, which will mean they work longer hours, will work during the traditional college holidays, and will have less sick pay. UCU members began an indefinite strike on 3 June. Students have received text messages telling them to...

Workers' Liberty Teachers bulletin and fringe meetings at NUT conference 2014

You can download the PDF here . Contents include: Members remain solid for action but need a strategy than can win Madness from Planet Gove! GS and DGS elections: there is an alternative! School wars on the side of a bus In support of Ukrainian self-determination Whistleblowers should be protected, not hounded! Bob Crow - a fighter for our class! Swing to the LANAC left in the NUT executive elections George Orwell and Leon Trotsky - working class heroes standing up for truth Introducing the Nottingham Free School: Why not take a closer look inside? NEC election campaigning to win! Expelled...

Gove's programme: break up, purge and privatise

In his four years or so as Education Secretary, Michael Gove has accelerated the pace at which English state educational provision has been fragmented. New Labour proved itself just as hostile to democratic comprehensive education (as an ideal and where it existed) as the Tories and the Coalition. But by adding to the plethora of school types, and enabling more and more individual schools to be acquired by edu-management trusts, academy chains, charities, faith groups and social entrepreneurs, Gove is deepening the damage. Local accountability for, and local involvement in, the running of...

Workers win at "free school"

Teachers at a London “free school” have won a hugely important victory in a dispute with their employers. “STEM 6” Academy in Islington, a school for 16-19 year olds, was refusing to recognise unions and imposing what were effectively zero hours contracts on staff. Teachers at the school asked to be balloted by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) after their employers said there would be “legal consequences” if they failed to sign a new contract before Christmas. Included the contract was a paragraph which stated: “The school reserves the right to temporarily lay you off from work without...

How we stopped an Academy scam

On 22 November something odd happened. The Daily Express published an article which implicitly criticised one of Michael Gove’s key reforms to education and quoted, approvingly and prominently, the condemnation of this policy by Labour Education Minister, Tristram Hunt. The article also reported the comments of NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney to support the thrust of their story. The cause of all this an “exclusive” by the paper, about: “A failing academy advertises for Maths teachers who have just FOUR Grade C GCSEs”. It seemed fairly clear that the paper wanted to endorse Hunt’s...

Industrial news in brief

Journalists working for regional newspapers across the country are campaigning for better pay.

Workers' Liberty bulletins from NUT conference 2013

Bulletins produced by Workers' Liberty education workers for the National Union of Teachers conference 2013. Click here to download the main conference bulletin. Click here to download the bulletin for Sunday 31 March. Click here to download the bulletin for Monday 1 April.

How profit is trashing public services

Private companies are being given access to ever greater swathes of public services, buying the right to run for profit what ought to be socially provided to meet human need. The Tories’ “Big Society” scheme was supposed to be privatisation with a friendly, local face — public services being run by local businesses and third-sector organisations as well as larger companies. In reality, only the big have prevailed in the “Big Society”; a handful of multinational capitalist firms dominate the provision of privatised public services. Serco, a global corporation with revenue of over £2 billion (to...

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