Academies excluding pupils

News today reports that Academies were 'responsible for 3% of permanent exclusions' in 2007.

"They were responsible for 2% of all temporary exclusions and 3% of permanent exclusions, despite making up only 0.3% of state schools in England. According to official figures, 240 pupils were excluded permanently and 9,360 had received fixed-term exclusions from the 46 academies and ten city technology colleges. Across England permanent exclusions fell by 7% to 8,680 in the academic year 2006-07". 'Education' June 27 2008.

As research has consistently shown, where Academies do improve their league table 'scores', they do it by changing the pupils they teach - and at the expense of other neighbouring schools

Martin Powell-Davies

Classroom Teacher 6 out now

Click here for the latest copy of Classroom Teacher.

It includes articles on:

· The ‘National Challenge’ threat to 638 schools

· The upbeat mood at the Young Teachers’ Conference

· No more missed opportunities – let’s call the national ballot

· Workload Campaign - National Action needed

· Name the Day for a Joint Union Strike over Pay

As ever, we have no real funding for printing so we hope that you can download, copy and distribute Classroom Teacher in your area.

Do remember to send feedback, views, agreements and disagreements to classroom.teacher@yahoo.co.uk

Young Teachers Call For Action

The fantastic atmosphere throughout June’s NUT Young Teachers Conference was due in no small way to April’s national strike action which brought many young members into union activity for the first time.

The main themes of the conference were the union’s pay and workload campaigns. There was no shortage of teachers wanting to express their views on both!

Many were disappointed by the decision not to re-ballot as soon as possible and strike again before the summer but, despite this, the mood was to make sure the next action was as big as possible, and hopefully alongside other unions.

Speakers who discussed teachers’ excessive workload, and rightly stressed the need for collective solutions to a problem we all face, struck a chord with the audience .

I hope our leadership will display some of the determination shown by the young teachers present and sanction action on workload that will really make a difference on vital issues such as management time, teacher numbers and class sizes.

Phil Clarke, member of the Young Teachers Advisory Committee

Name the day for joint national action

The strength of our April strike has not gone unnoticed by nervous Ministers. It has also encouraged others - like UNISON and UNITE - to ballot over pay. Why should any of us put up with below-inflation pay awards ?

This September, the teachers’ pay award will be 2.45% when the Retail Prices Index stands at over 4%. That’s one more year with a real terms’ pay cut, one more year when Ministers break their promise to review our pay if prices rise higher than expected.

It ‘gives’ at 2.45% but when it comes to the interest on student loans, the Government ‘takes away’ at a rate of 4.8%. ‘The Observer’ calculated that the high interest rates and low pay mean many young teachers will still have about 90% of their original loan to pay off after 10 years!

Rising food and fuel prices are hitting people worldwide yet MPs still want to try to blame inflation on our pay rises! Even the Bank of England has said that’s rubbish!

But when the Government tries to cut the pay of every public sector worker, surely the best response is to organise a joint fightback. At the rally before the June 9 Lobby of Parliament, the best applause was given to General Secretaries who called for co-ordinated action on pay across the public sector.

Now it’s time to name the day!

Nicky Downes, Coventry NUT

638 "failing" schools or backdoor privatisation?

Submitted by AWatkins-Groves on Tue, 10/06/2008 - 16:26.

I have just checked the BBC's website and it seems that 26 of the so-called failing schools are already academies.
What is Ed Balls' remedy for that?
4% of failing schools are academies and, surprisingly, academies account for around 4% of all secondary schools. Could there be something else to account for this perceived failure?

Submitted by martin powell-davies on Tue, 10/06/2008 - 21:28.

The “improve or close” ultimatum is a thinly-disguised plan to accelerate the privatisation of secondary education.

It could mean that the control of hundreds of schools, including staffing and admissions, will be taken out of the hands of an elected Local Authority and handed over to private sponsors and trust appointees. The fragmentation of education into the control of many different employers is also an obvious threat to collective trade union organisation.

The policy is driven by political dogma, not educational concerns. As Alan points out, despite all the financial advantages offered to them, there is no evidence that Academies offer pupils a better education than community schools.

Consistent research demonstrates that the main factor influencing a school’s position in the league tables remains the social class of its pupil intake. That’s why it is so unfair to impose a common GCSE target on schools, without taking into account the particular circumstances each one faces. Without a major injection of funding, above all to reduce class sizes to a maximum of twenty, there is no chance that schools can overcome factors such as poor housing and diet which inevitably discriminate against children from working-class communities.

But, while waving the big stick, I don't think that the Government is offering much in the way of real resources. As far as I can see, much of the £400 million ‘National Challenge’ funding is earmarked for Academies and Trusts – not at supporting schools staying as community comprehensives. (and I think the Union needs to be careful in being seen to be too grateful for the £400M!)

Unfortunately, the unjust labelling of schools as ‘failures’ will inevitably dissuade local parents from applying, compounding the difficulties they face. Demoralised staff, knowing the bullying inquisitions that these initiatives inevitably bring down on the heads of already overworked teachers, will also look to move to other schools as well.

We need to expose the real aims behind this divisive initiative and use our collective strength to defend staff in the targeted schools and to oppose the break-up of local authority schooling. The strike action taken by NUT members in Bolton to oppose their possible removal from council employment shows the way forward.

Martin Powell-Davies, Lewisham NUT (and a teacher in one of the 638 schools)

Like Martin I was - until Friday 6th June - a teacher in one of the schools on the hit list. Our school was suffering because we had a de facto grammar school in the town which took all the brightest kids at Year 7. What has been allowed is that the grammar school will be the lead in a three academy federation which will achieve National averages across the federation. Because it will be one huge all-ability comprehensive! Does nobody else see the irony?

