Nicky Morgan's thread continued (MNers calling for Lucy Powell to do webchat)

[Mner]

Following on from Nicky Morgan MP's one sided "webchat" see here...

Active petitions against academisation are here:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124747

Guardian article is here

You can write to your MP: www.writetothem.com/

Good luck to everyone at the demonstrations today. I can't attend

The NHS and education are very much linked. Seeing Jeremy Hunt and Nicky Morgan promote the 'remain' side in the EU debate fills me with horror, because I'm very pro-EU myself yet they comprehensively turn people off. Hunt links funding of essential services to performance of the economy (so if I get cancer during a recession, I won't get treated?) - which very much plays into the hands of those scared by TTIP - and Morgan downplays concerns about sovereignty and democracy, while taking away democratic rights from LAs and parents. The Daily Fail is so obsessed with Europe it could pick up on that, but only to serve its Brexit agenda, then could drop it like a stone.

Every now and then a Tory like IDS exposes the cynicism of the government (with his own agenda of course) - 'we hit the poor and disabled because they don't vote for us'. Morgan seems to be saying 'we'll push this through just because we can - our core voters are too old to have children in school and understand what's happening and the ones already badly served by the big chains are too poor to be voting for us. We'll keep on hoping a policy of misinformation will keep the middle class ones at bay'.

roll they can't strike over academisation. The terms on which you can strike are fairly limited. It has to focus on pay and conditions. They've already tried to take the unions to court over strike action once this week. Fortunately it failed.

The junior doctors have had the same issue. Technically speaking I don't think they are allowed to strike over patient care. Which is why the pay issue has has been in the foreground.

I'd be willing to bet if the unions call a strike on this they will end up in court. Hopefully, they will win.

'Morgan seems to be saying 'we'll push this through just because we can - our core voters are too old to have children in school and understand what's happening'

I'm not so sure about that. In my rural county many small village schools won't survive academisation as they are financially unviable. A 'business model' doesn't allow for this. The last small school to be closed down by the LA because of lack of children (8 in the school) actually attracted a meeting attended by 200 villagers of all ages. Nicky Morgan may just have underestimated the decimation of villages with a school at the centre, the worry villagers have over house prices when a village looses its school and the strong reaction the whole community will have. Let's hope everyone stands up and creates awareness of what is going to happen to their community.

I think teachers have had enough. Even a government can only push so far, before their electorate start to push back. The government has underestimated how much people care about education - either that or they are really just bloody-minded. I'm not convinced they'll get it through.

Holy moly, cited in the daily fail now.

They screen shot you as well.

The worst rated comments on that article are brilliant.

Conservative manifesto states:

We will continue to allow all good schools to expand, whether they are maintained schools, academies, free schools or grammar schools.

Big fat lie there then.

Can you link to the article, fork handles?

jelly I've answered in the other thread but that phrase from the manifesto can be read in different ways.

Good maintained schools can expand, even if they become academies. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Given that it was widely known before the last election that the Torys intended all schools to convert to academies, I'm surprised anyone would have read that as some form of protection for Maintained schools and cast their vote accordingly.

From the thread in staffroom:

That's open to interpretation. There's nothing to say "how" they would allow good schools to expand. The argument will be that good maintained schools can expand alongside their conversion to an academy.

With all due respect that's bollocks at worse and absolutely pathetic fudging at best. Because it would no longer be a good maintained school would it? It would be an academy not a maintained school. So the good maintained school wouldn't be expanding, it would no longer exist.

And this agenda was being written about in the education press as long ago as 2011; so why has it taken so long for the profession and the public to object?

The profession have been objecting for a long time Pretty. Perhaps you haven't been talking to the right people?

A food based analogy:

It's like promising:

"We will continue to allow all good dairy products to expand, whether they are cream, butter and custard."

And then turning all the good cream into custard, (now it may be good custard, it should be, it was made with good cream!) but now you haven't got good cream, you've got custard.

