Parent writes of community not knowing for more than two years about official plans to turn her children’s school into an academy

Protests outside Springfield primary school this year

A parent has told how families with children at her sons’ school first learned of plans to turn it into an academy more than two years after the Department for Education had begun the process.

Saima Kanwal, who has had two sons attending Springfield primary school in Birmingham and whose daughter also once attended its nursery school, has written about her experience for Education Uncovered.

Kanwal writes: “In May 2018, teachers started to strike with the support of the National Education Union, against a proposed restructure which would replace the current two-post senior leadership team with [what it was argued was] a top-heavy senior leadership team.

“It was during these strikes that teachers advised parents of the academy order that was in place at our school.”