Academy battle in West Sussex

[Derek McMillan]

Well you are familiar with union meetings - not always very well attended. So I was agreeably surprised when we called a meeting for parents and teachers at the three schools threatened with privatisation under the Academy program and 150 turned up.

There is a fuller report on the WSTA blog

Perhaps the most notable absentee were the sponsors themselves, the Woodard Corporation. As someone put it, "they would no more ask teachers and parents their views than they would consult their servants."

Bishop Woodard who set up the Woodard Corporation believed the working classes were being overeducated and the church should concentrate its efforts on the middle classes. Their schools are generally fee-paying because obviously only people who can afford to pay for education can benefit from it!

They are in line for a massive influx of public money from this deal. As Hank Roberts (NUT executive) put it, "they are not sponsors but spongers."