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School ‘embarrassed’ Blair
THE backstage politics over the establishment of a contorversial city academy in Islington are revealed in a new book.
The Great City Academies Fraud suggests that one of the reasons for replacing Islington Green School, in Prebend Street, Angel, with an academy was because of the embarrassment caused to Tony Blair when he refused to send his children there.
Mr Blair and his wife famously failed to send their two elder sons to Islington Green, when they lived in Richmond Crescent, Barnsbury, in the 1990s.
Cherie Blair told the Tribune two weeks ago that it was because the family wanted their children to go to a Catholic school. At the time, there were reports that they were concerned about Islington Green “failing”.
This was based on the prognosis of former OfSTED chief Chris Woodhead who placed Islington Green on ‘Special Measures’ – essentially a bootcamp for under-performing schools.
But a memo released in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act revealed Mr Woodhead’s team “were of the view that the school was not failing”. Later, in a bizarre twist, Peter Hyman, the PM’s former speechwriter, who boasted of his social links with Mr Blair, became a teaching assistant at the school with a special responsibility for public relations.
The book’s author, campaigning journalist Francis Beckett, told the Tribune: “It’s tempting to say that Islington Green embarrassed the Prime Minister and is paying for embarrassing him.
“There’s something strange going on in the case (of Islington Green).”
He writes in his book: “What on earth was going on? Here are a few facts, and a healthy dollop of speculation.
“Islington Green School has had enemies in high places ever since it embarrassed the Blairs by being the local school to which they did not wish to send their children.
“It would be politically convenient for them if it were a failing school; it would make their decision look less like mere snobbery.”
Despite his exhaustive research of the nationwide academies programme, Mr Beckett never secured an interview with Lord Adonis, the architect of the scheme who lives in Crane Grove, Holloway.
He said: “Despite many attempts he doesn’t want to talk to me about it.”
Other issues examined in Mr Beckett’s book include:
l How the academy’s original sponsors, ARK, pulled out of the project.
l How Lord Adonis had to defer decision-making on Islington Green because he lives nearby.
l The involvement of Edison, the American education supplier.
l The mysterious resignation of former academy-backing headteacher Trevor Averre-Beason.
An entire chapter is devoted to the trials of Islington Green and another section is written about the case of St Mary Magdalene Primary School, which is in the process of becoming the borough’s first academy.
Mr Beckett praised the work of those fighting against the two schemes, and, in particular, Ken Muller, the National Union of Teachers spokesman.
He said: “I think the campaigners in Islington have been remarkable. It’s a model of how to do it.
“I’m in admiration for Ken Muller with the energy and commitment he’s put in to it all.”
Mr Beckett added: “I think the Islington experience, shocking though it is, is entirely untypical. It is perhaps a bit more extreme but the government has been trying to cram Islington into this mould that it’s being trying to cram other places into.
“The city academy programme creates sink schools. Sponsors are now restricted to (organisations) like the City of London who are a public body using public money.
“I think this incredibly corrupt, divisive and destructive system is going to be pushed forward everywhere by the government.”
l The Great City Academies Fraud is now now, published by Continuum.
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