'Education could suffer' if city school is forced to become an academy, Preston leader warns
The leader of Preston City Council says he believes plans to turn one of the city’s primary schools into an academy will be damaging for pupils and staff alike.
Matthew Brown made the comments after it emerged Eldon Primary School, in Plungington, was on the brink of being taken away from the control of Lancashire County Council and handed over to the Blackburn-based Star Academies trust.
The move follows the downgrading of the facility from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ after an Ofsted inspection earlier this year - a rating which means it must be turned into an academy under government rules.
The now former chair of governors at the school sent a letter to parents on Tuesday telling them that the process was now well under way, with Star Academies set to be confirmed next week as the trust to take over the Eldon Street primary.
Cllr Brown - who is also a Plungington ward councillor - is unconvinced that the forced conversion is the right way forward.
“I personally believe moves to academisation will not be positive for the school and Plungington in the long term - with evidence education, admissions and staff terms and conditions often suffer,” he said.
The Local Government Association last year highlighted statistics showing 93 percent of council-run or ‘maintained’ schools are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, compared to just 87 percent of academies.
However, the Confederation of School Trusts, an organisation representing the academy sector, noted that the bare statistic failed to recognise the fact that the automatic academisation of schools deemed to be failing meant that “the trust sector has taken on most of the schools that were long term challenges”.
The previous governing body at Eldon Primary was replaced on Tuesday with a new interim executive board installed by Lancashire County Council.
In the letter in which he also imparted that news to parents, outgoing chair Abu Patel launched a scathing attack on county council education bosses, claiming County Hall was a place of “malign forces” which had been ranged against the school. He also blasted the National Education Union (NEU) for allegedly “mis-representing the reality” experienced by Eldon staff.
Cllr Brown called for calm discussion to help find a resolution to the increasingly vitriolic situation.
"We need to get all stakeholders around the table to try and resolve differences, find common ground and ensure we secure a decent future for children, parents and staff at Eldon Primary,” he told the Lancashire Post.
“We need to deepen dialogue and avoid a blame culture.”
Although critical of the leadership at Eldon Primary over the high turnover of staff at the school in recent years - which was one of the main issues highlighted in the recent Ofsted report - the NEU also opposes academisation in principle, whether forced or voluntary.