More school unions join Lewisham anti-academies strike

Roger Shrives

On 5 March, members of Lewisham National Union of Teachers in four schools will be on strike again, this time with the welcome addition of NASUWT and GMB union members in the schools.

The action started well on 25 February when the Stop Academies in Lewisham (SAiL) campaign organised over 70 teachers, school students and parents in an excellent meeting.

SAiL is fighting the plans of three Prendergast Federation schools (Hilly Fields, Ladywell Fields and the Vale) to force them out of the control of Lewisham’s local council and into academies. Workers at Sedgehill school, also threatened, will also strike on 5 March.

Prendergast governors ignored the Lewisham NUT-led strike on 12 February and applied for an academy order.

Inspired

Inspired by an excellent report on how Hove Park school in Brighton had beaten academy plans, the meeting discussed how to win in Lewisham.

The south London borough’s NUT secretary (and TUSC candidate in Lewisham West and Penge) Martin Powell-Davies said that academisation threatened the pay and conditions of teachers and other staff.

Academies do not give children a better education; they can systematically exclude students from poorer backgrounds.

Neither do they give financial help to schools. Nearly half of academy trusts have paid millions of public money towards the private businesses of directors, trustees and relatives, as the National Audit Office reported last year.

Teachers spoke of their fury at the academy lovers’ decision while students talked about their condescending treatment by the school tops. Dozens of teachers, students and parents volunteered to help spread the message that these academy plans can be beaten.