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NASUWT: Resist “predatory” chains opening free schools and academies

NASUWT: Resist “predatory” chains opening free schools and academies

The NASUWT should continue to work with local communities to oppose the opening of academies and free schools by predatory chains of private providers, representatives at the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, will argue today.

A motion condemning free schools as an expensive white elephant which does nothing to improve parental choice or pupil achievement will be debated at the Conference in Bournemouth.

It will warn that allowing free schools to operate without local democratic accountability will see fringe groups taking over the curriculum and a widening of the attainment gap between different social and ethnic groups.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“The academisation programme is not and never has been about raising standards or increasing educational opportunity.

“It has always been about creating a free-market free-for-all in our public education system.

“The Secretary of State has had to bribe, bully and force schools into converting.

“The whole education system has been plunged into turbulence and uncertainty as a result of academisation.

“The time has come to shift the focus from structural change to the values and ethos which should drive our public education system.”

ENDS

NASUWT Press Office contacts:
Ben Padley 07785 463 119
Lena Davies 07867 392 746
Amanda Williamson 07741 246 202

Notes to editors

The NASUWT’s Annual Conference is being held at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) from March 29th to April 1st.

The full text of the motion is below:

FREE SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES
Phil Kemp to move,
Birmingham to second:
Conference condemns the introduction of free schools as an expensive white elephant that will do nothing to improve parental choice or pupil achievement.
Conference deplores the way that private education institutions access public funding by seeking academy status and the lack of any local impact assessment or consultation.
Conference asserts that the decision to allow these schools to operate without local public accountability will:
(i) enable fringe groups to take control of school curricula;
(ii) impact adversely on the provision of a broad and balanced curriculum;
(iii) isolate vulnerable social groups;
(iv) diminish social cohesion;
(v) widen the attainment gap between different social and ethnic groups and
(vi) siphon considerable amounts of funding from local authority schools.
Conference calls upon the National Executive to:
(a) support Local Associations and work with appropriate local groups to oppose the opening of any new free schools or academies;
(b) explore all possible avenues to ensure that all publicly funded schools are held to public
account and
(c) undertake research on the impact that free schools and academies have had on local authority schools, the curriculum, value for money, health and safety and social cohesion.
(North Tyneside, Birmingham)
AMENDMENT
Executive to move,
Executive to second:
in the fourth paragraph:
in (a) replace ‘and work with appropriate local groups to oppose the opening of any new free
schools or academies’ with ‘working with appropriate local groups to oppose the opening of
academies and free schools by predatory chains and providers’
in (c) between ‘and’ and ‘social’ insert ‘community and’
(Executive)

The NASUWT has entered into a landmark agreement with the Schools Co-operative Society, to help ensure that state schools remain not-for-profit and democratically accountable to the public and parents.

The agreement highlights co-operative trusts as a democratic alternative for schools to the academy chains and the privatisation and marketisation agenda.This is the first agreement of its kind with a teaching union. For more information visit www.nasuwt.org.uk/CoopSchools.

Lena Davies
Press and Media Officer
NASUWT
0121 457 6250 / 07867 392 746
lena.davies@mail.nasuwt.org.uk