We wanted that good cream you promised, not custard (and you haven't even checked if any of us have an egg allergy.)

Politics has always been thus, jelly. A manifesto isn't transparent. It's worded in a way that leaves as many doors open as possible for the party once they're the government in power.

Pretty, you are in such a happy place that I almost feel happy myself.

Urghhhh

I give THE HAPPY AWARD to Pretty. And no we won't ever take it back form you neither.

This is worth a read by concerned parents. It's long, but easy to read, and seems well-researched and argued. I can't evaluate the merits personally because I don't have the personal or professional knowledge, but I've discussed it with a friend who is SLT in an academy who thought it was broadly accurate. If I were a parent of a school age child in England, I'd find this fucking terrifying.

disidealist.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/the-mysterious-case-of-the-disappearing-schools-how-state-schools-will-be-privatised-without-anyone-noticing/

DM article on this thread
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3511643/Government-plans-make-schools-academies-branded-despicable-online-parenting-forum-Mumsnet.html

It's all lies and political posturing - that's our children and grandchildren she is messing with - how dare she!

I hope the NUT strike - and I am usually anti-strike. How eklse to make the wretched woman listen?

NUT poll 93% of school leaders 'against government's education plans'.

Not sure if this link will work but the FT is highly sceptical too (paywall but it comes up if you google) : A risky experiment with England’s school model

MNHQ

Holidays end tonight. We have written a huge number of responses here along with lots of questions and hopefully have earned a decent discussion with representatives of both major parties at least.
I doubt a Tory would turn up though. Still we can start from the Dr McNally and see how it goes from there.

Let's keep the discussion going.

Thanks

Interesting article: "Lauded academy chain to be stripped of schools after finances inquiry".

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/28/perry-beeches-academy-chain-stripped-schools-critical-finance-report

I reported one of my earlier comments saying we needed more than McNally so hopefully MNHQ will pick this up...

Lucy Powell tweeting quite a bit on the subject now. She said she was on LBC yesterday to talking about it.

With reference to Perry Beechs there is an interesting commentary on the Local Schools Network by Janet Downs here:

www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2016/03/perry-beeches-expected-to-lose-academies-but-questions-about-oversight-transparency-and-responsibility-remain

The whole thing, and the links in it well worth having a look at, but the nub is contained in these quotes.

"The Guardian cited a ‘Whitehall source’ who said action taken by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) at Perry Beeches ‘shows the academy system is working, with the EFA identifying issues and regional schools commissioners intervening and rebrokering effectively, as part of a robust system of oversight.’ This is nonsense. It was not the EFA who identified issues at Perry Beeches but a whistleblower....

It’s not, of course, the first time the alleged ‘robust system of oversight’ has failed and where action was taken only after allegations were received by the EFA: Cuckoo Hall, Barnfield, Sawtry, Durand, Bilingual Primary School Brighton, Kings Science Academy.....

Far from being robust, the EFA oversight appears to rely too much on whistleblowers.

.....serious questions remain about how the EFA can effectively monitor the annual accounts of academy trusts."

Good to see Nicky pitching in about Europe today

""It's clear, that if Britain leaves Europe it will be young people who suffer the most, left in limbo while we struggle to find and then negotiate an alternative model. In doing so we risk that lost generation becoming a reality," she said.
"And everyone who casts their vote must understand that. If parents and grandparents vote to leave, they'll be voting to gamble with their children and grandchildren's future.
"At a time when people are rightly concerned about inter-generational fairness, the most unfair decision that the older generation could make would be to take Britain out of Europe and damage the ability of young people to get on in life."

er ok then - because the education reforms our young people are currently experiencing aren't damaging in any shape or form then are they...? Way to go Nicky with guilt tripping parents and grandparents too.

Can someone explain to me what "inter-generational fairness" might mean - is it from the same book as "academisation"?

Hi all,

We most certainly haven't forgotten about this but it may take a little time due to the Easter break and lots of folks on holiday. We will post again as soon as we know any more.

Thank you!