DfE’s “try before you buy” academy trust experiences teacher strike at school it has been managing

The suspension of a popular outdoor education programme, a curriculum narrowing towards English and maths post-lockdown, controversial silent corridors for pupils and strike action yesterday (Thursday), as teachers protested against the school’s looming academisation.

If this is the government’s idea of a good advert for the merits of a “try before you buy” approach to schools potentially leaving the auspices of their local authorities to join a multi-academy trust, it seems a strange example to pick.

Sources at Peacehaven Heights primary in East Sussex were disbelieving last week after the Department for Education highlighted STEP Academy Trust as an example of the merits of non-academy schools having the chance to taste management under a MAT, before committing permanently.

Yet the school, which is not yet a part of STEP but has seen the trust exerting great influence there behind the scenes since a temporary headteacher was installed last September, recently saw staff publicising a joint letter in which they said that more than two thirds of them would leave if it academised.

As one staff source put it to me: “That try before you buy thing is ridiculous. Like we have a choice? We do not want this.”