AAA and SERTUC conference 7th Feb

The conference on Saturday was well attended and provided a much needed opportunity to talk through the issues and increase our ability to campaign effectively to overturn this derided government policy.

Conference on Saturday 7th Feb – A response to Cameron’s latest all-out war on state education

On Monday, David Cameron announced that he is “going to war on mediocre schools”, at the weekend Nicky Morgan announced a ‘war on illiteracy and …

Last week the report of the Education Select Committee stated that “current evidence does not allow us to draw conclusions on whether academies in themselves are a positive force for change”. This was not exactly a ringing endorsement of the academies programme, coming as it did from a committee chaired by Conservative MP Graham Stuart and with a majority of members from the coalition.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced that thousands more school will become academies, under the Conservatives manifesto plans. Mr Cameron will announce that all primary and secondary schools rated as “requiring improvement” or “inadequate” by Ofsted could be given new leadership and converted to academies.

A parliamentary inquiry into the coalition’s education reforms has called on the government to stop exaggerating the success of academies and to be more open about how it runs the programme.

Aldridge Foundation academies have been in the news. In the last few months the head of one of their academies has been suspended and forced out alongside reports of poor inspection grades and financial problems.

One day after Nicky Morgan announced the closure of Durham Free School, a second free school, Grindon Hall, in the North East was given an inadequate rating and put in special measures.

NUT and NASUWT teachers from Merrill Academy in Derby were out in force on the picket line on Tuesday 13th January in a dispute over lack of pay progression and unfair targets and policies.

The Durham Free School was put into special measures by Ofsted today. Shortly afterwards Nicky Morgan announced in parliament that she was terminating the funding agreement.