Forced Academies, the Department for Education and Haringey

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Permalink Reply by John D on March 6, 2012 at 7:07

Now, if I had said that about a woman in a bikini, there would have been a shrill chorus of abuse

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on March 5, 2012 at 0:10

Hi Seema, In case you haven't seen them, there are some more thoughts on the Freedom of Information Act answers and on on Claire Kober's Education Commission from people (including me) on the Save Downhills Campaign site. Apparently you have to log-in to the site to access it.

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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on March 5, 2012 at 23:54

Thank you Mr S, its their Facebook page and I have read the comments

Its all really emotional and there is obvious frustration, I hope there is an amicable solution as I've seen this all before with the kids & their campaign to save their youth service.

Somehow, the elected "leaders" need to commence proper and meaningful conversations with the community or we will just have a shambles

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on March 6, 2012 at 1:26

It's not really that emotional. They've been sold out.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on March 6, 2012 at 17:51

Here's the latest letter 6 March 2012 sent to Cllr Claire Kober - and copied to other councillors - by the Downhills Campaign. (savedownhills@hotmail.co.uk). I've added some explanatory information [in italics and square brackets]. It refers to the "Open Letter" from Claire Kober addressed to parents and guardians which you can read on Haringey's website by clicking on this link.. As you might expect, I fully endorse the views in the letter and have expressed similar criticisms. 

═══════════════════════════════════

Dear Councillor Kober

The Save Downhills Campaign group is appalled that you have chosen to write this generalised, impersonal and, quite frankly, patronising letter to ‘Haringey Parents and Guardians’ while you have refused to respond to the letter sent to you and Jan Doust [Assistant Director] on 14 February signed by parents at Downhills, outlining our strong objections to being forced into academy status.

Your trite comment that ‘many parents will be anxious about what this means’ is an extreme understatement, as you must be well aware from the letter we sent you and from the high profile campaign we have been conducting that we are more than ‘anxious’. We are furious that neither the DfE nor the Council are listening to what parents at Downhills have to say and very angry that absolutely no attempt at conducting a meaningful consultation on the issue of academies has been undertaken by either body.

You state that you want to work with ‘parents, schools and the local community’ to achieve ‘an outstanding education’ and ‘excellence for all’, a laudable aim that parents at Downhills certainly share; yet to date we have seen absolutely no evidence of the Council’s commitment to working with parents, schools and the local community regarding academy proposals, nor alternative means of achieving improvements. Your proposal to launch an ‘Outstanding for All ‘ Commission is not only far too late in arriving, but we would question who the proposed ‘experts’ are and the involvement of ‘ local businesses.’ Your flimsy assurances on this matter are totally at odds with the contempt that you have shown towards us so far, as evidenced by your inability to even respond when we write to you. We would further draw your attention to statistics provided by the Local Schools Network, which clearly show that academies do not work – there isn’t space to give details here, but we are more than happy to discuss these statistics with you.

Your statements about Coleraine Park, Noel Park and Nightingale schools are disingenuous to say the least. You say that ‘Coleraine Park has already made the decision to enter into an academy partnership with the Harris Federation’, yet Coleraine Park report feeling bullied into accepting a sponsor, with the Harris Federation having been thrust upon them without their having any choice in the matter. Furthermore, Noel Park Governors’ decision to convert to academy status goes against the wishes of the majority of parents at the school, who overwhelmingly voted against an academy. The facts of what happened are therefore at odds with the innocuous and misleading wording in your letter, making it appear that these schools and their stakeholders have happily and willingly taken the academy route, when this is not the case. Even more appalling is your apparent lack of outrage at the disgraceful treatment of Nightingale School, whose Governing Body has been unceremoniously replaced by an IEB [Interim Executive Board] despite the fact that they are not in Special Measures and have never dropped below the floor target set by the DfE. This seems not only deeply unjust to us, but possibly illegal.

