Campaigners are celebrating after two Hove schools decided scrapped their plan to join an academy trust.
West Hove Infant School and Hove Junior School, which make up the Hove Learning Federation, reached the decision after a four-week consultation on a proposal to join the Aurora Academies Trust.
The two schools, between them, have 1,117 pupils and operate from three sites – in School Road, Portland Road and Holland Road.
Parents and carers held public meetings, handed out leaflets and created a website with a petition and details on how to oppose the plans.
Yesterday (Thursday 9 January), the federation issued a statement saying that it had decided not to continue with the process of joining Aurora after feedback from Brighton and Hove City Council, parents and families.
The Hove Learning Federation parent working group, the umbrella organisation behind the campaign against joining the academy trust, said: “We are delighted with Hove Learning Federation’s decision not to move ahead with academisation at this time.
“We have the utmost respect for the senior leadership team and their success in running the most impressive and inclusive schools in the city.
“The recent Ofsted outstanding recognition is a credit to them and their hard work.
“Any parent opposition to the academy proposal has come from a place of passion towards West Hove Infant and Hove Junior schools and the wonderful communities they harness.
“And we look forward to seeing the local authority deliver on their support – ensuring the schools within the federation continue to thrive and be an inspiration to other schools within the city.”
The infant school was rated outstanding by Ofsted last month after an inspection in November but has faced financial challenges.
Brighton and Hove City Council offered the school £40,000 towards the cost of the delay in transferring classes from West Hove Infant School’s Connaught Road site to Holland Road.
The extra money was part of a support package offered to the school which the Labour council leader Bella Sankey announced to parents at a public meeting last month.
She said that the infant school’s £500,000 budget deficit was not just down to moving its classes out of Connaught Road.
Councillor Sankey, who represents Wish ward, where two of the school’s three sites are located, said at the time that the council was caught by surprise at the level of concerns expressed by Hove Learning Federation.
Parents involved in the campaign have shared their delight at the change of heart.
One mother, Jessica Weir, who said in November that she had not heard a single parent speak in favour of the move, said that she was thrilled at the result.
She said: “Given the strength of community feeling on this issue, the renewed commitment from the local authority to the federation and the changing national landscape around academies, the governing board has absolutely made the right decision.
“We look forward to seeing both the school and the local authority work more closely together in the coming the months, and know that parents will continue to remain passionate and engaged to ensure the best outcomes for Hove Learning Federation.”
This week, MPs debated a draft law – the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – which some have said could abolish academies in all but name.
The bill looks likely to end the freedoms that academies and multi-academy trusts currently have over the curriculum, recruitment and teachers’ pay and conditions. It could also limit increases in pupil numbers.
Another mother, Lucy Mott, who has a child at the infant school, had organised leafleting and peaceful protest – and was also delighted by the decision.
She said: “This would absolutely have been the wrong road to go down, handing over control of an excellent set of local schools to an outside party.
“The local authority now has an opportunity to rebuild relations and support the school to continue to go from strength to strength.
“In a world where people feel increasingly disconnected from their community, it has been heartwarming to come together with other parents to make a strong case for our school to remain a local authority school at the heart of our local community – and to be heard.”
Another parent Viv Volgas said: Putting pupils at the centre of the discussion, Aurora’s track record of pupil attendance and outcomes was clearly no match for the current success of the Hove Federation schools.
“We hope that the trustees of Aurora Academy and their corporate sponsor Pansophic who appoint them, will instead hand the promised pot of money back to their own schools where it belongs so that their schools can match the success of our Brighton and Hove family of schools.”
Brighton and Hove Unison rep Matt Webb said: “The last couple of months has been a stressful period of uncertainty for our members at the Hove schools.
“I know our members will be relieved to be able to put this episode behind them and concentrate on doing what they do best – which is delivering outstanding educational provision to the children of West Hove.”
The National Education union (NEU) said: “Academy schools are not democratically accountable to local people, are poor value for public money, with excessive executive pay being siphoned from frontline education spending, and have been shown to have little or no impact on pupil attainment and progress.”
NEU senior regional officer Nick Childs said: “The NEU are delighted that the governing body of the Hove Learning Federation have listened to the local community and decided against transferring West Hove Infant School and Hove Junior School to an academy trust.
“These schools are already successful under local authority control.
“It is our view that the best interests of pupils and staff lie in the schools remaining part of the Brighton and Hove local authority family of schools, with the robust and effective support and collaboration this entails as well as the democratic accountability to the local community.”
Hove Learning Federation was contacted for comment about response to its consultation.
