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Accountability for academies
• ELEANOR Sturdy, the United Learning Trust’s development director, has a vested interest in persuading us that we have nothing to fear from taking state schools, effectively, out of state control (and paying handsomely for the privilege). (Academy opponents must open their eyes, May 11.)
It does her no credit that her language towards those who oppose academies is derogatory.
Anyone interested in ULT’s academies need only look at Paddington Academy in the City of Westminster.
Since opening in September, the principal has consistently and publicly thrown mud at the reputation of North Westminster Community School, which it partly replaced, to the extent of misinforming teachers of the exam results.
It is difficult for staff to counter the lie because Westminster City Council and the Department for Education and Skills have not published them.
Presumably the mudslinging is in an attempt to “prove” that the academy has made an improvement.
Since opening, there has been a stabbing in the playground which, despite the publicity on knife crime at the time, didn’t get a mention in the papers because the staff were ordered not to speak about it.
Would this silence have been allowed in a ‘bog standard’ comprehensive?
Two sixth formers I met who are about to take their A Levels claim that they do not have a chemistry teacher.
They complained bitterly about the lack of discipline since North Westminster closed. Two other sixth formers have also complained to me about a deterioration in discipline since the academy opened.
A lot can also be said about those staff who embraced the new venture with enthusiasm and are now feeling bullied and intimidated – not the frame of mind for good teaching.
This is the very same academy which opened with the support of the local MP who then withdrew her son soon after the opening, although she had been quite happy for him to be at North Westminster, even amid the building work.
Anyone with an interest in education and young people would welcome new buildings and a greater investment in schools.
But why does this have to be outside of the control of parents, local authority and the local community?
If you are a parent, think carefully about whether you really want your local school to be in the hands of someone who may be able to stump up £1.5 million but who may know very little about education.
After all, your child’s face might not just fit and you won’t have any appeal against that decision.
I would recommend anyone to read Francis Beckett’s book (The Great Academy Fraud, reviewed by Fiona Millar on May 3).
JANE EADES
ex North Westminster Community School
Petergate, SW11
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