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TEACHERS' UNION ANGER AS LAST COUNCIL SCHOOL IS TURNED INTO A NEW ACADEMY

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5 September 2008

Southwark now has no schools left under direct council control

By John Prendergast
johnp@southwarknews.org

A TEACHERS’ union has said it will battle to keep all new schools built in the borough under council management, as Southwark this week becomes the first local authority in the UK to have no total control over its schools.

Geoffrey Chaucer Technology College passed to ARK Schools last Monday, and will be renamed the Globe Academy, meaning it will now be independent from local authority control.

The step means the borough has a mixture of independent academies and faith schools, the latter being controlled by churches or other religious bodies, but working with local authorities in order to teach the national curriculum.

The Southwark branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has reacted with outrage to the news, with Joint Secretary Michael Davern claiming the council is failing in its elected duties.

He said: "We voted the council in to run the schools but they have passed on this responsibility to business owners such as Harris or ARK. I believe that it is a democratically elected council's job to run our schools."

The union has now commenced a campaign to ensure that two new secondary schools to be built in the borough, one at Rotherhithe and one in Walworth, will be put under local authority control.

Mr Davern added: "From midnight last Monday the council will have no duty of care towards children in the borough in terms of education, as they have handed that over to academies and the churches. They will have no say in the running of these schools.

“In the medium term we want there to be community schools so parents living in the borough will have the choice."

Cllr Lisa Rajan, Southwark Council's executive member for children's services and education, said: "Southwark has been very pleased with its academy programme and has very good relationships with both the sponsors and the head teachers of each of its academies.”

She continued: "We should also remember that there are five church schools and two foundation schools and we feel that parents in the borough have got some of the best schools in London to choose from and as Geoffrey Chaucer develops into the Globe Academy this will only serve to increase the quality of that choice."

SCHOOL	OLD NAME	SPONSOR
Bacon's College	Bacon's School	Southwark Diocesan Board of Education and the  Philip and Pauline Harris Charitable Trust
Globe Academy & Primary School	Geoffrey Chaucer	Technical College/Joseph Lancaster ARK
Harris Academy at Peckham	Warwick Park	Harris
Harris Academy Bermondsey	Alwyn School for Girls	Harris
Harris Boys' Academy East Dulwich	Waverley Girls Lower	Harris
Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich	Waverley Girls Upper	Harris
St Michael's and All Angels Academy	Archbishop Michael Ramsey	Southwark Diocesan Board Of Education, Toc H and Sir John Cass's Foundation
The City of London Academy	New School	Corporation of London
Walworth Academy	Walworth Upper School	ARK

* Southwark has five other faith schools and two foundation schools.

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