Interim Executive Board puts on hold hostile academisation of primary school, again, in face of parental “concerns”

UPDATE: After this article was published, STEP responded to my request for comment.

The Peacehaven Heights campaign. Pic: NEU

The protracted forced academisation of a primary school in East Sussex has been postponed for another four months in the face of a vigorous campaign from staff and parents, Education Uncovered has learned.

Consultation on the academy conversion of Peacehaven Heights primary has been put on hold until the autumn term, East Sussex County Council told this website, “in response to concerns from some parents”.

The delay is the second time this year that the tortuous hostile bid to academise the school, which is being driven by a local authority-appointed Interim Executive Board, has been paused after the IEB announced in January a delay until the spring because of the pandemic.

Peacehaven Heights is one of the highest-profile anti-academisation campaigns around at the moment, with the IEB’s decision to delay it again coming after the National Education Union put out a press release this week featuring quotes from disgruntled parents and an open letter in which the school’s staff described the two-year saga as “unsettling and distracting” and bad for both their and their pupils’ mental health.

The NEU warned this week that members at the school would go on strike if consultation on academisation had begun, as expected, in the first week of May.

Peacehaven Heights is currently managed by an interim headteacher from STEP Academy Trust, with the 18-school chain said already to be heavily influential behind the scenes, but with concerns having been voiced to this website over policies the trust has introduced.  

The background

Back in 2019, the school’s previous governing body thought it had successfully fought off pressure from the local authority to academise, after looking into the idea but rejecting it, with the financial implications of joining a trust among the reasons.

However, East Sussex then reacted by replacing the governing body with an Interim Executive Board. The IEB appeared to be lining up an academy “sponsor” for Peacehaven, and faced community fury after filling in the school’s swimming pool last summer without consultation.

The school, which had been rated “good” by Ofsted before the IEB had been introduced but then slipped to “requires improvement”, had been led by a popular interim headteacher, Gemma Roxburgh as of last year.

But community campaigners became concerned that the IEB had not worked hard enough either to secure her long-term services at the school, or, failing that, to replace her with another permanent head, instead seeking an interim head from STEP to work alongside her last autumn. Roxburgh then left at the end of last year.

Penny Gaunt, the IEB’s chair, wrote to parents in January saying that the unelected board would be consulting the community on academy status for Peacehaven Heights and another local school, Telscombe Cliffs, “as soon as we are in a position to do so”. The plan was to have started consultation on academisation in the first week of May.

Latest developments

In a press release issued on Wednesday, the NEU highlighted an open letter which it said was from the “united group of staff” at Peacehaven Heights and said members were due to go on strike at the school on Wednesday, May 5^th.

The letter was read out by staff members during an at-screen public meeting about the school’s situation, held on Tuesday this week and attended by parents, staff and local politicians.

The letter mentioned that a survey eight months ago* had reported that 69 per cent of staff said they would be “likely or very likely to leave if our school was converted into an academy”. It called on the local authority to advertise for a permanent headteacher and to appoint a “shadow” (locally accountable) governing body, which it said it had been seeking since September 2019.

In the open letter, the staff say:

“As a united group of staff, we wanted to write a letter to you all to explain how we feel.

“What we, as members of staff, really want is to be able to wholly focus on the children in our care, and not the politics that continue to surround our school. We have a right to teach our children and the children have a right to learn in a stable and supportive learning environment, not one that constantly shifts from one leadership team to another.

“This is both unsettling and destructive and it is not beneficial for their academic development nor their (or our) mental health and wellbeing.

“We, the dedicated staff, who love the school we work in, have worked during a global pandemic, due to Covid-19, through three lockdowns, undergoing huge personal and work pressures in the last 12 months.

“Many of our members have worked in academies and private schools before an in a staff survey 69%...said they would be likely or very likely to leave if our school was to convert into an academy.

“Having put so much time, energy and passion into our school, this potentially high staff turnover is the last thing we want to happen, and the last thing our children need.”

Three parents were also quoted in the press release raising serious concerns. One, Kelly Wilson, said: “We need to support the hard-working staff and bring the unique community feel back to the school which can only be achieved with a stable head and local governors who have the best interests of the children at heart.”

Recent changes at the school

Community sources have highlighted recent changes at the school, which now seems effectively to be run by STEP, though officially still under the auspices of the local authority.

As mentioned, unhappiness was already running high after the IEB decided to fill in the school’s swimming pool last summer, citing its cost, though without consultation, for the handling of which the IEB’s then-chair later apologised.

But staff are now highlighting the current suspension of Peacehaven Heights’ award-winning “Beach School” programme. Standing for “Being Explorers and Adventurers Close to Home,” this has been outdoor learning provision embracing, as the school’s website puts it, “nature and habitat exploration,” “building dens”, “seasonal celebrations” and “gardening for wildlife and produce”.

The staff’s letter said that Beach School had been suspended, after children returned to Peacehaven Heights last month, “due to the need to introduce a stringent catch-up” programme.

Yet schools across the country had seen the need to prioritise mental health, rather than academics, given the emotional pressures on many children during the pandemic.

A source close to the school said a much greater focus on English and maths had been introduced under STEP, which has been influential at Peacehaven Heights since last September.

There was no guarantee that Beach School would return for the summer, said the staff letter.

Responses

However, just as happened as this website revealed the first postponement of academisation earlier this year, the local authority has now told me that the move has been put on hold again.

I had asked East Sussex why it was putting through the community through this upheaval, especially during the pandemic.

A spokesperson responded: “Improving outcomes for children at Peacehaven Heights and securing greater stability for the school are paramount to the IEB, who decided in October 2020 that the best way to bring about the rapid improvement needed was to pursue an academy solution.

“The decision to consult on academy conversion is, in this instance, made by the IEB which has confirmed that, in response to concerns from some parents, the board will not hold a consultation until the autumn term when all the current Covid-19 lockdown requirements are removed so that everyone is reassured it is a meaningful consultation.”

The local authority added that the school’s interim headteacher, Abby Kilgarriff, “will remain in post until Easter 2022”.

I also asked STEP about the detailed concerns about recent goings-on at the school, as described above, and why it was involved with the current situation at Peacehaven Heights which this community seemed not to want. (See response below.)

I’m not yet clear where this development leaves the other school involved in the academisation plans, Telscombe Cliffs, which has not been the focus of such a high-profile campaign.

The trust said: “STEP was set up to improve the life chances of all children, where it has the capacity to do so. Since 2011, STEP has successfully supported a number of schools in both London and East Sussex…STEP works with two local schools, Breakwater (formerly Meeching Valley) and High Cliff Academies in Newhaven [East Sussex]. Both of which had troubled histories and have recently been graded as good and outstanding by Ofsted.