Looking at emails and attached letters that we have accessed through F.o.I. requests, it would appear that the Council, far from being open, has been conducting ‘quiet conversations’ (we refer you to an email from 04 October 2011 between Haringey CEO Kevin Crompton and Dominic Harrington at the DfE) and that low key talks relating to academies had been going on since as early as March 2011, even though ‘the four schools’ were only brought into the picture in October. The emails do not show the Council’s dealings with the DfE over academies to be robust; while it may be true that the Council sometimes raises objections to the process and its tight timescales, these objections are generally weak and do not appear to be sustained in the face of DfE ‘badgering’. It seems clear to us that the Council has made no real attempt at supporting the targeted schools but simply agreed to ‘hand them over on a plate’. Why should this be, we wonder, when other councils (Durham for example) have successfully opposed DfE pressure to turn their schools into academies? In an email of the 2 September 2011, the CEO of Haringey offered up two schools for the ‘Academy Experiment’ – do you care about our children so much that you are willing to offer them up for an unproven and untested experiment in education? The fact that emails are sent and copied to a very select group of people adds further speculation about the secretive nature of negotiations. Why wasn’t a broader selection of councillors copied in to emails? Why did the DfE make a presumptive academy order in July 2011 in respect of Woodside when the GB only voted in September? Were school ‘improvement plans’ produced in a hurry without proper consultation with the schools concerned? (letter dated 14 October refers to improvement plans). These are just some of the questions that arise and give us cause for alarm and anger.

In light of all this, your final reference to ‘empowering all parents’ sounds completely hollow and you must understand that we find it hard, if not impossible, to put any faith in the reassurances that you seek to provide in your letter; nor do we have much confidence in the rigour of the Commission you intend to launch, given the LA’s [Local Authority] track record on academy consultation – or rather the lack of it - with parents and the local community.

We continue to oppose forced academies and demand you provide us with a full and proper response to the issues we have raised.

Yours sincerely

Alan Pearson, Parent; Alison Lloyd, Parent/Secretary of Friends of Downhills; Andrea Pita, Parent;  Andrea Zecova, Parent;  Andrew Graves, Parent;  Beth Handley, Parent;  Candace Miller, Parent;  Claudia Kaplan, Parent;  Dermot Macward, Parent;  Ellie Rance, Parent; Elsa Dechaux, Parent;  Emine Akar, Parent; Eva Atkins, Parent; Gay-Ann Cunningham, Parent; Gulsen Secgin, Parent; Hazel Gould, Parent; Jacqui Baird, Parent/Governor;  Jadwiga Opalinska, Parent;  James Redwood, Parent;  Jane Mckenzie, Parent;  Janet Lallysmith, Parent/Governor/Friends of Downhills Treasurer;  Josephine Buntin, Parent; Karen Jacobs, Parent/Co Chair of Friends of Downhills; Kevin Atkins, Parent; Lesley Moorse, Parent; Lorna Waite, Parent; Melado Stephens, Parent; Munira Mohamed, Parent; Naomi Simpson, Parent; Pat Berryman, Governor; Pascal Savy, Parent; Rachel Epson, Parent; Raymond Bacchus, Parent; Sadete Zhubi, Parent; Sarah Williams, Parent; Satish Sen Deelah, Parent; Susan Moyse, Parent/Co Chair of Friends of Downhills;  Suta Grisha, Parent;  Tuba Alpaslam, Parent;  Vera Peposhi, Parent; Wen Dai, Parent; Wendy Sugarman, Parent/Governor.

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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on March 7, 2012 at 1:15

Wow!

This is emotional (dont argue Mr S, being emotional is not a bad thing) :)

Its really sad, I used to read letters like this from the kids when they were trying to save their youth service, I think they would send a couple of pleas a week and at times it would make me cry. I remember when they became extremely active, met with Boris; Lynne and David Lammy and became full of conviction that I worried about the emotional impact on the young people, some as young as 13. I also worried about the next steps, as I was "on the inside" and the ... stubborness of management not to change their minds/u-turn was concerning as it meant I knew the kids had lost way before the Cabinet/Full Council meeting.

One of my aims was to try and part-prepare the kids for "defeat", but they werent up for it and partly that was the fault of me and my staff, you see one of our key aims in the Youth Service/Youth Work world is to teach young people about democracy, if they wanted a new playstation game they learnt about petitions and voting. If they felt they were "banned" unfairly they had an "appeal" and they also had room to compromise (i.e. if they misbehaved, thus off a trip cleaning my office & doing light admin duties normally gave them enough "points" to get back on). But real life, or indeed Haringey Councils version of democracy was not like that...

