Heateachers warn - don't vote Labour...

[ArcangelaTarabotti]

Headteachers warn - don't vote Labour!

[EdithWeston]

Warning. That link is to the Daily Mail, and references a letter signed by 80 heads.

They are welcoming academy-type freedoms (umm, wasn't that a Labour policy?) and have expressed concern about comments by Ed Miliband that Labour would reimpose ‘a proper local authority framework for all schools’.

[StationeryOrdering]

@ Daily Fail publishing an anti Labour article

[ArcangelaTarabotti]

A letter from 80 named HTs is hardly just an 'article'.

[noblegiraffe]

Some of the people on the list aren't heads. And 80 out of however many thousands of schools there are in the UK is hardly a large percentage.

I bet it would be a work of minutes to drum up 80 heads who think that Tory education policy is utter shit and damaging to children.

[merrymouse]

I think donna is onto something there!

[noblegiraffe]

I mean, look at their awful policy announcement this morning about SATs resits for mediocre failures aged 11.

Or the utter shambles that is the GCSE reforms, and the stupid decoupling of AS and A-levels that even has Cambridge uni shaking its head.

Or the bonkers decision to scrap levels without replacing it with anything that now has schools around the country completely floundering for assessment methods and a mish-mash of approaches which will baffle parents and teachers alike.

Or the money poured into Free Schools which have failed, are in the wrong places, or didn't even manage to open their doors.

The utter fiasco which was the mid-course changes to English assessments.

The scrapping of the BSF fund.

The cutting of school budgets which forced many schools to become academies when they didn't want to, and parents didn't want them to.

Michael Gove and his bloody Bibles.

I'm sure there's more.

[rollonthesummer]

80 says they couldn't find 100 to me....

I think you've nailed it there!

'Tory newspaper drags in some people in academies to say vote Tory'-it's pathetic.

[noblegiraffe]

One of the people on the list was a clerk to the governors. They'll be getting PTA members to sign a letter next.

[Orangeanddemons]

All the SMT in my school vote Labour.,,,,,

[flowery]

Yes, headline should be "Tories can only find 80 head teachers who agree with their education policies"

[rollonthesummer]

link

I wonder why academy heads such as those in the link above, earning £200,000 a year wouldn't want to vote Labour and go back to LEA control?

If anyone thinks they've got any sort of idea-please PM me x

[Kampeki]

80 says they couldn't find 100 to me....

Well, quite.

Quite a few of the schools listed have more than one signatory, so the letter hasn't actually been signed by 80 head teachers.

Interestingly, the only school near me that is represented in the letter is one that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. It now has an ofsted "good" rating, having been classed as "inadequate" a couple of years ago. By no stretch of the imagination is it one of the best schools in the country, as claimed in the article.

I'm guessing that we'll soon see a counter letter signed by a whole lot more teachers/head teachers. The Tories certainly aren't popular among the teachers I know!!

[singersgirl]

Mmm. I'm glad those individuals think that academisation is in the best interests of their schools.

There is limited unbiased data on the efficacy of individual academies vis a vis LA controlled schools. There has been some analysis of the performance of academy chains versus local authorities, and what do you know? There are good chains and bad chains, good LAs and bad LAs.

This link is to an article with a nice scattergraph comparing school improvment in academy chains and LAs: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32038695

This article about the findings of the Education Select Committee is also interesting reading: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30983081

And, depending on how much time you've got, this looks at another aspect of the findings of the Education Select Committee concerning control and monitoring of academies and free schools: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29219757

[newbieman1978]

It seems to have become a "thing" in recent years for people in certain position to urge others to vote a certain way. Maybe it's always been that way??

I don't think anybody without a mandate should be trying to sway people. And I don't think being a headteacher, business leader, pop star or actor ect gives you a mandate.

My wife is a headteacher and she would never put her name to any political party or tell who she would vote for. If for instance a parent asked her opinion on how government policy had impacted her school and education in general I'm sure she would give her "opinion". But she would be partisan or biased or at least try not to be!

[thankgoditsover]

Aw bless, signed by the local academy head who has managed out three autistic kids from her primary (at least, that's just the ones washed up at my kids' more accommodating school). Oh and is trying to set up a secondary free school despite all the borough's secondaries being good or outstanding and there being no shortage of places...
Oh and who academised despite vehement opposition from the mostly left leaning parents. They are going to love the latest intervention.

[rollonthesummer]

Loads of those aren't even head teachers!

What a pointless article!

[mummytime]

To show how unrepresentative it is, there isn't a single one from my quite large LA; which also has lots of Academies and Free schools, but they still didn't sign.
The signatures are from Primary, Secondary, Special schools and Sixth Form colleges, plus some non-heads. 80 is a very small fraction!

[rollonthesummer]

Nobody from my LA either!

[smokepole]

Of course the funniest name on the list is 'Rosemary Joyce' Head Of Tonbridge Grammar Ex of 'Eric Joyce' EX Labour .

I always thought that was a uncomfortable political liasion, head of one of the most selective state schools in the Uk and a 'leftwinge'r nutcase Labour MP.

Paula Abdul .... Opposites attract.....

[HairyMcMary]

No signature from the head of DC's Outstanding comp.

Rollon: the Mail have missed the fact that as well as his massive salary as Exec Head, Martyn ALSO takes an additional salary of over £300k a year for running a sports centre on the Academy's land!
Ï

[Abuelita]

The letter was orchestrated by the laughably named Freedom and Autonomy for Schools National Association (FASNA) which grew from an organisation dedicated to Foundation and Specialist schools to a pro-'freedom' faction supportive of Michael Gove. Its alternative name could be the School Liberation Front.

FASNA claims it's been around for 25 years - Gove attended its quarter-century bash. But it was founded in 2004. Some of its leaders (obviously since they're middle-aged and older) were around 25 years ago and were probably involved in education but to say FASNA is quarter-of-a-century old is pushing it a bit.

One erstwhile member of FASNA's executive and one-time signer of similar letters is Patricia Sowter, executive principal of Cuckoo Hall Academy Trust (CHAT) whose academy chain has just been sent a Financial Notice to Improve, is being investigated by the Standards and Testing Agency for possible exam malpractice, and embroiled in allegations of bullying. She was given a CBE for services to education and described by Gove as one of his 'Magnificent Seven' and 'crusaders for social justice'. He was complicit in promoting the story that Sowter 'turned round' Cuckoo Hall from a failing school when she arrived in 2002 to Outstanding. But it had come out of special measures in 1999. Its last Ofsted when Mr R Allen was head called it a good school.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Well, that's a very handy list of schools to avoid!