Future’s Pimlico Academy agrees that its management will receive local authority support next year, as strike is called off

England’s largest education union called off strike action at a flagship academy after its leadership agreed to a 48-point statement which appears to pave the way for a host of changes at the beleaguered secondary, which is controlled by a former education minister and his wife.

The National Education Union’s agreement with Pimlico Academy, the central London school which lost its principal last month following student, staff and parent protests, includes a pledge that its leadership team is to be helped by a local authority support service next academic year.

In addition, its management have flagged up the fact that Lord Nash, the Conservative peer and former academies minister who chairs the trust running Pimlico, had “apologised in person” to staff about the way the school had been managed.

The developments could be seen as a humiliation for Future Academies, after a turbulent year in which its often confrontational former principal resigned and with media scrutiny on the school intense, though how matters develop in 2021-22 will be interesting to watch.

The background