YESTERDAY students at Crown Woods School in Eltham were on strike against management’s decision to turn the school into an academy.
Students gathered outside the school’s front gate in protest encouraging parents, passers-by and fellow students to join in and sign petitions.
The gathering grew to around 50 to 60 people before the head teacher came along and tried to convince students to go into lessons.
A group of nine young people remained outside the school gate to keep the strike going for the day.
Luke Ring, a year nine student, at the school said, ‘I don’t see a point in being an academy. The management are just doing it for the money. It’s just going to be like what has happened in other schools. Once the papers have been signed there is no longer a school. It becomes a business run for profit like the Harris Academies.
‘I don’t think students want the academies and my friends have told me they are likely to change school if Crowns Wood becomes an academy. They came to this school because they want a proper community school not an academy being run for profit.
‘We should get a say in what is going on. It is our school as well. We are doing this because we want a say and we don’t want an academy.’
During the protest, Bill Laws, chair of the school’s governing body visited the picket line. He claimed the students had not contacted him directly with their grievance.
Georgia Abbot replied she had written several letters to the school management and had sat through meetings with the principal. She said, ‘We were ignored.’
Georgia continued, saying, ‘The management claimed they have consulted everyone and did not even ask what the students thought of it.’
‘This is privatisation through the back door,’ Luke Ring added. ‘We have nothing to gain from privatisation.’
Laws continued, saying they were just a few students outside the school, to which students replied, ‘There were more people in the beginning, at least 50, but the school’s principal Mr Murphy came to tell everyone to get inside.’
Georgia added, ‘We won’t be intimidated and we are going to stay out here all day. We have a right to protest and we are here because we don’t want our school turned into an academy.’
Georgia requested a meeting with Laws where she promises to bring hundreds of students along, to prove it was not just a few young people. She also added that the school’s management should not intimidate students who are on the picket line.
Georgia concluded, ‘Students should also have a say in how their education is run and we are making it clear we don’t want academies.’
• Lambeth College UCU began their indefinite strike yesterday morning in a battle over new contracts that the management are attempting to impose.
These would mean that teachers would have to work five extra weeks in an academic year. All staff are having their hours increased, sick pay cut and holidays cut.
There were strong pickets at all three sites.
At the Brixton site, Mandy Brown, UCU Branch Secretary for Lambeth College told News Line: ‘This is the first day of indefinite strike action.
‘We had two ballots. The second one was even stronger than the first, after management tried to stop us with an injunction. The strike is really good and solid.’
At Clapham, Angus Pickthall said: ‘I am a long-serving staff member who has decided that I do not want to do more work for less.’
