An open letter to the governors of St Mary’s and St Saviour’s schools

Our Community, Our Schools is taking the step of publishing an open letter to you for two reasons. 

Firstly, we have been contacted by a number of concerned parents from St Mary’s school asking for our advice on the ramifications of Academy Conversion. We have now published this advice here.
 

Secondly, we are publishing this advice because we believe that the proposal to convert these schools to being part of a Multi-Academy Trust is one that affects all of us in Waltham Forest.

 

As you are well aware, the issue of the freedoms of Free Schools and Academy schools is very rarely out of the news at the moment. Their academic performance is being questioned, academy chains are coming under tremendous fire and academy and free school governing bodies are being scrutinised for mismanagement, high senior staff salaries and allegations of cronyism.

 

Our research leads us to believe that one of the most important reasons for this is the structural weaknesses of both Academies and Free Schools - legally the same thing.

 

If St Mary’s and St Saviour’s schools do decide to become academies we believe they will be taking a major gamble and the effects of failure will be felt not only by the school’s children, but by all the whole community and all our schools.

 

For these reasons, at the very least, we believe it is absolutely vital that the school governors consult widely and meaningfully with the whole range of stakeholders in the community and to reflect in an open transparent way on the responses they receive.

 

Please feel free to contact us if you want more information.

Our Community, Our Schools

Download our briefing here.