Is Education for Sale?

[Nicky4HelCal]

My heart sank when I read that David Cameron declared at the Conservative Conference that all schools will be academies in 5 years time, and no local authority will run any schools. There are problems with education, not least teacher shortage, but converting all schools into academies and removing local oversight and parent involvement is not a solution to any problem - then I read that Nicky Morgan has invited businesses to be involved in schools. Sounds as though my local community secondary school will be forced to convert into an academy, despite parent wishes, and who knows who will run it - Poundland? Carphone Warehouse?

[leccybill]

It's an absolute farce isn't it. Schools are not businesses, they never will be.
Children are not commodities. I could weep for what education in the UK has become.

[Nicky4HelCal]

Hi Leccybill - couldn't agree more - I do think our national education system is being sold down the Thames. But I want to try and do something to stop it. Don't know what. Any ideas parents and teachers?

[leccybill]

I feel helpless on a large scale but at my own level, I am just trying to spread the word through conversation and social media. There's a lot of parents out there who believe the Tory propaganda about how amazing Academies are (yes - because they are bankrolled by your shareholdy mates who suddenly have 'the power') and can't see how education is being eroded away to nothing.

[Scarydinosaurs]

Vote labour in the next election.

[comfortseeker]

I wish we could have an early election say tomorrow. I didnt vote for the Tory or the old New Labour or the yellow orange or purple.

[TwoLeftSocks]

I bloody knew it, I've been saying it for months that it'd just be a matter of time before he announced a full academisation of all schools.

I went so far as actually joining up to the Labour party last week on the back of various conference stuff. This has just made me more certain that I dislike just about all Tory policy.

[ouryve]

I can't even imagine the HT of the local primary agreeing to that. We still have secondaries that have escaped academisation, round here. Pretty shit if it's going to be enforced - all out of an idealogical hatred of LAs.

[Pipbin]

I don't know a single teacher or person working in education who is for academies.
The only people who like it are the MPs who see it as a way of washing their hands of schools.
I frightens me that we will see all schools with corporate sponsership.

[ouryve]

And I know people will be along soon to mention how academies were originated by Labour, along with PFI etc etc.

I didn't vote for that version of Labour. I do recall that PFI was felt to be the only answer to years of underinvestment in buildings in the public sector. There was a wholesale mistrust of CTCs and, later, academies, though. Not entirely suere anyone ever voted those in

[Nicky4HelCal]

Hi Leccybill and others - I share your feelings of helplessness, which I shared with my MP and Kevin Brennan, former Labour MP for Schools, in July, but that's my point.
Parents don't know / understand, so we need to get it into public domain - but journalists don't care, as there is no noise from parents. How can we create the noise outside social circles?

[Pipbin]

And I know people will be along soon to mention how academies were originated by Labour, along with PFI etc etc.
I don't give a crap how it came about. All I know is it has to stop.

I agree Nicky that the lack of concern from parents is frightening. We need to shout about this before it's too late but when we go on strike people just complain about having to take time off work. I'm sure if they understood that we don't want their child's education to be sponsored by McDonalds, Starbucks or Coca-Cola they would support us.

[Nicky4HelCal]

If the MPs like it, and we don't, why not write to your MP - if you can, turn up at his / her surgery. I can draft something, if anyone wants help.............

[TwoLeftSocks]

Can I just say fucking bastards as I can't say it on facebook, I have too many nice aunties on there.

[Pipbin]

If the MPs like it, and we don't, why not write to your MP - if you can, turn up at his / her surgery. I can draft something, if anyone wants help.............
I actually confronted my MP about it in the House of Commons, he went red in the face and stamped his foot when I suggested that academisation is privatisation. He was Gove's underling. Cunt.

[Nicky4HelCal]

All - I'm a parent with children in local community primary and secondary schools in southeast London. I am not a teacher - so I do not have insights from inside the profession. I have been following the "Bill" and realising the implications. I believe there is a huge gap in parents knowledge and representation for parents - so I agree we need to shout - but journalists aren't interested in publishing articles, so let's write letters to the press, MPs and create awareness on Mumsnet.

