Another day, another lovely parent letter

I am writing as a parent with a child at one of the Prendergast schools to support the upcoming strikes by teachers and school workers (National Education Union members) to stop the drive to academise.

I will be joining the demonstration this Saturday (11am, 22 April, Loampit Vale, next to Prendergast Vale) and joining the picket lines to support the teachers and other workers on strike against academisation - as will many other parents. I encourage all parents to do likewise.

Numerous arguments why academisation is a terrible idea have been set out very clearly many times – for instance here https://stopacademiesinlewisham.org/prendergast and here https://alexgwinnett.blogspot.com/2023/04/letter-to-lewisham-directorate-for.html. No wonder the academisation proposal is opposed by the great majority of workers at the schools, their unions, the vast majority of parents who have been able to express an opinion (given the refusal so far to hold a ballot), by the council and now also by the students who have protested against it.

Like many other parents, I will be inconvenienced by the strikes, but I support them nonetheless – because they are defending not only workers’ rights but the future of my child and thousands of other children’s education. I also support the NEU strikes against a real-terms pay cut.

I urge the Prendergast governors and the Leathersellers organisation to drop the academisation and instead work to strengthen education and collaboration within the local authority family.