Author: gogwit

I seriously considered leaving education today. And if I had a viable exit strategy I might have taken it further.

Did I have a bad lesson? Was a pupil abusive, violent or threatening towards me? Not at all. I had the pleasure of my delightful Y7s, made a breakthrough with my Y8s, managed some productive revision and even had a pleasant time on a cover lesson.

What made me think about leaving was the agenda for Monday’s full staff meeting. Item 1? OFSTED. And pinned up next to it, the minutes of a recent Heads of Faculty meeting.

• In recent years we’ve been told our lessons have to be pacey.
• They have to help the students demonstrate independent learning.
• We have to give the students time to explore concepts and ideas.
• We have to demonstrate progress. From every student. Every 15 minutes.
• We have to make sure we build literacy…

Following the public meeting in Northfield on the 10th May, the Headteacher of  West Heath Primary School wrote to parents on 11th May informing them that there would be a meeting for parents about academy conversion after the Whitsun break. This post will be updated with further details as we get them. However after the Whitsun break is quite a long way away, particularly if procedures for converting  to academy continue during this time. We would encourage parents of West Heath to write to the headteacher and chair of governors as a matter of urgency requesting that all steps towards academy status are put on hold until open and democratic consultation has taken place.

If you are a parent of West Heath Primary please email askparentsfirst@hotmail.co.uk to be put in touch with other concerned parentsat the school.

Colmers Farm Junior School in Birmingham has announced in a newsletter dated 11th May that it is being forced to accept academy status. The message from the headteacher is reproduced below;

CHANGES IN EDUCATION
The Coalition Government, through the Secretary State for Education, Michael
Gove, has made clear its ambition to convert all state schools to academies by
2015. Academies will not be run by Local Authorities but by various organisations
with educational interests and funded directly by the Treasury of the UK
Government. This is the Government’s initiative to transform education and raise
standards in English schools.
The Secretary initiated the process for conversion to academies for Primary
schools last year. A school graded good or outstanding could convert to an
academy in their own right but those schools who showed low attainment and
progress rates over time were subject to forced academy transition. This school
was not part…

Dismayed parents at Jervoise Primary School in Birmingham have set up a Facebook Group ‘Save Jervoise School’ after being informed on Thursday that the DfE wants to force their good school to become an academy.

Parent Graham Lightning Sweet says that the DfE has targeted the school based on out-of-date figures from 2009.  He says that the experienced headteacher Mr McCabe has turned the school around from Special Measures to ‘Good’ in just three years and this year’s SATS results are expected to be outstanding.

About 50 people attended a public meeting on Thursday 10^th May at Northfield Baptist Church to discuss the threat to local primary schools being forced into academy status. The meeting had been organised by the teaching union NUT and the parent group Ask Parents Firstwhich is campaigning for open and democratic consultation on academy conversion. The meeting was aimed at three local schools, Northfield Manor, Primrose Hill and West Heath Primary, all of which, along with around 30 other schools across the city, are being forced to accept academy status by the DfE. Parents from all three schools were represented at the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by President of Birmingham NUT, Gay Hatton, who spoke about the threat to state education from the academies programme. Parents and community heard from four speakers.

Academies do no better than other schools

Richard Hatcher, Professor of Education at Birmingham City…