Save Lewes Schools Meeting (27/11/18)

I'm sure others were taking notes too, but here's my take on the evening.  It's probably fitting to say that at the moment I'm undecided on the whether I should or shouldn't support the academisation of Lewes schools and I'm trying in this post to be as impartial as possible at least regarding my reporting of the meeting.  I'll post my thoughts in a separate post and I have inserted some points in this post (which will be in brackets with "ed" at the front - editorial additions :-) ).

On the panel were:

• Holly - a local parent and organiser of the meeting (I think?)
• Sarah Tomlinson - Anti Academy Alliance and a teacher in a Lambeth primary school which has staved off academisation twice.
• Rob Johnson - ex parent at Hove Park School and organiser of their campaign to stave off academisation
• Phil Clark - Teacher at Priory and the local rep for the National Education Union
• Craig Arden from the National Education Union

Holly talked a little about the fact that there is a proposal to create a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) with the 6 schools in Lewes.  She and a few other parents have set up a slack group, a petition on change.org requesting that a ballot of parents be done, a Facebook page under the name "Save Lewes Schools" and a twitter account @LewesParents.  Her top three concerns were:
1. No obligation to employ qualified teachers.
2.  There is no evidence that becoming an academy will improve any of the measures of school effectiveness or standards.
3.  It's irreversible.  There is no going back.

Phil Clark said that over 70% of schools (I think in Sussex) are still under the LEA and the LEA is not going to disappear.   The funding the schools get as a MAT will be the same as they get now - with a small payment at the beginning to cover legal fees etc.  There are many, many Academy failures (ed I leave these to you to look up) - he cited Lilac Sky and later Wakefield Academy Trust as an examples.  Again he stated that there is no evidence that academies improve results and made the point that if this were the case the government would be shouting it from the rooftops.  One of the things that would happen if the schools were to academise would be that we would lose LEA oversight, another is that leadership pay tends to spiral upwards while that of teachers doesn't.  He made the point that Academisation is not being forced upon us in Lewes - there is no school in special measures.  He thinks there should be a ballot of parents to give them a say on whether this should happen or not.

Sarah Tomlinson talked about a number of disaster academisations - Wakefield, Jurand (where they chopped up the playing field and also set up an elite dating agency (ed !) ) . She said that there were cases of "orphan schools" which had been academised, abandoned by the original companies and then no one else had wanted to take them on.  She also said that the Terms and Conditions for teachers under Academies could change radically and that many teachers now working in Academies wanted to leave.  She cited one school where the longest standing member of staff had been there for just 18 months.  Her suggestions of what we could do were: - Lobby governors, look for information online about academies, search the news.

Rob Johnson - concentrated on what we could do as parents (which in his view is "whatever we want").  He suggested we poll the streets, get t-shirts, organise photo friendly events and invite the media, banners, talk to councillors, push for a ballot.  He recommended we make it personal if we can (NB Phil Clark later disagreed on this) - in Hove Park they had a headmaster who left after academisation failed and went to work in an academy.

In the Q & A following the speakers the following points were made:

• There will be consultation meetings in every school in Lewes.  (ed Keep your eyes peeled for dates, push for meetings when everyone can attend and go to them)
• We do not know the timeframe we're working to however a bit of detective work has uncovered in minutes from a meeting at Priory that in July it was decided to push for a MAT in the next 12 months i.e. by next July, however there were comments that it doesn't seem to be a rushed process here in Lewes.
• A parent governor from Wallands gave a little background on what he felt was driving the decision - namely that the local schools felt they were not getting support from the LEA and that the "status quo is not viable".
• The point was later made that perhaps we could work with the LEA to change the status quo, someone also suggested raising extra funds by raising council tax.
• It seemed from what was said that it's possible that the decision to academise could be taken by teachers and governors without the support of parents.
• If the schools do go to MAT there will be no democratic oversight of them.  The primary governing body would be the CEO, CFO and a board of trustees (which could have parents on it), in Lewes there would still be boards of governors but they would probably be reduced in size.
• A MAT has an obligation to have a CEO.
• There will be no extra money but it would be up to the MAT to decide how to spend it.  The point was made that there are 120 schools currently under the LEA, there would be 6 under the MAT so there would be way fewer economies of scale.
• The schools are currently working together and there is no reason why this should change whether or not they become a MAT.
• Mr Smith was, 2 years ago, vehemently against academisation.  He is now leading this change to academy status.  He was not there to answer what had made him change his mind (ed Parents of kids at Priory there is a Parent's Forum this evening (28/11/18) and there will be a meeting at Priory for us to find out).
• Phil Clark added in the Q&A that the noises from the LEA were very depressing with the LEA basically saying they can't help with anything.  He mentioned that co-operative schools had been a model they were looking at for inspiration. 
• A worry was expressed that a MAT would standardise the schools but Phil Clark said there was no plan to do that here.
• Any school is at risk from being forced into academisation if it goes into special measures.  If all Lewes schools were in a MAT then the MAT would be able to help them and obviously they'd already be in an academy so couldn't be forced into one.
• Sarah Tomlinson suggested we organise a debate pro and vs academisation.
• It was suggested we lobby the LEA to support the schools.
• A Green Party potential candidate was there who stated the the Green Party is opposed to academisation.

-ends-

If you were at the meeting and you said something which I haven't noted or if you think I've misunderstood and misrepresented what was said, please email me on fi dot cooper at gmail dot com - (likewise if you know the name of the chap from the National Education Union).  If there are any spelling mistakes I'm happy to hear about them but if you want to record opinions, please put them in the comments.  Cheers