Outrage over plan to force Nelson school to become an academy

Walverden Primary School, Nelson, is the first school in Lancashire to be ordered to convert in a bid to improve results.

But governors are now seeking legal action against the proposals and appealing to education watchdog Ofsted after they were issued with a ‘warning’ notice.

The school is being backed in its opposition by unions and the Conservative-led county council.

Chair of governors Philip Berry said the move to ‘force their hand’ was an ‘absolute disgrace’ and ‘undemocratic’.

There are now concerns that other schools in the area could also be forced to become academies. The 437-pupil school in Bracewell Street, led by headteacher Margaret Thacker, has been earmarked for a ‘forced’ academy on the grounds of poor attainment.

But the school is graded as satisfactory by Ofsted inspectors who said it was making ‘rapidly improving progress’.

It was notified of the plans in a letter which was sent ‘extremely reluctantly’ by the county council, on behalf of the Department for Education.

The Department said the move was geared towards ‘rooting out underperformance and driving up standards’.

There is only one other school in the country, Downhills Primary School in Haringey, London, that has publically come out to oppose the government on its forced academy scheme.

Academies are funded by central government and are free from local authority control.

They are in charge of their own budget, curriculum and also admissions.

Mr Berry said: “We will fight this very hard. We have put in appeals notices to Ofsted and are looking into taking legal action.

“The warning letter was totally wrong and it was undemocratic of the Department for Education to force the local authority to send it on their behalf.

“The school is improving which has been recognised by Ofsted and Lancashire County Council has recognised this too.

“We do not believe a sponsor could provide the same level of support as Lancashire County Council. The support from the council is second to none.

“We were taken out of the notice to improve category so this is totally unwarranted.

“If the change is of no benefit to the children it would be foolish to make the changes.”

The school had been looking into plans to convert into an academy following meetings with the Department for Education in February and October last year.

Mr Berry said: “I think it is an absolute disgrace of the secretary of state Michael Gove to take such powers to intervene part way through the process.

“The governing body had been considering the request but we didn’t have a great deal of information about it. We wanted to see evidence of schools that had success after conversion. They haven’t given us examples and when we asked, they said they had moved from that position in the process.

“This is totally disgraceful and undemocratic.

“We were talking about a sponsor and were going to bring it to the governing body to work out if it is in the best interest of the school then decide whether we would or would not convert.

“Now they are forcing our hand.

“Parents have been very, very supportive of the school and weren’t interested in a change of status.”

A letter to Lord Hill, the parliamentary under secretary of state for schools, was signed by leader of the county council Geoff Driver and Susie Charles, cabinet member for children and schools, both Conservative county councillors.

It said: “We have carefully considered your direction to send a notice to Walverden Primary School and have decided to comply with your instruction.

“However, we must make it clear that we are doing so extremely reluctantly for the reasons already discussed with yourself and your officers.

“To avoid any doubt, you should also be aware that we do not see this as a precedent. Accordingly, should we receive a similar direction in respect of a school in similar circumstances and we do not consider it to be warranted, we reserve the right to challenge any such decision through the courts.

”You do need to understand the strength of our feeling on this issue.”

• WALVERDEN Primary School’s ‘brave’ stance against the academy plan, along with the county council, has been praised.

Ken Cridland, retiring Lancashire secretary for the National Union of Teachers, NUT, said: “The council isn’t happy and they are threatening legal action because they feel that the way Walverden is being treated is unfair.

“I applaud the county council and the school. It is a brave stance and a brave decision has been taken because the local authority is of the same persuasion of as the government.

“There is a primary school in London, Downhills, that has been campaigning to stop the Government forcing it to become an academy. That should give heart to anyone. Michael Gove doesn’t want a another Downhills but perhaps he will have another one here in East Lancashire.

Sam Ud-din, Lancashire NUT secretary said: “The NUT believes it is totally deplorable that a school that is not failing by this governments' own biased definitions can still be forced to cut itself off from all local support merely to satisfy this Department of Education's agenda.

“The agenda is to damage for good all state provision and drive education into the waiting jaws of those who see opportunities for personal profit from the break up of locally planned and accountable provision.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Academies are proven to work – they are popular with parents and have turned round dozens of struggling secondary schools across the country. They are improving results at twice the national average rate and have higher proportions rated outstanding.

“We’ve been clear that we will offer sponsored Academy status to those schools we find to be consistently underperforming and whose results are below national standards year after year.”

Geoff Driver, leader of Lancashire County Council, added: "Decisions about the future of Walverden Primary now rest between the school's governors and officers from the Department of Education.

"Both County Councillor Charles and I, and staff from the council, will offer what support we can to try to find the best way forward for the school and its community."