Government chose academy which is on its ninth headteacher in six years to help Boris Johnson launch schools white paper

Pupils who helped the Prime Minister launch the schools white paper yesterday were from an academy, presided over by a Conservative former minister and donor, which is currently on its ninth headteacher in six years.

Children from Millbank Academy, in Pimlico, central London, were invited to Downing Street, where Boris Johnson promoted the new document with a short piece to camera which was published via his official twitter account.

The children seemed to be enjoying themselves, as they smiled from outside and then had fun and waved from inside Number 10. It looked an amazing day out for them. However, Millbank, which has been much-featured on this website, may seem a strange choice of school, in relation to a white paper which is promoting the alleged benefits of multi-academy trust status.

Millbank appears to receive a great deal of attention from the government. Last March, it featured in three separate national news articles, in the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, about how schools could recover with the wide return to school following lockdown at that time.

Also last March, the school received a visit from the academies minister at the time, Baroness Berridge, again marking the return of England’s 22,000 schools to in-person learning for all pupils.