27^th June 2008

 Statement on Ed Balls' announcement that 638 schools should 'improve or close'

The announcement by Ed Balls that 638 schools must 'improve or close' with the implication that they are failing has shocked many involved in education. The threat to turn them into Academies or Trust schools rubs salt in the wound.

We believe that it is a dangerous knee-jerk reaction which will further damage education.

We have produced a statement which will be published in the Guardian Education letters next Tuesday.

We now want to get hundreds of names added to the statement.

We aim to release it to the press before Ed Balls' 50 day deadline is up for Local Authorities to respond to his proposals. That is the 4^th August but we want names in by 28^th July.

1.     Please circulate the letter to every councillor, governor, trade unionist, parent you possibly can, and return it to us.

2.     Why not send it to your local paper with additional local names?

The letter in petition format is at http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=41&func=fileinfo&id=90

The text of the letter is below:

Ed Balls’ announcement that 638 schools, 20% of England's secondary schools, should ‘improve or close’ is very damaging. It implies that these schools are failing. Yet Ofsted reports show many of the schools to be improving. Some have been described as outstanding. In most cases GCSE results are improving.

Perhaps most damningly this announcement appears to have no concern for the impact on the pupils, parents, teachers, governors, head teachers and support staff.

We are particularly disturbed at the arbitrary nature of the success criteria. Are schools with 29% A* to C failing more than those with 31%? We are also concerned at the proposed remedies. Closing schools and re-opening them as academies or trust schools is hailed as the solution. Yet 26 academies are included in his list of failing schools. What is he going to do with them?

This announcement was not based on careful consideration of the evidence of what works. Had it been, Ed Balls’ would have seen that other school improvement programmes – such as Excellence in Cities- have already proved to be successful. Naming and shaming schools does not improve them.

Regrettably, this ‘National Challenge’ policy seems to be more to do with knee-jerk political calculations. We, therefore, call on the government to withdraw the description of the 638 schools as failing, and to remove the threat to close or convert them into academies or trusts.

Initial Signatories

Ken Purchase MP, Alasdair Smith, National Secretary Anti Academies Alliance, Fiona Millar Education Journalist, Francis Beckett Education Journalist, Melian Mansfield, chair Campaign for State Education (CASE), Martin Dore, General Secretary Socialist Education Association (SEA), Christine Blower NUT General Secretary, Sally Hunt UCU General Secretary

latest signatories

David Taylor MP, Lynne Jones MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ian Gibson MP, Meg Maguire MP

Professor Ken Jones, Keele University

Matt Wrack FBU General Secretary,

Councillors: Ben Duncan, Brighton & Hove City Council; Romayne Phoenix, Lewisham Council; Michael Lavalette, Preston City Council; Ray Holmes, Bolsover District Council; Peter Kent-Baguley, Stoke-on-Trent City Council; Phillip Solloway, Barrow Borough Council; Dominic McCavish, Barrow Borough Council;

Margaret Tulloch, School Governor

add your name at  http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=41&func=fileinfo&id=90