My concern in reading this, (and other campaigns such as childrens centres, play service, parks etc etc) is there is always the same theme

1. No consultation (or what the real world considered to be a consultation)

2. Dodgy/Clandestine antics

3. Hollow words

What was apparent throughout the campaign by being around the kids was, they were more angry about the injustice and council treatment. In fact I remember the speech/deputation on budget/full council in 2011 like it was yesterday and the kids did not fully focus on the service but more on how they were treated. Alas, the treatment was what had fuelled and magnified an already tensioned situation to an inferno of hate, that sadly still exists today by the young people towards certain councillors/the council as a whole.

I do not want to sound melodramatic, but the emotion/frustration in the tone matches similar anguish of the young people in the previous situation. When all democratic structures that are in place to enable public voice and public impact on decision making processes are either not followed or mismanged or exhausted to no avail it creates an enhanced level of frustration and helplessness. Therefore, I saw the smoke a long time before the flames of Aug 6th/7th and lessons have not been learnt from the riots about exactly what community tensions are & their causes

I am not suggesting for a second these parents will riot, but I am questioning what they would do next? How much longer will this continue and what this incident will contribute to other incidents that multiply a deeper feeling of rage.

I fully appreciated Claires position in the cuts, if she did not pass a balanced budget the gov would take over, personally as a whole Labour movement across the UK I wouldve called that bluff (but Im mad!). So she had no real choice, however she did have a choice on how and what, more importantly she had a choice in attitude towards people she was accountable to (the electorate). In this case, there is no real law in place to stop her supporting/engaging parents, but she is choosing not to.

In a nutshell, what I am trying to say is this academies issue is 100% bad and imposed by a Tory gov, but to be endorsed through lack of (or percieved agreed/co-operative/supportive) action is making this situation rise to 1000% bad.

If I was more active/involved in the Labour Party (I dont mean cabinet), I would seriously call for a review into the impact bad PR and interface with the community is firstly making things worse and secondly affecting the reputation for the Labour Party. She can not be leading a community who do not respect her leadership, we will have anarchy! Im not asking for her to be replaced or step aside, Im asking for learning and adaptation for what is best for Haringey (and a few smiles rather than looking down on people and huffing away like she is bored/fed up)

I have been and currently am a manager and public interface is the only thing that could make or break you - its broken her and thus us.

I sincerely hope from the bottom of my heart there is a resolution, but it is now up to Claire or indeed the wider Labour party. Its been over a year since the full council meeting and the tensions are still there between council/kids and sadly attempts for a resolution were missed due to sheer blindness and stubborness.

What are your plans/vision for a resolution Cllr Stanton?

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on March 7, 2012 at 11:13

LOOOOOOOOOOOL You are so cute, William Hoyle... were you wearing a Sherlock Holmes outfit when you wrote this? Is Justin your Watson? Billy sweety, Im fully aware of who you are and envy your post, being treasurer of a party with only 3 members must be a complex calculation :)

You have TOTALLY missed my point, although you are a Tory and intellect is not normally a virtue :)

My WHOLE post did not say ANYTHING about pro/anti academies, it solely examined the fact relationships and treatment of the public (in this case the parents) by the Council and Claire is making things 10 times worse. I would like you to show me where, once I had supported academies? If that is swinging dramatically than... Im a swinger ;)

In regards to the "massive hole" (scary) erm... I have not anywhere in the post claimed it was

As for being on first name terms, erm Cameron lets us call him Dave but I've got to address Claire as what? Cllr Kober? Lady Smiley? Get lost darling, her name is Claire and thats what I will call her

William, we may be on either end of the political spectrum but we are in agreement on some issues regarding the party infrastructure. I support the Labour ideology and not the current local party structure, they are totally different things. I am not going to defend the behaviour of the local Labour party, in fact my whole post was just about their behaviour. Whatever I've said here, I've said on my blog and I said direct to Cllrs, they may not give one... but I do, I place a high value on my opinion & existence, I also do not shut up :)

So now I have your attention Mr Hole a few queries:

1. Do the Tottenham Tories hold their meetings in a Phonebox?

2. Do you dance to "I've got the moves like Thatcher"?

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

 

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on March 7, 2012 at 13:02

Glad to see you raising the tone here, Seema. Far too much self-important posturing. 

