Man in the spotlight: Dr Matthew Laban

The resignation of Mark Allchorn, headteacher of the forced academy Barclay School in Stevenage, was provoking a lot of controversy overnight, with parents expressing concern and in some cases fury that he was announced as leaving just a month after its takeover by Future Academies.

This case seems particularly sad, and noteworthy as an exemplar of – to its many local critics – problems with the system of Whitehall-imposed school projects on communities who may not want them.

In January, I attended a packed two-hour community meeting at which support for Allchorn and his turnaround efforts at the school since arriving after its “inadequate” Ofsted report in 2016 – later endorsed by inspectors - rang out loudly, clearly and passionately. To put it mildly, the meeting overwhelmingly backed stability, not change.

This seemed to be irrelevant to the government, however, which pressed on and academised the school under Future, which is sponsored by the former academies minister Lord Nash, at the start of last month.  

Last night, the local Labour county councillor, Joshua Bennett Lovell, issued a press release stating that he was organising a public demonstration outside the school gates this morning, and even calling for a public inquiry into the school’s academisation.