Tidemill Superhead loses plot

A letter from Tidemill School Leadership Team went out yesterday to parents, announcing an Academy Consultation Meeting on Thursday 21st October (7pm). Parents are invited to request a ticket to attend the meeting, where key arguments will be presented by Tidemill staff, an unnamed 'ex-director of education', Martin Powell Davies from the National Union of Teachers, and chaired by Joan Ruddock MP.

Apart from the short notice, it might also be noted that no childcare arrangements are offered. The meeting would also not be taking place at all if not for the campaigning efforts of a small number of parents who felt there had been no consultation. Their campaign is referred to in the letter as criminal activity that threatens the safety of pupils.

After the announcement of the date and time, the letter continues in an alarmist and inaccurate manner, decrying the opposition to the school's plans...

"Despite what was reported in the South London Press this is not a public meeting, it is only for Tidemill parents, staff and Governors and we are keen to ensure that this is a calm and productive meeting which will allow everyone to hear the key arguments for and against the proposal.

"The senior leadership team met last week to discuss our concerns over the overtly political lobbying that we are experiencing from the Anti-Academies Alliance. Many parents have complained that they have to begin and end their school day walking through a barage of shouting and leafleting. In particular several of our parents with English as an additional language have expressed how they are finding this lobbying confusing and how it is causing them considerable anxiety. Parents have found these tactics aggressive and intimidating and are worried about the effect this is having on their children; it certainly doesn't provide an ideal start to the day. In light of parents concerns and complaints, we have reported this matter to the police.

"More importantly, we are very concerned about the safety of our pupils as children are being enticed with balloons across the road with no regard to road safety. This is extremely dangerous and makes it very difficult for our staff to know if children have been collected by an appropriate adult. Furthermore Tidemill children have been photographed and videoed leaving school without consent from their parents; this is a dangerous breach of our e-safety policy. Two parents leading the AAA campaign have been written to requesting that they consider alternative ways to conduct their campaign so it does not impact on the safety of our pupils before and after school."

The letter goes on to attempt to persuade parents to support the school in its aims to become an Academy. "As the leading professionals of this school we strongly believe that converting Tidemill to Academy status will secure the best future for our pupils. We hope all our parents and staff will support us in our vision after they have had the opportunity to hear all sides of the issue."

This would appear rather a biased statement to make in the middle of a consultation.

The letter goes on to refer to the recently held public meeting at the Albany as "led by the AAA (Anti Academy Alliance) resulting in shouting, aggression and verbal abuse: allowing very little opportunity to discuss the real issue of what is best for our pupils at Tidemill. Many people who attended this meeting had no connection to the school whatsoever. To ensure this meeting is not hijacked by people with their own political agenda, we are asking all parents to request a ticket to attend the meeting..."

And ends, rather childishly...

"At the meeting on Thursday evening we will not be providing balloons, we will not be shouting or chasing you down the street but will offer you a fair and balanced view of the issues surrounding becoming an academy."

It appears the school's 'leading professionals' object to the expression of free speech. The children videoed outside the school were actively voicing their opposition accompanied by their parents whose permission had been given. The meeting at the Albany was attended by parents and members of the community. It seems the school's 'leading professionals' object to the community (people with no connection to the school whatsoever) being consulted, despite the fact that the new school will be positioned slap bang in the middle of a community facility. Most of those attending do not recall any aggression and abuse, although one of the governors left in exasperation when one misinformed parent angrily suggested her own child might be excluded from the new Academy.

To see a video of the Albany meeting on 6th September, and the arguments voiced, go to
http://sayingno.org/cms/public-meetings/public-meeting/

Meanwhile, the 'leading professionals' told parents that the forthcoming meeting was in danger of being hijacked by a political agenda, as though to imply to parents that politics is a dirty word, when in fact the very idea of Academies is a political idea, representing a fundamental shift in education policy (whether you agree with it or not).

