Associate Secretary of ures. The reason for this closure soon became clear when the Learning Trust announced that another academy would be built on the site sponsored by the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS).
Now Homerton Boys Secondary School is also due to close and an academy put in its place. We managed to overturn the decision to close the school at a meeting of the Schools Organisation Committee. However, when this decision was referred to the schools' adjudicator, an appointee of the DES, he agreed that the closure should go ahead.
These closures are causing massive disruption and many pupils are now educated outside of the borough.
There is also racism involved as the vast majority of pupils at Kingsland, Laburnum and Homerton are black. There has been little attempt to find suitable places for the pupils. At Homerton where the school was criticized for poor examinanon resulls, pupils were sent to schools with similar if not worst results. Pupils are having to travel to a long way to unfamiliar schools where a majority of pupils were from a different ethnic group. This has made it extremely difficult for pupils to settle - if they are lucky enough to nave a place. SR: What are New Labour's plans for education in Hackney and your own school in particular? LEARNING Learning
TRUSTI!!
Cen Any further attempts to sell off the school - an academy sponsor would pay a maximum £2 million, but the site is estimated to be worth £90 million - will be met with plenty of creative KF: New Labour has plans for many more academies in Hackney. At present we have one academy open -Mossbourne. The one sponsored by the UBS bank - the Bridge Academy - is due to open in 2007 just a few streets from the school where I teach, Haggerston Girls
After this plan was announced two vears some of our governors started plotting to set up an academy behind the backs of teacher governors. When staff found out they were extremely angry, partly because of the lack of discussion and transparency, but mainly because we all know that academies
• Loss of national pay and conditions for staff
• Restrictions on the curriculum offered to pupils
• A transfer of ownership from the local community to some millionaire unaccountable businessman or to a particular religious organisation.
And though Haggerston is an all girls school, it has always been secular and nonselective.
We were surprised by the proposal to become an academy, since academies are supposed to be all about sorting out "failing schools".
Yet our school was on the front page of the national newspapers as we were named by the Chief Inspector of Schools David Bell as one of the best schools in the country in the same month as the plans for the academy were announced. SR: You organised a very impressive and original demonstration outside the Town Hall. What sort of campaign have you fought and who supported you? KF: As soon as we were told of the governors' plans, the NUT at the school began to campaign. All staff apart from the senior management signed up to oppose the academy proposal. At a parents' meeting, we set up table with pieces of sugar paper and encouraged all parents and pupils to tell us their opinions. 95% opposed to the plans. The parents went on to set up the "Hands Off Haggerston" campaign.
Within weeks the proposal was dropped. But we were then told that "in order to compete with the new academy", Haggerston would have to go mixed. Further that if we didn't agree, the school would not get any of the money promised by government through Building Schools for the Future.
The governors voted for this proposal with a majority of one, including the head teacher woo amounceo wal she was leaving within weeks of the decision. Staff felt so strongly that they passed a motion of no confidence in the head and the chair of governois
Whilst some of us at the school are in favour of mixed schools, we felt that the views of parents, pupils and local community should have been taken into account and the vast majority were against changing from an all girls'
The pupils were so angry when they heard the news that they organised sit down strikes in the playground for two days. Some Year 11 pupils were excluded for their involvement. Their campaign continued with an imaginative approach.
A4 pieces of paper kept appearing all over the school with questions such as "Why aren't you listening?" and quotes from the Human Rights Act and other legislation on children.
When senior managers attempted to remove these protests, they reappeared each day in greater numbers.
The campaign has continOrganisation Committee. When we arrived the security guards attempted to remove the pupils from the area outside the Learning Trust.
When no one moved, they called the police. Just as the police arrived, our plans to make this demo just a little different swung into action. tvervone went silent as the Year 9 choir began to sing. The police were more than a little confused by the rather angelic singing!
As soon as they finished we moved to the steps of the town hall where girls performed pieces from their GCSE Drama exam. As that came to a close. girls in a Turkish dancing group arrived to perform and encouraged others to join in. The demonstration was a celebration of Haggerston and showed that we don't need a monaire to make educa. tion work. SR: What's next? KF: The Schools Organisation Committee were forced to refer the change in status to the schools adiudicator since one group rejected the proposal. We are now waiting for a meeting with the adjudicator who will have the final say. We may well lose the decision since the adjudicator, although supposedly impartial, is appointed by the DES and rarely overturns LEA decisions.
However, whatever happens we have shown the Learning Trust - and hopefully the government- that parents, pupils and education workers don't support the academy programme and they are willing to fight to defend their local community
Any further attempts to sell off the school - an academy sponsor would pay a maximum £2 million, but the site is estimated to be worth £90 million - will be met with plenty of creative resistance.