Vardy Heads For Northumberland.
Northumberland Council plans to replace their three-tier educational system (infant - middle - secondary) with a two-tier one (Primary – Secondary) has created much controversy, with strong opinions on both sides. School has been set against school & one of the schemes architects has resigned. As if this chaos wasn’t bad enough, they now have the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (The Vardy Foundation) to contend with.
More on this issue can be found at Northumberland Education Action Group
Selected News, Articles & Letters
See BSgroup FURL - Northumberland for more details.
Councillors: Reflect on your academy decision (14 Dec 06) An open letter to all county councillors re proposal for an Academy School in Blyth
RESEARCH into academies on behalf of NASUWT, the largest union representing teachers and headteachers throughout the UK, has concluded that the case for them remains unproven.
There are deep concerns about the funding of academies and the value for money that they offer as well as about their impact on provision in neighbouring schools.
As well as this overarching concern, there are particular misgivings about the sponsor for the Blyth proposal, namely the Emmanuel Schools Foundation which is backed by the Vardy family and has Nigel McQuoid as director of schools.
On Thursday, November 30, BBC Radio 4's Today Programme was broadcast from the Royal Society, the 346-year-old independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth.
During the programme there were interviews with Professor Stephen Hawking CBE FRS, Professor Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS and Sir John Krebs FRS.
The first interview was with Lord Martin Rees, Master of Trinity College Cambridge and president of the Royal Society.
He was questioned about his first Anniversary Address to the Society, to be given later that day, and his concern that we risk sleep walking into a future shaped by extremists.
I would ask you to reflect on the far reaching significance of the decision that you will be making about the future of education in Blyth.
Should you wish to listen to the whole programme it is available both on the Radio 4 Today website and on the Royal Society website.
GEOFF HOLMES
NASUWT County Secretary
Northumberland
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Opposition to Blyth & Ashington Academies gathers pace Meeting - 6.30 pm, Thursday 29th June
The education bill and an academy school in Blyth (28 Feb 06) “What we need in Blyth is a school to reflect the concerns and needs of the people who live in the town. They're not fundamentalists. They're not obsessed with how we got here, buit with where their kids are going in life. They're not obsessed with right wing economics, but with the much more clear cut economics of educational opportunity leading to a stable and prosperous future.
What baffles me, and it's a genuione confusion, is why the left have allowed the academy programme to become the province of fundamentalists and the right wing. It's as if we're allowing them to buy a hegemony over our children's minds that their ideas couldn't obtain by force of argument. And they get this hegemony by promising £2M per school.”
Bosses ponder academy plans (20 Dec 04) Millionaire businessman Sir Peter Vardy is in talks to sponsor two controversial academy schools in the region.
Further extract – “Teachers and parents are deeply concerned about the influence any sponsors could have upon a new school. Coun Jim Wright, executive member for education, said: "We were very impressed by the schools and the pupils. < 1 >
"We believe Northumberland could benefit from this approach. If my colleagues are agreed, we would like to talk to the Vardy Foundation.
"We have to be pragmatic. We need new schools and we want the best outcomes for our children. < 2 >
We can't afford to turn down opportunities for the sake of political dogma." < 3 >
Comment Reply to Cllr Wright
More on Cllr Wright can be found here
Democracy warning to council over PLF project ''' (15 Sept 06) THE county council has been warned to pay attention to democracy as it moves to consult over changes to the education system in Blyth. '''
Members of Northumberland County Council's executive are expected to approve plans to move to the next stage of the consultation process for the Putting the Learner First (PLF) project in the town.
The council's preferred model will see the shift from a three-tier to a two-tier education system, but unions are angry at proposals to site a controversial academy run by the Emmanuel Schools Foundation in Blyth.
Kenny Bell, deputy convenor of northern Unison, said he was concerned that the information released by the council would be one-sided.
"Past experience on academies shows that the debate is normally very one-sided and the public are never given all the facts they need to make a balanced decision," he said.
"If members of the public and parents in Blyth understand the full context behind these plans then I believe they will reject the proposals.
"The case for an academy in Blyth is probably one of the weakest I have ever seen.
"There is no material basis to justify an academy.
"One has to assume that the proposals are ideologically driven, which is incredible coming from a Labour-controlled council.
"It goes to the very heart of democracy in Northumberland. County councillors, Blyth Valley councillors and Blyth Community College are all opposed to an academy."
If the executive agrees to move to the next stage the consultation process will run until December 15.
Unison members will be petitioning against the plans at the Market Square in Blyth on Saturday from 11am.