wletters: IN the non-statutory consultation about Pimlico School’s future, only 4 per cent opted for an academy.

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published:6 June 2008

WEE | letters | Pimlico School | Westminster City Council | DCSF | Parents | Children | Academy

Academy sponsors are handed too much power

• IN the non-statutory consultation about Pimlico School’s future, only 4 per cent opted for an academy. Seventy-eight per cent wanted the school to remain as a community status comprehensive school.
Westminster City Council ignored parents’ views, and used semantics to redefine the results. They then embarked on an unnecessary statutory consultation. How much taxpayers’ money was wasted on this?
When the preferred sponsor was selected in secretive, unminuted meetings there followed a period to undertake a “feasibility study” paid for fully by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). How much taxpayers’ money was wasted on this?
The people fighting against the academy proposal are parents of children attending Pimlico School. We have our children’s best interests at heart, unlike the pontificating politicians and councillors who impose their political agenda regardless of our views.
How much taxpayers’ money is wasted on councillors who do not listen to their constituents or users of their services? These are the very same councillors who seem to only be interested in promoting their own careers, and don’t give a damn about people with a different viewpoint. Who is it then, who has “narrow political interests”?
Remember, in academies, the sponsor can choose the head, teachers and staff; they can choose the governing body, change the curriculum, and decide on the contracts offered to teachers and staff. The sponsor can opt out of the Pay and Working Conditions Act for new staff joining the school, can change the admissions criteria and are allowed to operate outside of education law for state-maintained schools.
How can those affected by such fundamental changes in the unaccountable-to-parents academies challenge them, other than through the law courts?
Legal Aid is set up to ensure legal and social justice for those not rich enough to pursue their rights. £100,000 is a pittance compared to what is being sacrificed in the name of improving our children’s education.
Pimlico School parent
name and address supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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