As for what we're supposed to call Claire Kober, I think it's a hoot that the people in the River Park House Council bunker seem to be under instructions to refer to her in the third person as "The Leader". (I've no idea whether any of them do this ironically - as in Il Duce, El Caudillo and North Korea's "Dear Leaders".

Which of course is a key part of the problem we face. The current local government system elects decent, hard-working, well-meaning, mostly honest, and very ordinary men and women. Although they often lack any particular insights or fresh ideas, we elevate a few of them on a plinth. And say: "Okay, O Leader you're 'it'. This is your team and we expect you to attack, defend, keep goal, work out the game-plan, manage the media, and dispense Eric Cantona-style wise yet inscrutable sayings. So now, O Wise Leader, give us your vision and tell us what to do."

It's like the sequence in the "Life of Brian" when a crowd follows Brian Cohen thinking he's the Messiah. There's much same joke in Forrest Gump

The really sad thing is that this system is almost always dysfunctional. It wastes the commitment, abilities, experience, and brainpower of most of the people who share the values and enthusiasms of the party or parties in power. Worse, it does its best to turn them into a smiling crowd to applaud, and do the bidding of "The Leader" and his/her favoured courtiers, acolytes and hangers-on.

The Westminster system isn't that much different. Except there the Prime Minister has more sweeties (honours, peerages etc) to hand out to loyal followers. 

From which you can tell that my own preferred approach is to find and use as many ways as possible of building united judgements and making collective plans. And of including as many people as possible in the process.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on March 7, 2012 at 13:20

Always nice when your opponents make your points for you.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on March 7, 2012 at 13:43

Seema, after all the breast beating, I have to say I'm little wiser about the issues (although I gather there was insufficient consultation. This is normal; this is Haringey).

An independent observer might conclude that the school in question was to be shut down or that the Leader was imposing a branch of Hitlerjugend.

We're told that this academies issue is 100% bad, but I for one would like to see some facts rather than just outpourings of emotion. 

Can I just add that your spelling is much improved on a few weeks ago. I recognise you've taken special measures: was it a full-size keyboard this time?

;-)

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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on March 7, 2012 at 14:55

LoOoOoOoL - Clive, when I saw what a sexy specimen of a man you were, I improved my grammar solely to get your attention!! Full size keyboard, cheeky git!

I actually part agree with you about "the facts", however I go back to the role of a "leader", not solely Claire but Gove, Lammy even Cllr Stanton who are all leaders in some format in our democracy. It was/is their responsibility to shed light on the facts and enable the public (or parents at least) to make an informed decision. Like you, I'm still on he fence

On each side of the fence is a series of name calling from Gove and a lot of evasiveness from Council. The concept of an adult debate/discussion and to gain a grip on solutions is absent from our so called "Leaders".

The method Gove has deployed is in my opinion, inflammatory (100% bad) and this has been increased to 1000% by the council. I sincerely believe all these parents want are questions answered and involvement in the decisions. If that was achieved, none of this would have got this far. Alas, damage limitation is absent as a "leadership" quality and damage enforcement is a key skill in the Tory policy.

You can not fault the emotions or actions of the parents (wider community) who are being ignored, left in limbo and treated with contempt, I have no doubt you could empathise with their feelings following your own experiences with Ally Pally.

I agree "insufficent consultation" is the Haringey norm, but norms are being accepted rather than challenged by the general public. Strangely what the parents/community are asking for is the same as what you had Clive, fairness, transparency, honest communications, respect and accountability, the actual subject for me is secondary to the wider picture of a culture in Haringeys govenance thats led most people from all spectrums of our borough to disengage, regardless of our party loyality

You often make me smile Clive, I have never seen such a Victor Meldrew type person in Haringey before, however I like the way you challenge as real democracy requires real opposition. You should offer training to your Lib Dem colleagues, they were pathetic at the Full Council meeting

Good luck in your Ally Pally project

 

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Permalink Reply by JumpingtheWaves on March 7, 2012 at 15:13

I do like your style, Seema. Good on you, you have made me chuckle more than once with your comments and believe me I can do with a bit of that with everything else going on! Reminds me that we mustn't lose our sense of humour, in the face of adversity it's worth its weight in gold.

 

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