Hands Off Our Schools

Pioneering ‘free school’ is “inadequate” says OFSTED

CT — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:16:06 +0000

A further blow to those — like Nottinghamshire’s Cllr Owen — who think ‘free schools’ are a terrific idea, as a primary ‘free school’ in West Sussex is awarded the lowest OFSTED grading and is judged “inadequate”.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jun/19/free-school-fails-ofsted-gove

Notts academy promised new build – but still waiting!

CT — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:44:09 +0000

Click to read the story in the Guardian, 18 June.

Campaign against the Nottingham Free School

CT — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:17:43 +0000

We will be repeating our successful ‘stall’ in Sherwood, where we understand the new ‘free school’ is due to be established. Reaction from members of the public to our campaigning literature was extremely positive and many signatures were collected on a petition. We will be there again on Saturday 13 July, from 11 am, outside the Co-op in Sherwood Shopping Centre. If you can come along to help distribute literature and talk to members of the public, you will be very welcome.

We will also be giving out leaflets to parents at primary schools close to the expected location of the ‘free school’. This will be in the week commencing Monday 8 July. If you are available to help (you would need to be there by about 8.20 am) please contact us via the ‘Contribute’ button or by email if you are a member of our email group. We will then tell you the exact location of the school we will be visiting on each day.

We are also making plans to continue the campaign into the new school year including lobbying Year 6 parents at ‘open evenings’ and a public meeting in Sherwood. Information will be posted here as soon as arrangements are finalised.

Please look out for letters and articles in the local press. Join the debate if you can.

This school does not yet exist and is by no means a ‘done deal’: they haven’t even announced where the school will be housed! We believe a campaign of information can prevent them persuading Year 6 parents to make it a ‘first choice’ when they complete their applications in late September.

Hands Off Our Schools Next Meeting

Hands Off Our Schools — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:00:55 +0000

Tuesday 18 June 7pm to 9pm Broxtowe Voluntary Action, Oban House, 8 Chilwell Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1EJ

No to the Sherwood Free School

Hands Off Our Schools — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:59:34 +0000

Stall in Sherwood this Saturday 11am to 2pm outside the small Co Op in Mansfield Road, Sherwood, NG5

Free schools in trouble – in Sweden

CT — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:05:11 +0000

As we know, our dearly beloved Education Secretary got his ‘big idea’ for ‘free schools’ from Sweden (and, to a lesser extent, the Charter Schools in the USA). The evidence that they raise standards is, to say the least, patchy. Nonetheless, Michael ploughs on secure in the knowledge that he’s right. Mr Gove would like to go even further we know: at the moment, ‘free schools’ and academies have to be run by educational charities or trusts but Gove sees no reason why people shouldn’t be able to run schools for profit. Here’s the reason.

In Sweden, where that very same thing has been happening for some time, one of the biggest providers of these schools — J B Education — has decided there isn’t enough profit in it and is to close four of its schools and sell the rest. The decision, which follows four school closures announced by the company in February, came as the Danish private equity group Axcel, which bought the chain in 2008, decided it could no longer continue to cover the company’s losses. This seems to most of us on the anti-academies/free schools ‘side’ of the argument to be inescapable proof of the folly of Gove and his actions. Even if so-called ‘free schools’ were shown to be delivering a better education, which they most certainly aren’t, can we as a nation risk leaving hundreds of our children high and dry at the commercial whim of private equity companies?

‘Ibrahim Baylan, the education spokesman for Sweden’s opposition Social Democratic party, said the closures should come as a warning to the UK not to slavishly adopt the Swedish model, where private companies can set up profit-making free schools, paid for by the state but with little government oversight.

“Before you do something like this you have to really, really think about how you set up the system,” he said. “The system here is not working as it’s supposed to work. Nobody could foresee that so many private equity companies would be in our school system as we have today.”

Two Swedish school companies, Kunskapsskolan and Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES), have already taken over the management of schools in the UK, albeit on a non-profit basis. Like JB Education, both are owned by private equity companies. Kunskapsskolan’s non-profit UK arm, Learning Schools Trust, operates schools in Suffolk, Northamptonshire and two in Richmond, south-west London. IES is often cited as an inspiration for the Conservative push for free schools, with the education secretary, Michael Gove, visiting IES’s schools in Sweden. Through a trust named Sabres, IES has operated a free school in Breckland, Suffolk, since 2012.’ (Extract from Guardian article, 31 May)

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Reprinted from the ‘Colin thinks…’ blog

Nottingham free schools

CT — Mon, 27 May 2013 17:25:49 +0000

This is the statement we have issued regarding the proposed free schools in the Nottingham area:

“We welcome the Department of Education decision, announced on Wednesday (22 May), not to approve the proposed Trent Bridge Free School. This is good news for the parents and children of the area. It means that public money will not be spent on starting the new school from scratch and will not take much-needed resources from other local schools. Any perceived shortfall in secondary places can easily be absorbed by those schools. However, although we welcome the TBFS decision, we are disappointed that the go-ahead has been given to the other free school proposed by the Torch Group, in Arnold/Sherwood/Mapperley.

Our research shows there is no need for another secondary school in that area. There are plenty of well-established local schools for children to go to and we are not aware of a shortage of places. The shortages in coming years will actually be in the primary sector but the government’s policy is doing little to address that issue.

We will continue to oppose free schools in general, and this one in particular, as these schools are costly and have no democratic accountability. As such, they are part of a wider policy to break up and privatise the state education system.”

Tell us what you know

CT — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:08:05 +0000

In recent days, stories have surfaced in the national press about ‘financial irregularities’ in academies – misuse of public money which should have supported children’s education. Maybe this is happening in local schools. If you work in or are involved with a local academy and you know that funds are beIng misused, spent frivolously or extravagantly on things that don’t seem to have much to do with education : tell us. Use the ‘Contribute’ button above – you need to give us your name and email address to show ‘good faith’ but we will not publish any details that could identify you. However, we will publish information that shines a light on the weakness of financial control in academies that, by their nature, are outside proper democratic accountability.

Financial irregularities in academies? Surely not!

CT — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:27:56 +0000

Howard Stevenson’s personal thoughts on ‘school leadership’ in the light of recent ‘financial issues’ experienced by academies. An excellent read!

http://howardstevenson.org/2013/05/18/school-leadership-and-the-new-cult-of-personality-some-thoughts-on-extravagance-in-academyland/

More moves towards ‘schools for profits’

CT — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:55:40 +0000

Disturbing — but sadly not surprising — news that an academy chain is paying its parent company in the USA lots of money for an ‘off the shelf’ curriculum that has been criticised by OFSTED amongst others.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/may/18/academy-pays-for-us-curriculum