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‘SLAP IN FACE’ FOR SCHOOLS ON HIT-LIST
Warning that switch to academies will create two-tier system
PARENTS and teachers say they have been given a slap in the face after three Islington secondary schools they have fought to turn around were branded as “failing” by a government minister.
Holloway School, Islington Arts and Media School (IAMS) in Finsbury Park and Highbury Grove were named and shamed in a hit-list of under-performing schools released by education minister Ed Balls on Monday.
Headteachers have issued a joint statement rejecting the criticism after being warned their schools will be closed and reopened as academies if GCSE grades do not improve by 2011.
Arnie Gibbons, a governor at IAMS, said: “We are all fed up with meddling government ministers coming up with empty-headed initiatives. We are all sick to death of having to repeatedly justify ourselves – especially when Ofsted says we are improving.
“It is a real slap in the face for everyone who has been involved in improving standards at the schools.”
Victoria Phillips, a parent of an IAMS pupil, said: “It was a surprise but parents at IAMS know it has turned a corner. I have another child coming to the school in September and I am not worried because we are on the up.”
Only last month, schools minister Lord
Adonis visited IAMS and praised its work.
The three schools’ headteachers – Bob Hamlyn, Richard Ewen and Truda White – said in their joint statement: “It is wrong to describe these schools as failing. The most recent Ofsted inspection report on Islington Arts and Media School described it as having outstanding features, and ranked it as good overall.
“There is great investment at Highbury Grove and Holloway schools, where fantastic new buildings are being funded under phase one of the multi-million pound, council-backed Building Schools for the Future programme.
“All of us involved know there is still plenty of work to do, but if exam predictions are right these schools will be off this government list in any case after this summer.”
David Taylor, assistant director of schools at CEA, which runs Islington’s schools, said at a Town Hall scrutiny meeting this week: “I am optimistic about the progress in Islington. We are part of the solution, not the problem. I can assure you those three schools will not be on any government hit-list.”
But union officials fear that despite clear signs of improvement the community schools will be turned into academies, creating a two-tier education system in Islington.
Parents, teachers and union officials fighting the rise of academy schools in Islington told the Tribune they would relaunch their campaign group.
The Islington Campaign Against Academies (ICAA), which disbanded after losing a long struggle against plans to transform Islington Green into an academy, will meet for the first time in more than a year at the Town Hall at 5.30pm on June 23.
Campaign chief Ken Muller, a teacher at Islington Green, said of the academies threat: “If this happens half of the schools in Islington will be out of the control of the local authority. If four academies – with all their kudos and financial backing – are opened it will put huge pressure on the other schools in the borough.
“It will create a two-tier education system, which is what we have been struggling against right from the start.”
Mr Balls included the three Islington schools in a list of 600 nationwide.
He said on Monday: “If it is the right thing to do, we will close schools. I think people will say this will help us transform standards in our area. It’s what parents want.” |
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