CAMPAIGNERS fighting to stop Hove Park School in Brighton & Hove being turned into an academy have called a march for July 5th.
Hands Off Hove Park School (HOHPS) are a group of parents/carers and other community members who are seriously concerned about plans to seek academy status for the local authority school.
HOHPS are calling on students and families from Hove Park and all Brighton & Hove schools plus teachers, local residents and anyone who cares about education in Brighton & Hove to join the march and the picnic that follows.
The march assembles at the gates of Hove Park Upper School, Nevill Avenue, BN3 at 10.30am for a march through Hove via George Street ending at Hove Park.
HOHPS said: ‘We are dismayed with the way the school is conducting moves towards this proposal, without an open, transparent and democratic consultation,’
‘We are campaigning to convince Hove Park governors that their proposal will be detrimental to the school, its pupils and local communities and should be rejected outright.
‘We are against the dismantling of state education across the country and are involved in the wider campaign to ensure all children now, and for generations to come, have access to excellent education in local comprehensive community schools with fair and equal admissions policies.’
School governors have decided to postpone their vote on academy status until September 22.
The decision to postpone comes after campaigning by parents for a ballot and election of parent governors.
At a meeting of Brighton & Hove Council’s Children & Young Peoples Committee on Monday, June 2nd,, the majority of councillors voted in favour for a ballot for parents.
Campaigners have also forced the school to hold elections after discovering that it was considering academy status even though three of six parent governor positions are unfilled.
Parents were alarmed and shocked that the school was considering opening as an academy as early as September.
Some Portslade parents were particularly angry as they had already chosen not to send their children to Portslade Aldridge Community Academy in favour of Hove Park.
They already realise that the proposal is both flawed and misleading by presenting parents with untrue claims that academy status will bring money for much needed new buildings into the school.
Parents are still very worried that governors are being pushed to decide on the issue when there is no evidence to support benefits of academy status but many risks associated with it.
Despite what parents were told at consultation evenings last month, the fact is there is no guarantee of extra money for buildings when a school becomes an academy.
The anti-academy campaign has also exposed the ‘consultation’ process as a sham, following a presentation from Robert Back who was described in literature from the school as a ‘Department for Education representative’.
HOHPS has written to the Board of Governors after finding out that Back is not an employee of the DfE and is unlikely to be impartial on the issue of academy conversion.
‘His role is that of “broker”, a consultant advising schools in south-east England on how to carry out academy conversion,’ say the campaign group.
‘At Companies House he is listed as a Director of academy chains Bau Foundation and Mentora Academies Trust, which form the same company, from August 2013.
‘In December 2013, the planned academy conversion of three schools in Oxfordshire under Mentora collapsed after the heads and governors probed the intentions of this same trust.
‘Our letter has been sent on to the Department for Education and we are awaiting a reply.’
At the Hove Park School consultation events, a PowerPoint slide was shown suggesting the school would benefit from a £4 million rebuild if it converted to an academy.
If this was true it would be a pretty important point to consider, so Hands Off Hove Park investigated.
It started with a website run of consultancy firm Capita that, in their words, is ‘intended to provide practical advice for schools looking to convert to academies’.
Capita was founded by Rod Aldridge, whose foundation runs both academies in Brighton – BACA and PACA.
This is what Capita has to say about the chances of a school converting to an academy and attracting capital funding:
‘Some … have been attracted by the financial incentives. … . The Government is keen to play down any capital funding advantage to converter academies and it is unlikely that such advantage will materialise …’
As funding from central government is ‘unlikely to materialise’, parents quite rightly conclude that it can only come from business sources.
The school management has tried to nip this concern in the bud by claiming that the school will not be a ‘sponsored’ academy.
If that is the case, HOHPS is demanding to know the reasons behind some rather exotic overseas jaunts during term-time by leading members of staff.
These include trips to China last week by Deputy Head/Business Manager, Niel MacLeod, and one to Saudi Arabia, courtesy of Apple Inc, by head teacher Derek Trimmer and a member of the Digital Leaders team.
There have also been trips by staff members to Germany and Copenhagen in Denmark, as well as staff attended a four-day conference in London.
HOHPS have written another Freedom of Information request to Mike Nicholls, Chair of Board of Governors, and governors: demanding answers to these many other questions of governance.
These include: what was the process for authorising each of these trips? and what is the educational justification/relevance of these trips?
In their letter, HOHPS also expressed parents’ concerns that subject department budgets at Hove Park School are being cut due to a £67k overspend on the Learning Transformation Project.
They conclude: ‘As the governing body we trust that you recognise that these are very serious questions that go right to the heart of the governance, finance, purpose and ethos of Hove Park as a local authority school.
‘Given that the school is seeking conversion to academy status, these questions are even more critical.
‘Should Hove Park become an academy, the Senior Leadership Team will have more responsibility (or ‘freedom’), no accountability to the local authority and a less accountable governing body as the school acquires ‘trustees’ instead of governors.
‘If the SLT is indeed failing to follow procedure, including the failure to comply with our request for information, we are duly concerned that the situation would only worsen post conversion.
‘As parents, we ask that answers to our many questions are provided as a matter of urgency.
‘This letter will be posted on the Hands Off Hove Park website and circulated to press and other stakeholders.
‘Sent on behalf of 170 members of the Hands Off Hove Park School campaign group.’
Despite parents’ and pupils’ protests and the collection of a petition signed by over 1,700 people, Hove Park School management and their ‘friends’ will press on regardless.
This is exactly what Conservative councillor Andrew Wealls said at the June 2nd council meeting, after pointing out that all the main political parties nationally supported academies.
Only a general strike called by the TUC can stop Gove and the Tories’ butchery of state education.
