North Huddersfield Trust School rep still fighting
Louise Lewis continues to fight against her suspension for raising issues on Covid safety (see Educate, Jan/Feb 2021). Sign at bit.ly/3deT0fX
Major concessions after Little Ilford strikes MEMBERS at Little Ilford School have won a major concession from Newham Council as a result of their industrial action. Staff held eight days of strike action in November and December against plans to expand the east London school, which would see pupil numbers increasing from 1,470 to 1,800 (see Educate, Jan/Feb 2021). NEU London regional officer Michael Gavan told Educate: “Newham Council has now committed to spending an extra £750,000 to increase classroom sizes in the new building and each classroom will be at least 51 square metres – up from 47.” However, management was holding out on providing adequate staffing for the extra students, added Michael. He said: “Our members won’t accept this brush-off and I am sure they will want to carry on industrial action until management relents.” n See union people, page 23
Staff on the picket line at Little Ilford School in east London
PHOTO by Kois Miah
‘Return school to LA control’ DfE fails ethical MILTON Keynes Council is demanding a school is returned to local authority (LA) control after the academy trust that took it over was barred from running it. Griffin Schools Trust was described as having “overseen the decline” of Stantonbury International Academy since it took it over more than four years ago. The Department for Education (DfE) sent a termination notice to the trust in December ending its funding arrangement for the school. A new sponsor is being sought for Stantonbury, but Milton Keynes Council’s cabinet member for children’s services Zoe Nolan says the school must be returned to LA control. “We demand the school is returned to local control so we can rebuild trust and standards. We want Stantonbury back as a locally run school,” she said. DfE guidance says there is no “mechanism” for an academy to return to LA control but Cllr Nolan says this should change. “Why should it be one-way traffic? For them to totally disregard the LA doesn’t make any sense, it’s just pure dogma.”
“For them to totally disregard the LA doesn’t make any sense, it’s pure dogma.” Cllr Zoe Nolan The school was found to be Inadequate in January 2020 and schools minister Elizabeth Berridge wrote that the progress made by pupils had remained well below the national average for the last three years. Ofsted inspectors had noted that many children did not feel safe in the school and inspectors had found a high level of poor behaviour. n The trust was the latest of five academies and trusts issued with DfE termination notices in the year up to 31 January. Fourteen warnings of the termination of funding agreements were sent in the same period, as well as nine pre-warning or ‘minded-toterminate’ notices.
leadership test
A POLL of NEU Leadership members at their conference, held last month, found all believed the Department for Education (DfE) had not led ethically in the past year. Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said the DfE was mostly guilty of a lack of honesty. The snapshot survey was undertaken by NEU president and secondary head teacher Robin Bevan (pictured above), ahead of the launch of the NEU’s Code of Ethical Leadership Practice. Robin said: “The purpose of the code is to help leaders reflect on their own conduct. It also exists to help all of us review how we are working in our schools and colleges. “We’ve been operating in an environment where, in some instances, decision-making at a national level has been of a very temporary and lurching kind. We go from one day to the next not knowing what we’re going to be expected to do, what’s going to change.”
educate Your magazine from the National Education Union (NEU)
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