As you may know, Woodside School is presently undergoing a consultation to become part of a Multi Academic Trust (MAT). There is an active campaign driven by parents and seeking urgent support. These are their latest findings:-
What’s known so far
· Recent evidence (Government reports) has shown that: academisation does not improve schools – LAs have a better record in school improvement. Further more academy conversion does not benefit educational attainment in primary school
· Academies have fewer freedoms than maintained school, Decisions that are now taken at school level will be taken at MAT level.
· Many academies struggle with unsustainable debt (Guardian Education 31/01/19)
· Much higher percentage of Academys than LA schools “off-roll” pupils to other schools within MATS so that children with lower academic attainment and SEND children do not bring down overall grades. They are also well known to “bus” children with SEND to one school on order to save resources as they then do not need to pay for specialist support across all of their schools.
What’s next?
Parents and teachers to know that if and when our Governing body agree to go ahead and convert to an academy, it will much harder to stop this irreversible decision.
We have truly put everything we have into finding out all of the information above. We did this to make sure we are well informed and have fully understood what is at stake. Please parents let us unite, for our children and their children and for all of our futures in Hertfordshire. Once this happens it really is irreversible. Our Governing Body, Head Teacher and Ivy simply cannot guarantee all that they have promised.
We want our formal complaint to be heard by an independent body
We want a parent and teacher surveys to be carried out
We want a public meeting for fair representation of the academies debate
We want a meaningful and true consultation process, where the outcome hasn’t already been made by those conducting the consultation.
We want a formal Parent Council established to work as an arm to the Governing body to allow good representation of the parent body.
