Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Heartlands School is consulting on becoming an academy
Heartlands School, which is not yet full and which was built at great public expense, is consulting on whether to leave Haringey local authority and become an independent school which answers directly to Conservative Michael Gove rather than elected local politicians and local people.
Elected local politician, Karen Alexander, who represents Harringay ward, is a local authority rep on the governing body. The decision will be made on December 4th. Karen will no doubt want to listen to local views for and against before she votes. Can we have your views Karen?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
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I am a parent with a son at Heartlands and find the debate about academies very confusing -there seems more heat than light! There is information on the school site about the consultation:
http://www.heartlands.haringey.sch.uk/page/?title=Academy+Consultat...
The late Mike Baker's blog on the topic seems like a sober analysis what it all does (and doesn't mean):
http://www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/articles/70/what-does-academy-s...
"So what are the essential freedoms that academy status brings?
They are relatively few and, if the coalition government is true to its word, the differences between mainstream schools and academies will soon be even smaller.
The list of freedoms gained through academy status includes: freedom to adapt the national curriculum, to vary teachers' pay and conditions, and to vary the length of the school day/week/year.
And….well, that's about it."
I know that Mike Baker was very well thought of across the political spectrum - Is this a fair summary? I would be genuinely interested in hearing from people who have experience of all this. I know Woodside became an academy recently so it might be helpful to hear about that.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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They can hire anyone to teach and pay them what they like. So if you're happy to have your kids taught by unqualified teachers with no classroom experience, an academy will suit you fine. The head can bring in his/her mates and pay them very well indeed, or try to keep on real teachers and pay them peanuts, because there will be all those mates waiting to take their job.
They can also teach that the earth was created 6000 years ago. Yes really.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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They won't do that at Heartlands. They will say that they will want to hire the best teachers and that nothing will change. And then the DfE will start reducing budgets and schools will have to manage on less money. It's going to be tempting to increase class sizes and hold back pay progression for teachers to make ends meet. And they may try to sell off land or look for commercial partners.
The big cushion provided by the local authority, which can move teachers, make redundancies to save costs and manage peaks and troughs will be gone. (Even if survives, it won't be allowed to extend a bitten hand to a school that's gone independent and taken central funding away from other schools.)
Academies are not allowed to go into debt. Councils have in the past subsidised schools in trouble until the numbers return and reputations are repaired. Councils can step in with advisors, auditors, legal services and extra funding when a school gets into difficulty (Heartlands has been getting this since it opened because it's a new school and not full. There's gratitude.)
Academy chains are circling and so are international organisations, private equity firms and a whole host of public sector parasites. You've seen it in the NHS. Now welcome it to your local school.
The council has been feeble, and the converter academies are just naive and greedy.
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Thank you, sSo it seems that academies can indeed employ unqualified teaching staff:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/27/gove-academies-unqu...
But I cannot find any confirmation that they can teach creationism:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/15/free-schools-creati...
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Academies can teach what they like, though it's mainly free schools that have taken advantage of the freedom to teach their religions at public expense in a free public building. Academies and free schools are free from the 'constraints' of a national curriculum. In practice it's not yet clear where this is going.
The government faces both ways on the national curriculum. It messes around with it all the time for council-run schools, trying to make everything more rigorous for Daily Mail prejudices. And then its flagship schools can do what they want to. Go figure.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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School governor and former Haringey Council leaderGeorge Meehan quits over the Heartlands decision to consult about becoming an academy reports The Tottenham Journal
George Meehan stepped down as a Heartlands High School governor after headteacher Simon Garrill began a consultation into whether or not it should be moved out of local authority control.
Cllr Meehan has insisted this is the “wrong” time for the school – which is yet to have its first pupils sit their GCSE exams – to convert.
“Before the school was built there was a strong campaign for a community school despite the government wanting an academy,” he said. “I don’t see how, two years down the road and with the school doing well, anything has changed.”
He added: “I have had a number of parents phone me up saying they don’t want it turned into an academy; I think opinion is divided.”
The school, in Station Road, Wood Green, was built using money from a £200m pot awarded to Haringey as part of the Building Schools for the Future project, officially opening in July 2011. At the time, was hailed by Mr Garrill as “a symbol of that aspiration” which would “be an amazing resource for the pupils and school staff and the local community”.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Good man, George. I'm glad to see you agree with me. But wouldn't it have been better to dig in your heels as a Heartlands governor and educate the rest of the ignoramuses on what was originally meant by a COMMUNITY school? Anyway, in light of what followed you in the Haringey leadership, will you no come back again?
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