Dear Mr Gove: Letter from a curious parent

Article by Michael Rosen in The Guardian (30 April 2012)

"I know you're proud of your policy of creating academies, but something happened on 23 April that pressed my panic button. You told the Commons education select committee that eight academy schools have been served with "pre-warning notices" because they are severely underperforming. I immediately thought, how come? Aren't academies the solve-all, the system that will rid us of "underperforming" schools? For the record, let's say it out loud: we now know that academies can and do fail. Perhaps, though, I should suspend my judgment, because the great advantage of the academy system is that the moment something goes wrong, the parents' complaints will be heard and the secretary of state will be on to it?

Let's look closer. First, we're not allowed to know what or where these academies are. With local authority schools, we have accountability and transparency with online Ofsted reports, sometimes followed by local newspaper headlines and TV fly-on-the-wall documentaries, but with academies, we have the schools that dare not speak their name. And we have the academy accounts that dare not be made public."

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Eight academies given improvement notice

Article by Alison Kershaw in The Independant (24 April 2012)

"Eight academy schools have been put on notice that they must boost their standards or face action, it was revealed today.


Education Secretary Michael Gove said the schools have been issued with pre-warning notices because they are severely under-performing.

It comes as MPs raised concerns that a government quango responsible for investigating complaints against academies is failing to do so."

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Teachers strike over attempt to force school to become sponsored academy

Article in The Guardian (22 May 2012)

"Parents and striking teachers have joined forces outside a school in north London to protest at the government's attempt to force it to become a sponsored academy.

Downhills primary school in Haringey, which was placed in special measures earlier this year after failing an Ofsted inspection, was closed to pupils on Tuesday as all 20 teachers went on strike.

The teachers, all National Union of Teachers (NUT) members, were joined by up to 30 parents for a demonstration against proposals by the Department for Education (DfE) to impose academy status.

Parent Sarah Williams, 40, who has two sons at the school, said: "There is absolutely no evidence that a change in structure improves children's educational outcomes."



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Primary school paid PR firm £152,000, accounts show

Article by Jessica Shepherd in The Guardian (19 April 2012)


"A primary school regularly praised by the government paid a political lobbying and public relations firm more than £152,000 last year to ensure positive mentions of the school in parliament and the press, among other work, it has emerged.

The latest accounts for the trust that runs Durand Academy in Stockwell, south London, show it paid £152,812 to Political Lobbying and Media Relations Ltd (PLMR) – a London-based firm that boasts of its connections to politicians of all parties.

The trust owed a further £12,455 to the lobbying company at the time the accounts, which are for the year ending 31 August 2011, were published. The academy's website states that between 1 April 2009 and 31 December 2010, the trust paid just over £199,000 to the firm."




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