Dominic shares details of this important event for parents of Isle of Wight school children. Ed
Despite the U-turn announced by Nicky Morgan (Secretary of State for Education) on forced academisation for schools, she will still propose legislation in the Queen’s Speech tomorrow (Wednesday) to convert all schools in what she terms ‘underperforming’ Local Authorities to academies. She has admitted that her aim is for every School to become an Academy.
Analysis by Schools Week revealed that the Isle of Wight is one of 16 Councils deemed to be ‘underperforming’ and so under threat of full academisation.
Removal of parent governors
Additionally, as well as forcing schools to become academies, the Government intends to remove the requirement for governing bodies to have parent governors.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is increasingly concerned by the direction of curriculum reform in England. Recently we have seen KS1 test papers posted online by a repeatedly incompetent Department for Education (DFE); forty thousand children kept at home by concerned parents; more and more children reporting exam stress and anxiety; and KS2 papers leaked by a so called ‘rogue marker’.
Public meeting
These and other issues will be discussed at the Isle of Wight Education Question Time taking place at Newport Football Club on Thursday 26th May, 7pm to 8 pm.
The panel includes Anne Swift (NUT National President) and speakers from a range of political parties. All Island Parents and students are welcome to attend.
Academisation is “not the answer to school improvement”
Commenting ahead of the Queen’s Speech, Dominic Coughlin, Secretary of the NUT on the Isle of Wight said:
“Full academisation – the one size fits all approach – is the wrong priority. It is not the answer to school improvement on the Isle of Wight. We need to secure increased levels of funding for Island schools and address the crisis in teacher retention and recruitment crisis.
“The most urgent problems in our schools are to do with the teacher shortage, real terms funding cuts, chaotic implementation of the National Curriculum, and workload going through the roof. The drive towards total academisation will do absolutely nothing to fix those problems.”
Image: j_dub_warrington under CC BY 2.0
