Islington Tribune - News: Full details emerge of academies deal

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Islington Tribune - by MARK BLUNDEN
Published: 4 May 2007

Full details emerge of academies deal

NUT and council statement says litigation ‘resolved’

FULL details of an out-of-court settlement between Islington Council and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have been released.
As reported in last week’s Tribune, teachers won a legal battle with the council over rules for the admission of pupils to the new city academy at Islington Green School.
As well as agreeing to reinstate the original admissions criteria, it has also emerged that Islington Council has agreed, in an out-of-court settlement, to pay almost £7,000 in legal costs incurred by the NUT.
The NUT claimed that the admissions criteria at the school in Prebend Street, Angel, had been altered to exclude Hackney children who lived a few hundred yards away, across the borough border. They currently make up about 21 per cent of the school roll.
Islington Green is due to reopen as an academy in September 2008, with the City of London and City University as its £2 million sponsors.
The NUT argued that the criteria were pushed through despite Hackney parents who took part in a consultation being unaware their children would be ineligible to attend the academy.
Last Thursday night both sides agreed to settle out of court, avoiding a court case that could have cost the borough hundreds of thousands of pounds.
It would have put on trial not only borough education chiefs but Tony Blair’s city academies programme.
The case, officially brought by Islington NUT deputy branch secretary Ken Muller, was listed to be heard at the High Court for two days in June.
A joint statement released by both parties said: “Litigation brought by the NUT in respect of the new City of London Academy in Islington has been resolved on the basis that Islington Council has published revised admissions criteria.
“The new admissions criteria will be based on distance from home to school and are in line with the public consultation, Department for Education and Skills school admissions code, and the policy that currently applies to Islington Green School.”

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