Approval given for profits from ‘Free’ School

NOVANEWS

The Breckland Free School in Brandon, Suffolk, has awarded a £21 million contract to Swedish for-profit education company IES UK.

The decision to appoint a for profit provider to set up a ‘free’ school in Brandon, Suffolk, is a clear signpost of the direction of travel of Michael Gove’s ’supply side revolution’. Privatisation and deregulation, not system wide school improvement, appear to be the destination.
Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES) is a successful profit making company. Their turnover is 680 million SEK, roughly £60 million.

The Adam Smith Institute, which believes that schools should be run for profits, produced a report called ‘Profit Making Free Schools – unlocking the potential of England’s Proprietorial schools sector’ in which they look at the profits made by IES and the other major Swedish education company Kunskappskolan.

It reports that IES had a profit margin of 8.8% in 2009/10. This means that they made a profit of over £5 million.

Approval given for profits from ‘Free’ School

Daily Telegraph article – Profit needn’t be a dirty word when it comes to education

Free school £21m private contract plan

Nick Clegg versus the profit motive

Montgomery Primary school strikes against academy proposal

Teachers, support staff and parents picketed Montgomery Primary school in Birmingham on Tuesday morning against the proposal to turn their school into an academy.
60 people joined the picket line. NASUWT, NUT and GMB members were on strike and the school was closed.

The parents at the meeting took the opportunity to get organised. A leaflet has already been distributed at the school gates in several languages. Other initiatives include a ballot to be conducted at the gate as they did at Colley Lane primary, a lobby of the next governors meeting and a public meeting.

Montgomery Primary school strikes against academy proposal
Teachers protest against Sparkbrook school turning into academy
Solid strike against academies in Birmingham

 

Downhills Primary : Michael Gove accused of ‘undemocratic and aggressive’ treatment of school

The Labour MP David Lammy has accused the education secretary, Michael Gove, of an “undemocratic and aggressive” attempt to overhaul the management of the primary school he attended as a child.

Downhills primary schoolin Tottenham, north London, faces being converted to academy status by January under government plans to tackle struggling schools. The school would be taken out of the local authority’s hands and reopen under new management by September.

Michael Gove accused of ‘undemocratic and aggressive’ treatment of school
Downhills parents and staff are fighting back
Anti-academy Downhills Primary School campaigners could launch judicial review

OASIS – Academy chain accused of mismanaging budget

The second biggest academy provider stands accused of mismanaging the budget of one of its schools, leading to class cancellations and staff redundancies.Some 13 staff, or a third of the workforce, will lose their jobs at the MediaCity Oasis Academy in Salford.
Academy chain accused of mismanaging budget

OASIS MediaCity Academy on strike against Xmas sackings
Picket lines appeared outside Oasis Academy MediaCityUK again this week as teaching staff continue to oppose forced redundancies imposed by the `Christian’ school just before Christmas.

Anti Academies Alliance Annual General Meeting

Saturday 14th January, 1pm – 4pm
Chancellors Room, Hugh Parry Hall 19-26 Cartwright Gardens London WC1H 9EF
Introduction by : Melissa Benn, author of School Wars & Alasdair Smith, national secretary Anti Academies Alliance
There will be sessions on Forced academies, Labour and academies and ‘Free’ schools.

Click here for more details and to register

New Briefing – Why you should say no to ‘Free’ schools

Click here to download a PDF of the Briefing
Briefing: Why you should say no to ‘Free’ schools

Other news

Clear as mud: academies left in chaos over budgets

Michael Gove scraps limits on grammar school growth
School strike on the cards against academy proposal
Another private school wants to run a ‘free’ school

More news stories here http://www.delicious.com/antiacademies

Anti Academies Alliance Financial Appeal
The Anti Academies Alliance has launched a Financial Appeal to help build the opposition to Academies and ‘Free’ Schools.
Read our Appeal, and download the leaflet, here http://antiacademies.org.uk/financialappeal/

Having trouble keeping up with the news on Academies and Free Schools?
You can follow the Anti Academies Alliance on
Facebook –

 http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Anti-Academies-Alliance/178831804728?ref=ts

Twitter – http://twitter.com/antiacademies

Summary of Twitter news – http://feedity.com/rss.aspx/antiacademies-org-uk/UVFTW1JS

Delicious – http://www.delicious.com/antiacademies

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *