Community Event this Sunday on Crossfields

Leila Galloway and Sophie Hope would like to say a special thanks go to all the residents who have contributed to the sayingno CD which has now been delivered to all homes on Crossfields Estate – your voices are truly inspirational!

"We hope you enjoy listening to this unique snapshot of a time and place and are as moved as we were when we were editing the voices together. We really think this is a vital and exciting document that brings the individual voices of a community together in an intimate and celebratory way. Thank you for sharing your stories of freedom, celebration, rebellion and sayingno with us and your neighbours."

Contributors to the CD include Adam, Alpha, Anana Krish + Suzie Rendell, Andy Forshaw + Ade, Anna + Ruth Hudson, Anton, Ben, Bunmi, Charles Hayward, Chi Nwobani, Chika + Grace, Chris Morgan, Claire Evans, Clement + Mecalla, Debbie Hughes, Dee, Duncan Grech, Eddie Reid, Elaine, Elise, Farhia, Fiona, Guillaume Crato, Heather, Heather M., Hedley Shaw, Ingvilid Isakden, James, Talbu + Richy, Jan, Javier, John Rhodes, Kieth Nicholson, Lucy, Maeve, Anne-Claire, Sylvia + Stella, Mark, Mark, Mei Ying, Mervion Kirwood, Michelle Hopwood, Miss Kante + Jaunet Remy, Murphy Adewale, Naomi, Nick Statham, Pat, Paulie, Piotr Ruszel, Rachel + Ken, Rafael, Raoul Amantchi, Ray, Riita, Rory Laird, Shaun Barweti, Shaz, Steve, Stuart, Sue Powell, Suresh, Sylvia van Mierlo, Syvia Ferreria, Rachel Eliott + Gemma Convelly, Tayo, Terry, Terry Edward, Tim Wilson + Mike, Tim’s friend, Tom, Tracy, William Ottie, Winston, Yazmine and all those who wished to remain anonymous.

Thanks also to the Tenants and Residents Association (Hugh Johnson in particular), Sue Lawes, Nicholas Alexander, Jake Strickland, Olivia Hornby, Treasa O’Brian, Simone and the staff of Deptford X.

Hear Crossfields Estate's 'confessions of freedom and rebellion' on the saying no website here.

Tidemill - the mayor's initial response

Lewisham mayor, Steve Bullock, has written to Councillor Paul Maslin with his response to proposal to change Tidemill into an academy.  Here is the text of his letter as forwarded on 23 September 2010 and published here www.academies.sayingno.org. 

Statement on Tidemill School
The performance of this school in recent years has been outstanding and the leadership given by Mark Elms has been of the highest order.  Lewisham Council has worked closely with the school to support it in achieving and consolidating that improvement.
The school has played an important role in its community and the way it has attempted to work not only with students but their parents too has been deeply impressive.  In part because of the schools success in working with the community it has been an integral part of plans to radically improve public provision in that part of the borough.  A new development is taking place which will include within it a new public library and community space that will be shared by the school and the community.
If the legal status of the school is changed and the ownership of that shared space brought into question this project may be at risk.  The Council will need to take legal advice on the implications of the school becoming an academy for such an large project involving public funding.
A number of academy schools already exist in Lewisham and they have played a critical role in enabling some under performing secondary schools to achieve significant improvement.  We work closely with these schools which are very clearly part of the Education Family in Lewisham where co-operation and mutual support have enabled us to improve faster than the majority of London boroughs.
At first sight I do not see any similar advantages arising from individual primary schools which are already successful opting for academy status.  The overriding objective that we have pursued relentlessly for the past 8 years has been to improve the life chances of our young people and no approach has been ruled and no partners excluded from our thinking as we strive to achieve that.
My approach to this remains pragmatic and if further academies will help move us forward I would be prepared to support them.  The onus must be on any school seeking academy status to demonstrate that they will be helping move that whole project forward not seeking advantage for an individual school at the expense of others.

That sentence - ''At first sight I do not see any similar advantages arising from individual primary schools which are already successful opting for academy status.''  fully echoes my own marmosettian view.  More importantly, it may be reassuring for parents uncertain about what the future holds  for Tidemill.

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.

Tea and cakes? Just say no...

Leila Galloway and Sophie Hope, who are doing ''saying no,'' a Deptford X 2010 project on the estate, are having an open house at 9 Frankham House on Saturday, 7 August, (2-4pm) where you can find out more about these quiet  acts of creative protest that consist of simply saying no.  Here's the poster:

Double-click if you need to expandificate it - or go here to download the PDF and have a look at the sayingno.org site.