Strike threat over academy plan

Ministers expect to exceed their academies target

Teachers at a school in Derby are threatening to take strike action over plans to turn it into an academy.

Members of the NASUWT teachers' union are planning to stage a protest at the Sinfin Community School on 21 May.

The union is against academies, known as "independent state schools", which often have private sponsors and set their own pay and conditions for staff.

Ministers plan to have 200 academies open or in the pipeline by 2010, seeing them as a key way of improving schools.

They aim ultimately to have 400 of the schools in England.

The creation of academies is a key plank of the government's drive to improve struggling schools, particularly in challenging inner city areas.

Fragments

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “The NASUWT is categorically opposed to the government's academy programme.

"Too many schools are now being identified to be turned into academies as a first, rather than last resort simply to meet the government's target of 400 academies.

“Establishing an academy school means handing over previously public assets to private sponsors, removing the school from the democratic accountability all state schools should have. This fragments and breaks up the state education system.

“Of major concern to the NASUWT is the threat to pay and conditions of service of teachers and other staff who will be employed in the academy. The NASUWT is committed to maintaining a national framework of pay and conditions of service for all teachers in state funded schools.”

The union is sending a delegation of local and national members to Derby Council next week but say strike action is likely if the council does not change its plans.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) said: "The local authority have indicated that they support the move to academy status for Sinfin School, with Derby College as an eminently suitable local sponsor.

"The aim is to improve educational standards and we support the local authority in this aim."

There are currently 83 academies open in 49 local authorities, with a further 50 due to open in each of the next 3 years.

The government expects to exceed the target of 200 academies either open or in the pipeline by 2010.