The following article from the Independent sums it up "The cost of grammars: selective councils have most failing schools" paste the link to read the story.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/the-cost-of-grammars-selective-councils-have-most-failing-schools-844223.h

Submitted by robertwilkinson on Wed, 11/06/2008 - 09:35.

Martin quite correctly identifies many of the reasons behind the hypocritical and underhand motivation for the recent government pronouncement on failing schools.

There are some issues however that need to be raised in addition to the ones above.

What are the criteria for judging a school to be 'failing'? The obsession with a 5+ A* to C GCSE benchmark (including English and Maths these days) is tremendously demotivating to those pupils (and teachers) who are not going to reach this hurdle - despite their best efforts and praiseworthy success in raising their achievement to almost the required level, they are condemned as 'failures'. This on top of being identified since their Foundation stage test at entry and all the way through their SATs as being the bottom of the class. These youngsters have had to put up with 10 years or more of humiliation at school - is there any wonder that many are demotivated and disruptive or absent themelves from learning? Labelling and a self-fulfilling prophecy as Becker long ago identified.

There are other measures of success and we should continue to do what we can to celebrate those that can reward pupils for their contribution to the school and society through sport and work in the community in all sorts of ways.

The best opportunity that we had in a long time to change the 14-19 curriculum and assessment was lost through political cowardice on the part of the New Labour government in the face of opposition from Neanderthals such as Digby Jones and the Daily Mail.

The focus now on 'failing' schools is a political decision in the face of a damaging loss of support for the New Labour project.

'A Good Local School For Every Child' will not necessarily result in improvements to the League Tables as housing has become more and more segregated into income brackets. Only the abolition of League Tables and the replacement of the current benchmarks of success in assessments would help to overcome the socially divisive impact of every policy since the 1988 Education Reform Act.

Robert
Division Secretary
Wokingham & District

‘NATIONAL CHALLENGE’ = PRIVATISATION

Labour’s “improve or close” ultimatum to 638 English schools is a thinly-disguised plan to accelerate the privatisation of secondary education.

Under their “National Challenge Strategy”, schools that have failed to meet the imposed minimum target (of 30% of pupils gaining five A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths) have been put on the Government’s hit list. The price of continued ‘failure’ will be to become either a privately-sponsored Academy or a Trust school backed by a business or university.

Either way, the control of hundreds of schools, including staffing and admissions, will be taken out of the hands of an elected Local Authority and handed over to private sponsors and trust appointees. But, instead of planning for the interests of the community as a whole, individual sponsors will put their own interests first, at the expense of other local schools. The fragmentation of education into the control of many different employers is also an obvious threat to collective trade union organisation.

The policy is driven by political dogma, not educational concerns. Despite all the financial advantages offered to them, there is no evidence that Academies offer pupils a better education than community schools. After all, how does the Government explain why 26 of the schools on the hit list are already Academies ?!

Where Academies have succeeded in improving their exam scores, it has too often been down to simply changing the pupil population. For example, Academies tend to exclude significantly higher numbers of pupils than neighbouring community schools.

Secretary of State, Ed Balls, claims that the policy will help “break the link between poverty and attainment”. But a market-driven school system will make divisions greater, not less.

Consistent research demonstrates that the main factor influencing a school’s position in the league tables remains the social class of its pupil intake. That’s why it is so unfair to impose a common GCSE target on schools, without taking into account the particular circumstances each one faces. Without a major injection of funding, above all to reduce class sizes to a maximum of twenty, there is no chance that schools can overcome factors such as poor housing and diet which inevitably discriminate against children from working-class communities.

But, while waving the big stick, the Government is offering little in the way of real resources. Much of the £400 million ‘National Challenge’ funding is earmarked for Academies and Trusts – not at supporting schools staying as community comprehensives.

Unfortunately, the unjust labelling of schools as ‘failures’ will inevitably dissuade local parents from applying, compounding the diffiulties they face. Demoralised staff, knowing the bullying inquisitions that these initiatives inevitably bring down on the heads of already overworked teachers, will also look to move to other schools as well.

Trade unionists need to expose the real aims behind this divisive initiative and use their collective strength to defend staff in the targeted schools and to oppose the break-up of local authority schooling. The strike action taken by NUT members in Bolton to oppose their possible removal from council employment shows the way forward.

Martin Powell-Davies

Do teachers back school student action?

Over the last six weeks, thousands of school students have walked out in protest against the running down of the education system.

250 walked out in Neale-Wade Community College in Cambridgeshire over overcrowded school dinner facilities and short lunch times. A school student quoted in the local press said “they [teachers] decided to go on strike for what they want and we thought that if it is all right for them, then it is all right for us to do the same for what we want”.

Over 150 students in Pontllanfraith School in Blackwood, Wales walked out over the possibility of several teachers losing their jobs. This action resulted in management distancing themselves from this suggestion. It looks likely that the teachers’ jobs have been saved, which would mean a victory as a result of the students’ action.

800 protested in St Aelreds Catholic Technology College in St Helens, Merseyside over worries for the future of their education, connected to plans to close the school and replace it with an Academy.

There are other reports of smaller scale walkouts, and also of students angry and beginning to organise around petitions to the head, in schools and in colleges.

Internationally, school students are playing an important role in fighting back. 300,000 French school students marched in May against education cuts. 8,000 school students marched through Berlin in the last fortnight over similar issues. (see anticapitalism.org.uk for fuller reports).

School student strikes have won big victories in the past. In 1985, inspired by the miners strike and in revolt against the Conservative government’s Youth Training Schemes, hundreds of thousands of school students walked out in coordinated action. This led to the YTS being shelved.

School student action may be a sensitive issue for some teachers but ISR want to bring together all those school students who have been involved in walkouts and build a national campaign for better conditions in schools.

Ben Robinson, International Socialist Resistance national organiser