Voice of a parent

Recent protests outside Springfield primary school, Birmingham

A parent gives insights into the recent situation at Springfield primary school, Birmingham

 

Dropping my son off to school at the start of the new academic year came with renewed anxiety after the summer holidays. Supply teachers, poor leadership, pupil behaviour problems and lack of special needs provision all contributed to this, along with the uncertainty of what further changes a new senior leadership team of seven staff would bring to our already troubled school, Springfield primary school in Birmingham.

In May 2018, teachers started to strike with the support of the National Education Union, against a proposed restructure which would replace the current two post senior leadership team with a top heavy SLT. It was during these strikes that teachers advised parents of the academy order that was in place at our school. Parents then joined the teachers on the picket line, campaigning against academisation.  During this campaign we found out that an academy order had been issued in 2016 following an Ofsted inspection where the school was rated Inadequate.

We, as parents and key stakeholders, had not been advised nor consulted with on this matter. We weren’t even informed in the two previous academic years by the Interim Executive Board (IEB) or local authority that we had this enforced order at our school. Springfield School has been in special measures since 2016. We have had different leadership teams each year. To our understanding, the LA was bringing in leadership teams and management consultants to help our school improve, not to ready it for academisation.

It seems that neither the IEB nor the LA wanted parents to know what was happening internally. Since the IEB took over, the governing body had been disbanded so there is no parental input in the decision-making process. No input and no communication to the parents. Little information has been shared. IEB Meeting minutes were nowhere to be found. During the academisation campaign, after pressure from parents, they were part-published on the website. Some information is still blacked out – marked confidential. No financial information is being shared other than that we are in 800k deficit.  Several months’ worth of IEB meeting minutes are still missing.

Poor communication seems to be a regular occurrence. Writing to our local council didn’t really yield a result. Despite getting over 1,200 signatures on an online and written petition, we still haven’t managed to get an adequate response from our local councillors and officials. After writing to Damian Hinds, [the Education Secretary] and our Regional Schools Commissioner Christine Quinn, we waited for some acknowledgement – none was forthcoming. The standard response from all agencies was that there is an academy order and it will be enforced.  Ofsted were equally unhelpful.

The chosen multi-academy trust, REAch2, have had ongoing input into what is happening at our school. REAch2 staff have been on our school site daily since December 2017, influencing what our children are taught – even though we are still an LA school. REAch2 handled the interview and selection procedure for the seven SLT vacancies at our LA school. REAch2 hired the SLT – who now are running our school.

Information is scarce, and although we are reassured all action being taken is in the best interest of our children, the current news and headlines around academies and large MATs are worrying.  The lack of concern by the authorities over the problems MATs bring with them is even more concerning. Why is there no dialogue with the parents, and why has our LA allowed REAch2 so much control and power over our school whilst it is still in the local authority’s control? No-one is willing to answer this and other questions.

So it is with reluctance and bated breath parents gather at the school gates, looking to each other in case there has been any further news. The only recent news is that we will now be getting a new school building and a refurbishment on the existing building funded by central government. This was part of the negotiations with REAch2. Bright Tribe [subject of last month’s Panorama documentary which raised concerns about school buildings] comes to mind and causes further anxiety.