It seems a little worrying when the chair of Hove Park School says it has to register an interest in becoming an academy in order to allow greater access “to fully investigate the pros and cons” of academisation (The Argus, April 2).
Surely everybody else already knows that becoming an academy completely removes a school from democratic local authority control, gives unprecedented, almost dictatorial control to the head and governing body (which is also skewed to the detriment of local representation by academisation) so that they can employ unqualified staff, make up their own pay and conditions of service and extend school hours to the detriment of the work/life balance of both staff and students.
And I’m not aware of an official mechanism whereby schools can revert back to becoming part of the community that paid for and nurtured their development in the past.
I’m not sure what else there is for the governing body to know, really, although I am sure the Government will, as usual, dress up their drive to privatise our public services with their usual appeal to the short-term attractions of selfishness, power and greed.
Robb Johnson, Payne Avenue, Hove
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