Axton Chase School Academy Proposal

[Mel Tomkins]

We are a group of parents who are against our school becoming an Academy run school. Our web presence is at the following link http://z4.invisionfree.com/Axton_Chase_Par...dex.php?act=idx

We are not against change, we all agree that we need a new school, which we have been promised now for a number of years; plans were drawn up 5 years ago although nothing ever materialised. We all thought what a wonderful thing this would be a lovely new school, with 21st century teaching, but now, given the information we have received, are against it being Academy status.

What we are looking for is the new school to be built, as was promised, but to remain a comprehensive school in its own right. We disagree strongly with the 60 plus pupils per class teaching method. Most of our teachers have been at Axton Chase for years instilling stability and getting to know their students. All of our children have settled into Axton really well, they are happy, content, and most importantly learning to the best of their abilities.

The large classes are of a concern to us, also is the fact that our teachers have to re-apply for their jobs. We were not fully aware the impact the changes would make should Axton become an Academy. We will lose our local feeder school, there will be an entrance exam, and the criteria for entry to the school will be completely changed. The pupil number for entrance will go down to 180 places. This will make things difficult for the other local schools in the area as they will be over subscribed. We will also have no say in how the school is run as we will not have a Parent Governor.

We are all more than happy with the way Axton Chase is run now and want it to continue in this way. We all have our different reasons for choosing the secondary school our children attend. We choose Axton for the way it is run and the results it has. It was our choice and remains that under the KCC. If we want our children to go to an academy run school we have the choice of sending them to Leigh Tech, but we do not, by doing this to Axton we feel the choice of our children’s’ education is being taken away from us.

Our terms of reference:

The object of the group shall be to ensure that the Parents of children at Axton Chase are fully consulted about the future structure of education at Axton Chase. To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and to establish the facts so that parents have the opportunity to influence any proposals emanating from the KCC and are able to make a uniformed choice on the future structure of education.

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Axton_Chase_Par...dex.php?act=idx

[John Simkin]

We are a group of parents who are against our school becoming an Academy run school. Our web presence is at the following link http://z4.invisionfree.com/Axton_Chase_Par...dex.php?act=idx

We are not against change, we all agree that we need a new school, which we have been promised now for a number of years; plans were drawn up 5 years ago although nothing ever materialised. We all thought what a wonderful thing this would be a lovely new school, with 21st century teaching, but now, given the information we have received, are against it being Academy status.

What we are looking for is the new school to be built, as was promised, but to remain a comprehensive school in its own right. We disagree strongly with the 60 plus pupils per class teaching method. Most of our teachers have been at Axton Chase for years instilling stability and getting to know their students. All of our children have settled into Axton really well, they are happy, content, and most importantly learning to the best of their abilities.

The large classes are of a concern to us, also is the fact that our teachers have to re-apply for their jobs. We were not fully aware the impact the changes would make should Axton become an Academy. We will lose our local feeder school, there will be an entrance exam, and the criteria for entry to the school will be completely changed. The pupil number for entrance will go down to 180 places. This will make things difficult for the other local schools in the area as they will be over subscribed. We will also have no say in how the school is run as we will not have a Parent Governor.

We are all more than happy with the way Axton Chase is run now and want it to continue in this way. We all have our different reasons for choosing the secondary school our children attend. We choose Axton for the way it is run and the results it has. It was our choice and remains that under the KCC. If we want our children to go to an academy run school we have the choice of sending them to Leigh Tech, but we do not, by doing this to Axton we feel the choice of our children’s’ education is being taken away from us.

Our terms of reference:

The object of the group shall be to ensure that the Parents of children at Axton Chase are fully consulted about the future structure of education at Axton Chase. To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and to establish the facts so that parents have the opportunity to influence any proposals emanating from the KCC and are able to make a uniformed choice on the future structure of education.

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Axton_Chase_Par...dex.php?act=idx

Members of this campaign should read Francis Beckett's "Great Academy Fraud".

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=11035

City academies dates back to October 1986, when the Conservative Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker announced the creation of a “pilot network of 20 city technology colleges in urban areas” and appealed for “sponsors in the business community”. When companies failed to respond to the initiative, Baker reduced the sum from £8m to £2m per school. In opposition the Labour Party rightly objected to this scheme as “wasteful and wrong” and the education spokesman Jack Straw called for the city technology programme to be scrapped. He even went as far as to say in 1990 that the sponsors so far were “second-order companies whose directors were interested in political leverage or honours”.

This is part of a pattern about the current Labour government. In opposition they criticised city academies, league tables, SATs, Ofsted inspections, etc. but once in power, they have adopted all these Tory policies.

Simon Jenkins argues in his book, "Thatcher & Sons?" that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have carried on Thatcher’s policies with a “revolutionary zeal – going where even their mistress feared to tread.”

For example, in October 2007, the Guardian announced that Lord Adonis, who now has responsibility for the Academy programme, is trying to persuade top independent schools to help run state-funded academies by dropping a requirement that they contribute £2m to starting costs.

As Francis Beckett pointed out on this forum:

"So anxious is Lord Adonis to bring the fee-charging schools on board that he is allowing them in without paying a penny. Dulwich College, the very expensive and very rich south London public school, is sponsoring the Isle of Sheppey academy, and is putting up no money at all. All the money is coming from Kent Councty Council – that is, from Kent ratepayers. Dulwich College is contributing “help in kind” – time and expertise, apparently. What expertise this school, which educates only the sons of the rich, has to offer a school in the deprived Isle of Sheppey, I have no idea."

[John Simkin]

According to Ed Balls, the schools secretary, the government will now close around 270 “failing schools” for “underperformance” and replace them with academies and trust schools. Kent has 30 so-called “failing schools” and so is about to get a lot of new academies. I wonder if Balls has considered the main reason for this is that Kent has more grammar schools than any other educational authority in the country.

The government has agreed that wealthy entrepreneurs can sponsor these academies without being named. This is to disguise the corruption involved in this sponsorship. In this way there will be no bad publicity when sponsors are given honours or government contracts in exchange for this money. Outside of Italy we have the most corrupt political system in Europe.