Please Support our Schools - Say NO to Leicester Academies
In December Leicester City Council announced its intention to consult on proposals for three new Academies to replace Riverside, Fullhurst and Babington Community Colleges. No information was provided on the alternatives to Academies that had been considered. Instead, most other options were dismissed in two or three lines.
The quality of the consultation the council intends was made graphically clear when the Local Authority produced its Strategy for Change part two at the end of December. This stated unequivocally that Riverside, Babington and Fullhurst would be Academies as part of the BSF scheme. This is before any consultation has taken place.
Worse still, the document also made reference to a new city centre school, which would also be an Academy. Of course, as one might expect, there has been no consultation on this proposal.
This wholesale drive to transfer the control of schools in the city to outside interests gives the lie to the council’s purported belief in ‘One Leicester’. It also demonstrates that for the Local Authority ‘collaboration’ means ‘do as you are told’.
Interestingly, there are also indications that the supposed emphasis on finding local ‘public sector’ sponsors for any Academies is also smoke and mirrors. Well placed sources suggest the council had approached Car Phone Warehouse as a possible sponsor. See page three for a possible reason why they might have abandoned that idea!
The campaign is now supported by Leicester Social Forum, The Education Forum, ATL, ASCL, NUT, NASUWT, UCU, GMB, UNISON, Leicester Trades Council, & Leicester Green Party