Academies

Schools: stop the Tory plans!

George Osborne announced in his Budget on 16 March that all schools are to become “academies” (autonomous businesses directly funded by central government) by 2020. There will be no choice, no consultation and no alternative available for children, parents or local communities. It is the first time a major policy from one of the big government departments has been launched by the Chancellor rather than the minister responsible. No explanation was given other than the fact that the Budget was committing £1.5bn to fund the transfer. The following day the Department for Education (DfE) published...

Academisation plans can be defeated

The Tories’ plans for forced academisation of all schools were announced only a week after the third reading of the Education and Adoption Bill which widens the group of schools who can be forced to become academies by adding a new category called ″coasting″. The threat posed by the Education and Adoption Bill and rumours about the White Paper have already led clusters of schools around the country to make their own decisions to become academies in advance in the hope that going earlier will give them more control let them and avoid predatory sponsors. It is also becoming much harder and rarer...

Tories take an axe to schools

The National Union of Teachers has commented on the Government's 17 March White Paper proposals to make every school an "academy" (directly funded by central government, with no local authority control over its management) and to abolish Qualified Teacher Status. Getting rid of Qualified Teacher Status is a clear indication of how little this Government respects teachers or parents, who believe their children should be taught by a qualified teacher. Leaving schools and heads to decide whether a teacher has reached suitable standards lacks coherence... Many schools, including the overwhelming...

Don't cut our schools!

Schools across England are facing huge funding cuts over the next few years, under a “fairer” new funding formula, taking effect from 2017-18. Nationally, schools will see about 8% cuts. In a few rare cases, particularly in schools in the shires, schools may have increased budgets. But schools in London will be hit with 13% cuts and some boroughs will face cuts of more than 20%. The current system is unfair and schools are under-funded. In Lincolnshire, for example, the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals has doubled but the amount of money schools receive has stayed roughly...

No return to selection in schools!

Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has agreed that Weald of Kent Grammar School, a single-sex academy in Tonbridge, can open a new building in Sevenoaks. This decision marks a shift Michael Gove’s position, and potentially heralds an upsurge in overt selection by so-called academic “ability” on a scale not seen for decades. Labour legislated in 1998 to prevent construction of new grammar schools. In part this was to deflect the grassroots pressure for the abolition of those grammar schools that remained after an uncompleted move to comprehensivisation. To circumvent Labour’s law, the...

Lewisham Academies: “Don’t give up fighting”

Luke Morgans, a student at Hilly Fields school who was involved in the successful anti-academies campaign in Lewisham, spoke to Solidarity . I wasn’t one of the very first students to be involved. I got involved when we started having demonstrations in February and March. I was already broadly left-wing, but I hadn’t done anything with my politics. It was separate from the workers’ campaign. Staff were told they weren’t allowed to talk to us about it. We knew our teachers were sympathetic, but they couldn’t go on our protests. We linked up at the community protests on some Saturdays and on...

Lewisham academies victory stings Morgan

Education Secertary, Nicky Morgan, has vowed to “sweep away bureaucratic and legal loopholes exploited by those who put ideological objections above the best interests of children” in order to force through the rapid academisation of local authority schools. In other words, Morgan wants to clear away even the limited say that parents, teachers, students and the local community have in the conversion of schools to academies. Morgan, clearly stung by the recent victory against the academisation of three schools in Lewisham, wants to ensure that trade union and community campaigns against...

Victory for Lewisham Academies fight!

On Monday 1 June, the Academy orders for the three Lewisham Prendergast schools were rescinded. This is a huge, and well deserved victory for the campaign. Over the past few months teachers' and support staff unions, parents and students have campaigned tirelessly to oppose the academisation of the three schools using strikes, demonstrations, meetings and legal challenges. Strikes planned for 3 and 4 June have been withdrawn. Teachers’ union, NUT, made sure it was prepared in advance, and did not allow time between governors' announcements and strike days which could have demobilised members...

A government for the rich

The Tories are committed to cutting public spending by £30 billion over the next four years. This will mean annual cuts twice the size of any year’s cuts over the past five years. Although they have not identified all their cuts it is already clear to some degree where the axe will fall. Policies include debarring unemployed under-21s from claiming Housing Benefit and cutting the annual benefits cap — the maximum payable to any claimant, whatever their circumstances — from £26,000 to £23,000. Jobseekers Allowance for 18-21 year-olds will be replaced by a six-month Youth Allowance, after which...

Industrial news in brief

On Friday 1 May, the UCU union at Lewisham and Southwark college will begin the ballot for industrial action to save 110 full-time equivalent jobs. We are now one of several colleges in London preparing to resist attacks on our jobs and our ability to serve local working class students with what is for many the last chance to escape poverty and the hopelessness of unemployment. The bulk of the leadership and governance of further education in the UK are socially useless and parasitic on the funding of further education. They do little more than administer the dismantling of educational hope...

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