Councillors from all three political parties – Labour, Green and Conservative – have united to oppose plans to turn Moulsecoomb Primary School into an academy.
They voted as one this afternoon (Monday 17 June) after a passionate debate about the aftermath of an Ofsted report that labelled the school “inadequate”.
The result of their vote will be a ballot of parents and carers of children at the school, asking whether they are in favour of or opposed to the school becoming an academy.
The timescale and details have yet to be agreed but the result will be sent to the regional schools commissioner Dominic Herrington who they are urging to have a rethink.
Mr Herrington, who was recently promoted to national schools commissioner, issued an “academy order” which was dated before the publication of the Ofsted report.
The order means that the school is expected to become an academy, with a sponsor, rather than one that is maintained by the local authority – Brighton and Hove City Council.
But while the council has a duty to co-operate with the schools commissioner, councillors believe that balloting parents about the matter may help to reverse the decision.
At a meeting of the council’s Children, Young People and Skills Committee at Hove Town Hall, councillors were told that more than 2,150 parents had signed a Change.org petition against finding a sponsor to run the school.
Labour councillor Nick Childs, the new chair of the committee, said that he had read hundreds of Ofsted reports in his time and that Moulsecoomb’s did not read like an inadequate one.
He said that progress had already been made at key stage 1 under a new head teacher but that he had not even been in place for a year when key stage 2 pupils took their SATs (Standard Attainment Tests). The poor results influenced Ofsted’s “inadequate” verdict.
Councillor Childs said that forcing the school to become an academy was in effect “privatising the school”.
He said: “It’s a punitive act, it’s a questionable act and it’s an undemocratic act.
“There is no duty to consult parents and no right for the local authority to oppose it. It is undemocratic and we do not have the power to reverse it.”
He said that parents and residents would be unable to vote out those running the academy if they did a bad job – but he said: “If I didn’t feel I was doing a good job, I would want parents to be able to vote me out.”
Green councillor Elaine Hills reminded the committee how her party had opposed plans to turn Hove Park School into an academy.
She said: “I don’t think turning the school into an academy will improve it.
