Oppose the Government's plans for schools

Sirs,

WE below are Trafford heads and governors worried about the takeover and disappearance of our schools under Government proposals.

Indeed all of Trafford LA's schools will cease to become legal entities if the Government presses ahead with its plans for forced academisation.

Our schools' land, their budgets (including any surpluses built up), the carefully selected heads and teaching and non-teaching staff will be in the hands of a multi-academy trust (MAT) - a private company - possibly with its HQ many miles from the community the school currently serves.

The policies, the uniform, the curriculum, which individual teachers teach in which locality will be decided by the trust which will not be required to take any notice of parents or other members of the community.

Indeed parent governors have been specifically excluded from the categories of those with strategic oversight of the new system. Lord Nash has said “We want to enable academies to move from a model where parents are elected or appointed to governing boards for means of representation to one where they are chosen for their expertise”. The National Governors Association have protested this move.

This is a one-way street. There is no going back. Trafford LA will lose its schools forever. If the schools are taken away and given to a MAT (which may have a commercial interest) and forces the teaching of say, weird subjects, or takes away key teachers or insists on a costly uniform from a restricted supplier there's nothing a (by then) ex-school, its parents, its teachers, its pupils, its community can do about it.

A school cannot choose to change to another MAT either because legally it no longer exists. It is only an outpost of the MAT. The best way to describe it is as if our local coffee shop were to be bought out by Starbucks. Indeed some commentators have described it as the Starbucksification of schools.

Who would want this? Well, not many. As well as the teaching and heads' unions (NUT, NASUWT, ATL, NAHT) almost 300,000 people have signed petitions against the policy (petition one and petition two).

Universal academisation is also unpopular with some in the Conservative Party, with some backbench MPs and local councillors voicing significant concerns, for example Melinda Tilley in David Cameron's own constituency in Oxford.

Conservative Kent County Council and Labour Birmingham are leading the way in opposing this change with governors, parent groups, the teacher unions and even Mumsnet. Where are Trafford Tories?

For years they have claimed the glory for the results achieved by pupils at its schools. We now need to see them protecting those schools from this wholly unnecessary and very costly privatisation. Academies are not the answer to everything.

Please, Trafford Tories come clean. Do you want your schools, or not? If you really believe that the council has had something to do with Trafford schools (particular the Trafford LA primaries) being amongst the highest achieving in the country, will you help us resist this move?

Graham Brady MP, you have doubts about the plans saying in the Telegraph it could lead to the creation of “new and distant bureaucracies” rather than delivering greater freedom and autonomy for schools. You also said there are unwelcome effects in removing parents from governing bodies and reducing accountability.

As the chair of the 1922 committee you spoke out as new data suggested that this reorganisation could cost more than £1.3bn. However you still voted for the change last week. How could you do that?

Will you now please put Trafford children before party and join the other Trafford MPs Kate Green and Michael Kane in opposing this?

Mike Harrison CoG Flixton Junior School (and ex-Trafford h/t) and co-signed by:

Daniele Atkinson, Gov Stretford High.

Krystyna Rabin, Gov Broomwood Primary.

Owen Napier Gov Flixton Junior School.

Dolores O’Sullivan, Gov Our Lady of the Rosary and St Margaret Ward.

Patrick McDowell Headteacher Davyhulme.

Karina Carter, Gov National Leader of Governance.

Primary Peter Johnson CoG Flixton Infant School.

Mel Wicks Principal Wellacre Academy.

Dave Acton, Gov St Anthony’s and Gorse Hill

June Hall VC Flixton Junior School.

Norman Green V/C Gov St Monica’s.

Alison Drayton Headteacher St Michael’s CE Primary School.

Barry Brotherton, Gov Worthington Primary.

Mike Freeman, Gov Springfield Rd.

Sian Bloor, District Secretary NUT.

Aidan Kielty, Gov Flixton Junior School.

Bob Harrison Gov Lostock secondary.

Claire Moore Gov Flixton Junior School.

Jason Redmond Headteacher Flixton Junior School.

Jane Baugh Gov Moorlands Primary.

Sue Harrison Gov Moorlands Primary School.

Mike Cordingley Gov Barton Clough Primary School.

Tom Ross Gov Victoria Park Junior School.

Kevin Procter Gov Urmston Grammar School.

Anne Duffield CoG Seymour Park Primary School.

Shelley Quinton-Hulme Gov Victoria Park Infants.

Bernice Garlick CoG St Matthew's Primary School.

Philip Kandel, Gov Flixton Junior School.

E. A. Williams CoG Gorse Hill Primary School.

Debbie Gould CoG St Michael’s CE Primary School.

Lisa Bates, Headteacher Gorse Hill Primary School.

Elaine Johnson, CoG Wellacre Academy.

Cathy Graham head Wellfield Infant School.