Teachers at Heanor Gate Science College in Derbyshire have won an important first-stage victory against their secondary school applying for academy status.
A strike ballot was held after governors announced in February their interest in becoming at academy. Members of the NASUWT at the school were due to take strike action on 15 March, but called off the action when governors agreed to postpone the decision process.
And NUT members at Tile Hill Wood School and Language College in Coventry have voted to take industrial action over their governors’ decision to apply to be an academy. On a 75 per cent turnout in the ballot, 100 per cent voted to strike.
Academy schools effectively leave the local authority and become directly funded through central government. They are generally run by private companies, charities or private companies masquerading as charities. Ark, one of the largest, is run by an evangelical Christian multi-millionaire hedge fund manager.