Tories snub Strood Academy concerns

Medway Tories have failed to listen or adequately address the concerns of teachers, pupils and parents in Strood. The proposed Strood Academy on the current Chapter School site will see a fundamental change in education in Strood, with a building budget of approximately £25 million. However, only a tiny number of tory cabinet members bothered to turn up to listen to the concerns of Strood parents and suggestions by local campaign groups and petitioners were airbrushed and ignored.

Strood Academy: Were you consulted?

The Labour Academy programme was introduced to tackle slipping standards and poor attainment by rebuilding and redeveloping schools to improve the life chances of young people. Local councils were given a responsibility by central government, to adequately consult and address local concerns on proposed Academies, by timetabling meetings, and addressing concerns in a fair and transparent manner.

There is significant evidence that the consultation established by the Medway tory group, to discuss the future of Strood schools did not address parent concerns and did not consider local objections in a fair and open manner. Indeed, a process mired by tory ineptitude and poor management.

The Consultation

The "Public consultation on the future of secondary education in Strood" was made public in October 2007, and sort to address the opinions of local residents on the future of education in Strood. However, the major problem with the consultation was that it only gave parents a small and limited number of bullet-point options to consider, and therefore skewed the potential outcome. The consultation document also actively dismissed any other opinion by stating that other options were unworkable or didn’t add up.

What, therefore, happened to consultation and consideration of other options, or additional ideas and comment, or incidently the idea of 'consulting' itself?

The Public Meetings

Further to the 'consultation' of local residents on the potential £25 million project, people were invited to attend open public meetings. However, it became clear, that though significant amount of expenditure was at stake, tory cabinet members were too busy to attend. In a repeat, of the Chatham two-way fiasco, key decision makers simply vanished! Indeed, such a tiny number of Tory cabinet members bothered to attend meetings, and actually listen to concerned individuals, that people perhaps thought a clash of diary with the local golf course had infringed!

The public meetings were however, well attended despite notable absences. Many residents expressed reasonable concern that the process had not been given appropriate time and consideration, and other options were simply being pre-judged as non-viable! Many passionate residents and pupils came prepared with many alternate suggestions, and there was a clear sense that the council would act in accordance with fair play and that common sense would prevail.

Many local people also felt that the merger of the schools was nothing to do with the future of secondary education in Strood. Rather all about the financial black hole dug by the Tories and the sale of one school to generate a large sum of money.

Where were the tory cabinet, and why did they not attend public meetings on a £25 million project that would fundamentally restructure education in Strood?

SOCK March and Petition

The lack of tory interest in concerns of people in Strood angered and annoyed all those that attended, but specifically the current and past parents and pupils of Chapter School. A school built on proud traditions wanted to be heard fairly. The school organised the independent SOCK campaign to fight for Chapter School to be heard. Parents and pupils marched on the Civic Centre in Strood and received regional print and media coverage. An online petition was established which received 10,000 signatories, and parents and pupils emailed local councillors to push for representation.

Where was the response to the march and petition, why did it take a pupil march on the council offices for tories to take notice?

The 'Airbrushed' Council Report

Further to the above, the Tories acted quickly and a report was presented in January 2008, after a rapid period of 'consultation' for a £25 million capital project. The report itself was extremely concise, with one Strood teacher stating that

"The report decides the future of secondary schools in 11 pages. There were 490 replies to the so-called consultation document. There were well over 10,000 signatures of the petition plus an online petition with thousands of additional comments. These are not captured in the papers to committee. Where is the detail? Why not let members see the comments and the alternative proposal details?

The report itself contained no detailed, costed, or fully appraised assessment of the £25 million expenditure. There was a veiled attempt at creating any form of a business plan but there were no firm timetables. In the private sector, the report, which recommended the expenditure of millions of public taxes would have been considered so poor, it would never have made it passed the photocopier, let alone a body of decision-makers. Indeed, the level of analysis in the report was so derisory, it was a matter of pity on the fact that intelligent people, could make a salient judgement of such magnitude, without a shread of assessed supporting evidence.

The Ministers Intervention

On Friday 15th February, local councillors were called to an urgent meeting by the government to discuss the proposals for an Academy in Strood. The Leader of Medway Council met with Lord Adonis, the Government minister with responsibility for Academies and the Labour MP for Medway, Bob Marshall-Andrews, also attended to speak on the concerns of the Chapter and Temple school communities.

Lord Adonis with Bob Marshall-Andrews MP were able to resolve that the best interests of young people in Strood would be served not by the tory rushed approach but a phased approach.

Lord Adonis agreed that the two schools should undergo a phased integration over the next four years, so allowing for an orderly transition of both schools to fully accomodate the cultures of both.

Lord Adonis made clear the paramount importantance of the council to listen to the concerns of parents, children and staff at the two schools and the request for a gradual transition. He recommended that though both schools have excellent teachers, it remains in the interest of all pupils for an orderly and phased transition, to mitigate any major disruption to continued learning and development.

Future for Strood Schools

The council’s ruling Tory group refused to support the Minister and as a further snub belittled his letter to mere advice to the council, which would therefore not allow its content to effect the overall decision.

Why the Tories would not accept a phased and orderly transition, when everyone else from the parents to the Government could see its merits shows that the ruling tories are out of touch with all forms of mediation. The tory response to the whole process, from the initial denials that any school reviews were taking place, to the Cabinet report, to snubbing Ministers, parents and pupils continues to cause a great deal of anguish, which could have been avoided.

The refusal of the Conservative group to support the request from parents, children and staff shows a lack of faith by the council and sadly it will damage confidence in the council’s ability to run schools in Strood.

Supporting Material

For coverage in the local Media, please read the article from Medway Messenger

For the Medway Labour response to the actions of Medway tories, please read the Strood Academy Press Release

For more information on the independently-run Support Our Chapter Kids Campaign, please see the Support Our Chapter Kids blog

For more information on Chapter School, please see the Chapter School Website