It also appears the meeting will only have one speaker representing the opposition to the school's plans (Martin Powell-Davies) whilst arguments for will come from members of the leadership team and an unnamed ex-director of education — hardly a fair and balanced discussion, one might conclude.

BTW, this important letter was conveyed to parents via their children, rather than posted, so could easily go astray. See the letter here.

Tidemill update

A public meeting was held at The Albany on Monday 6th to debate the future of Tidemill School. It was attended by around 70 people, many opposed to the move to Academy status. Yesterday, Tidemill parents were invited to the school to hear of the proposals outlined by head teacher Mark Elms.

In today's Guardian, education editor Jeevan Vasgar writes:

'Superhead' Mark Elms defends plans to convert school to academy
Concerns raised over 'lack of transparency' surrounding pay, but Elms cites flexibility and freedom as advantages

A headteacher who was criticised for being paid more than £240,000 last year has defended controversial plans to convert his primary school to academy status. When parents discovered in July that Mark Elms' pay package had reached almost £250,000, many defended him for transforming the fortunes of a school which has been rated "outstanding" under his leadership.

But since then, some parents have launched a campaign against proposals to turn Tidemill primary into an academy – which would be free from local authority control and able to set its own pay rates. Concern has been fuelled by what one campaigner claimed was a "lack of transparency" over Elms' pay. He is thought to be the most well paid headteacher in Britain.

Elms said today that converting to an academy would enable the school to be more flexible in helping children who spoke English as a second language. Speaking for the first time since the pay controversy, he said it would also free the school to set salaries at a level that would attract the best teachers.

"There are obviously lots of freedoms; there's the freedom to design your own curriculum. We have very unique characteristics, 65% [are non-native English speakers], 45% free school meals… lots of refugees."

"We need to make sure the curriculum is designed to match their needs, to reflect their background and experience."

Tidemill, in Lewisham, south-east London, has a high proportion of children who do not speak English at home. The school itself estimates that 30 languages are spoken there, including Somali, Farsi, French and Yoruba.
Elms declined to comment on his pay, but said: "Finances are very important. You can do an awful lot in terms of recruiting highly qualified, suitable staff."

Elms earned a basic salary of just over £82,700 in the last financial year. He also received payments totalling £102,955 for work he did over two years as part of Labour's City Challenge programme, which aims to use proven success stories to help underachieving schools. His pay package reached nearly £250,000 with the inclusion of £10,000 for out-of-hours work, arrears of £9,317 for 2008-09, an employer's pension contribution of £16,700 and an "appointment and retention" payment of £26,413.

One of the parents campaigning against the proposals, Leila Galloway, said she was seeking greater transparency over the head's pay. She has asked for minutes of financial discussions at governors' meetings. Galloway, who has two daughters at the school, said she was concerned that the expansion of academies under the coalition government would create a two-tier education system.

"I believe in comprehensive education. Labour kickstarted [academies] but they've turned into a totally different beast. It drains funding from all the other schools. Personally, I think it will devastate the country. It's a huge social experiment," she said. Galloway said she had organised a petition and a public meeting to campaign against the proposals.

Elms insisted that a broad consultation was taking place. He said the school had asked in its annual questionnaire whether parents would like more information, and 70% had said yes.The school is also carrying out a telephone survey of 8-10% of parents and held a public meeting yesterday to explain the plans.

"It's a very complicated, very controversal new policy, and we're not wanting to rush into it," he said. A total of 32 schools opened as academies this month out of 2,000 that had expressed interest since May. Over 140 schools are expected to convert to academy status in the coming school year after the government passed a new law to allow every school in England to opt out of local authority control.

Schools like Tidemill that are rated "outstanding" by Ofsted were pre-approved, meaning that those who applied immediately are the most likely to open as academies first. The speed at which the legislation moved through parliament led to accusations that ministers rushed the reforms using a timetable usually reserved for emergency laws, such as anti-terror powers.

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/09/superhead-mark-elms-school-academy

The Future of Tidemill update...

