Waltham Forest: Parents and staff unite against school sell-off


Nancy Taaffe, Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union coordinator

Waltham Forest, in north east London, could have 16 ‘academy’ schools, by the end of the year. Academies take away money from the remaining local authority schools, are outside local authority accountability, and are often run by groups linked to big business.

At the end of the summer term a group of parents got together at Chapel End school to fight the academy proposals.

A good meeting was held, but the decision was made before an opposition group had got up and running.

However, there is a movement brewing to generalise the opposition. The next school potentially to go is Connaught, but a very successful strike ballot has taken place there to stop ‘academisation’.

Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union (WFACU) is calling on all campaigners to support this strike which is likely to be on 16 October.

A public meeting on 4 October raised the linking up of Connaught parents and staff with those at the next school to potentially fall, George Mitchell.

If coordinated action of these two schools took place it would act as a barrier to the academy juggernaut and would alert teachers, pupils and parents across the borough to the need to unify against the school sell-off.

WFACU will be supporting the mass lobby of Waltham Forest council on 18 October and calls for a borough-wide parents ballot.

We are also raising with parents, teachers and campaigners the need to stand Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates in opposition to academies and all cuts and privatisation.