Liverpool school strikes over academy plans

Passionately endorsing the community comprehensive school, teachers on the picket line argued that students at Shorefields Technology College would not benefit from the change.

Banner waving parents, students and teachers joined the crowds of over 60 people marching through Dingle to St Cleopas Church.

Julie Lyon-Taylor, head of Liverpool's NUT and a teacher at the school, helped organise the day with the NASUWT union. She said: “The record of academies is not good, the record of academies is one of very high exclusion rates. This school is a fantastic school, it takes children that other schools feel they can't handle and it integrates those children into our society”.

As an academy the school, which is rated outstanding by Ofsted in some areas, would be funded by central government. The local authority would no longer have a say in how the school is run, and sponsors the University of Chester would be involved in decision-making. Governors would be given freedom to change the curriculum, budget and admission procedures.

Deputy head teacher Ian Young said: “We're going to be able to access a substantial amount of funding that will allow us to improve the provision we provide our students with”.

Local councillor and parent John Coyne recently resigned from his post of governor at the school because the other governors refused to guarantee the same pay for all staff after the changeover.

He said: “I would live with an academy here, reluctantly, if it could be shown that it was in my child's best interest. But I don't believe it is”.

Mr Young said parents and teachers are wrong to be concerned. He said: “We have spoken to our partners at the University of Chester and been assured that terms and conditions will stay the same”.

Sarah Jennings, who has an 11-year-old daughter at Shorefields, was worried that the school would not be as democratic and accountable. She said: “I want to support what's happening today to make sure parents, students and teachers still have an element of say in how the school is run”.

The Academies Act in 2010 made it easier for schools to convert to academy status since they only need to get the head and governors on board. Ms Lyon-Taylor said the aim of the day was to secure: “a proper consultation process, so that parents are listened to, parents are balloted, and people who work in the school are balloted”.

Wearing a 'Save Our Schools' t-shirt, sixth-form student Carla Langley said: “Our area's a very multicultural community, being an academy makes it privatised and they won't want the best for the kids”.

Nineteen students were the excluded for the day because they refused to return to lessons on May 10th. They were the last remaining in a playground standoff which involved 150 pupils from the school.