[Shalaam]

WHO'S TEACHING YOUR CHILD???????? I have been a teacher in secondary and primary for the last 25+ yrs. I worked in a wide variety of schools in the UK and some International schools in The Netherlands and Asia. Please ask your friends to do everything they can to stop schools becoming academies. In my personal experience it is the worst thing that can happen to education in this country. One way you can begin to challenge this is to ask the schools to publish the teacher's credentials and ask for reasons why teachers are not on permanent contracts. I personally know of teachers imported from abroad who have been given posts after a 15 minute chat and there are many classes now being taught by foreign teachers on a supply basis who can not even write English correctly! You pay your taxes for a service, so don't your children deserve to be taught by fully qualified teachers? Why are so many academies employing people on this basis? To save money of course and people who are kept on short term temporary contracts are easy to get rid of if they object to the sort of bad practices that are becoming the norm in academy trusts. Many of my colleagues (the qualified teachers) are leaving the profession in droves, because they are deliberately being squeezed out by bullying Head Teachers and Senior Academy Trust managers to be replaced by unqualified teachers who are just delighted to be given a chance of a job they are not trained to do and imported teachers who just want to live in the UK for a couple of years for a traveling experience. Supply teaching agencies are creaming off massive amounts of the teaching budget by entering into lucrative deals that reward academy trust managers with 'rewards' for doing business. The best thing you can do for your child is to fight this every step of the way. Expose the people who are pretending to be teachers if you want your child to have a real chance of getting a decent education. After all...would you allow a butcher to have a go at operating if your child need surgery? Contact your school governing body and PTA and demand the information you are entitled to know.

[comfortseeker]

Should schools tell parents more about their school's future rather than only individual child's report. I feel the future of our community and our dearest and most vulnerable are under threat. Do you think the tory real dislike us ordinary people?

[Pipbin]

I'm not so much concerned about the future of one individual school but education as a whole. It's is a very short step from where we are now to schools sponsored by large corporations like McDonalds or Microsoft.
Does anyone want their child's education run by companies? Schools are not money making businesses. I would never want to think about my class in the sense of 'what will make the share holders happy'. What company is going to want to sponsor a school on a rough estate? All the nice shiny companies will chose lovely middle class schools leaving the rough ones for who can be arsed. My local high school has changed sponsor twice already as the first sponsor didn't like the results they got and the second one went bust. The first sponsor put in the thing where every child was given an iPad. The current sponsor didn't like that so has taken all away. They have also changed the uniform again meaning that parents had to re buy stuff.
One thing that no one has managed to tell me is how becoming an academy improves anything. How will it make me a better teacher? How will it help the children learn?

[comfortseeker]

Pipbin, I dont mean i only worry about my own local schools and community. I dont want any of our state schools and hospitals run by profit making companies.
I worry once they are all out of LA controls all sorts can happen eg expensive uniforms, fees, entrance exams, expels if not keep up learning progress. So we can no longer tell any difference between a state school and a private school.

[Everytimeref]

The academy programme was a reasonable idea at the time, The idea was to encourage invest and allowed many schools that were falling down to be rebuilt but sadly now its just a process to privatise education through the back door,

We have got to stop it before its too late. Otherwise it wont be long before you will have to pay to get into the outstanding schools in your local area.

[Pipbin]

I worry once they are all out of LA controls all sorts can happen eg expensive uniforms, fees, entrance exams, expels if not keep up learning progress

Very true, what will happen to SEN children who will drop the percentage of children achieving the desired grade? Refuse admission?

The idea was to encourage investment.
This is what I don't understand. Why would any company invest in a school? There is no money to be made is schools, they will never turn a profit.

[Everytimeref]

It was the actual property that was expected to make money by being rented out evenings and weekends etc.

[comfortseeker]

I m feeling very unsafe under this Tory gov. A burglar will have to break into our house to steal things away from us. But the gov just take things away from us by announcing new policies.

[noblegiraffe]

While I utterly detest the Tories and their plans for education (the forced academisation is nothing new, Gove was saying years ago he expected all schools to become academies) I do want to point out that academies don't have to be sponsored by Starbucks. My school was outstanding so it became an academy without a sponsor. Schools without sponsors were vulnerable to takeover, so my school set up its own trust and lots of local schools have become academies and joined our trust.
Also, I know also know schools that are hiring boatloads of teachers from abroad on the basis of a Skype interview, who stay for a couple of years then go back home. This is nothing to do with saving money and is entirely because of the desperate shortage of qualified teachers in certain subjects. The situation is truly dire. If these schools could not hire maths teachers from abroad (I saw a discussion on Twitter about how Canada has a surplus of maths teachers and had you tried recruiting there?) then these schools would have no maths or science department. Schools live or die by results and no one hires crap teachers on a whim.
However because schools are hiring from abroad, the government claims there isn't a teacher recruitment crisis

[Nicky4HelCal]

I'm going to write to the Evening Standard, and I'm going to say:

My heart sank when I read that David Cameron declared at the Conservative Conference that all schools will be academies in 5 years time, and no local authority will run any schools. There are problems with education, not least teacher shortage, but converting all schools into academies and removing local oversight and parent involvement is not a solution to any problem - then I read that Nicky Morgan has invited businesses to be involved in schools. Sounds as though my local community secondary school will be forced to convert into an academy, despite parent wishes, and who knows who will run it - Poundland? Carphone Warehouse?