This meeting to discuss the implications of Tidemill Primary becoming an Academy School is now to be chaired by Joan Ruddock MP. 
Postscript: Joan Ruddock MP has withdrawn from chairing this meeting but has promised to chair a future meeting. The event will still go ahead and you are welcome to come along to listen to speakers and give your views. Watch this space for more information or go to academies.sayingno.org 

Meanwhile, in response to a Comment to Crosswhatfields on the reporting of NUT exec Martin Powell-Davies' letter (see here), Mr Powell-Davies has responded as follows on his own blog where the same comment was posted:

How much was Mark Elms paid?

I am grateful for a comment posted from a local resident who has signed the parent petition but is concerned that the facts about Mark Elms' pay need to be correct.

At the time his pay hit the headlines in July, I didn't make many public comments about the issue - precisely because the facts were unclear. However, now that the school is the one school in Lewisham to have rushed ahead with plans to become an Academy, it is inevitable that people are linking the two issues - and my comment has clearly been picked up this time!

The issues over the Head's pay are separate to those over the Academy - but these questions will be raised by parents and teachers. After all, in the conversations that I have had with governors in other London schools considering becoming an Academy, the only real argument that has been raised is that they might get more funding (at the expense of other schools and the Local Authority budget of course). So my original question remains, "does the school really need to grab even more money if it can afford to pay a primary head that much?"

Have I erred in quoting a figure of £1/4 million? I took the figure from the only definitive source that I have had access to - Lewisham Council's printed accounts - which state that Mark Elms' pay for 2009/10 was:

Total excluding Pension Contributions 231,400
Employer's Pension Contributions 45,123
Total including Pension Contributions 276,523

I know that other figures quoted in the press have give different details, such as:
• Basic pay - £82,714.37
• City Challenge - £102,955.00 over two years, £50,957 of which was back-dated pay for 2008/09
• Out-of-hours work - £10,000
• Arrears - £9,317

The quoted "out-of-hours" payment has angered local teachers who do lots of unpaid overtime every year too. The decision to pay the City Challenge money also needs explanation as, in my understanding, when a head is "providing services to another school", the money should go from one school bank account to the other school's bank account as a payment to the school for those services. If the figures are correct, I am unclear why the governing body decided to then make those payments to Mark Elms rather than use the funds to, for example, employ other staff and resources to cover for his absence.

I am happy to update the information to be as accurate as possible - if anyone can provide definitive answers!

Postscript: Martin Powell-Davies (Secretary, Lewisham NUT) has since written more on his blog about this subject. See his letter to the Tidemill governors here.

Tidemillionaire?

Head Teacher Mark Elms cycling in to meet the waiting press pack on Frankham Boulevard

It looks like Mark Elms, head teacher at Tidemill Primary School, has come in for a bit of unwelcome notoriety in today's media.  The BBC website announces ''Union 'outraged' at head teacher £200,000 pay package  and the Guardian kicks off with ''Union 'outraged' at primary school head's £231,400 salary''   Behind the headlines, of course, there's a slightly different story - the inflated pay package includes backpay for work Mark has done working, not as a primary head teacher at a 400 pupil school, but for the extra work and responsibility of overseeing the ''turning around'' of a number of schools (hazy memory but I think it was 10) in Croydon.  And the reason he got that extra responsibility was because of his work turning an underachieving Tidemill into what Ofsted now judge  to be an  ''outstanding'' school with some of the highest ''value-added'' teaching in the country.

While many might consider the wage rates as unworldly, it may be worthwhile listening to the parents testimonies at the school gates on the BBC link and then reflecting on the fact that if Tidemill had remained a quietly ineffective average-achieving school this story would not have appeared at all.

(Check the sidebar for other blogs, such as 853 and Brockley Central who have also covered this story.)

UPDATE 16:40: The BBC has now changed tack a little, well, a good bit more than a little now that an education reporter has looked into things  - see  ''Why head teacher Mark Elms earned £200,000