Hungerford Primary School

• I WAS dismayed to hear that Hungerford Primary School in Islington is likely to be removed from local authority control and converted into another academy, answerable only to central government (Primary faces switch to academy status after ‘inadequate’ rating, May 12).

This is part of a long-term process that began around 2000 under a Labour government, but we need to protest at every step taken in this direction.

As teachers and school administrators have repeatedly said, if a school underperforms it can be improved by personnel development and possibly personnel changes, or by allocating additional resources, but changing the management structure in itself is largely irrelevant.

A major disadvantage of academies is that they are no longer answerable to communities in the same way as the schools they replace. Chief executives of academy chains have been awarded massive salaries paid indirectly by the state, draining resources from the classroom.

The Green Party’s policy on academies is quite clear – if and when we have a share of power, we will reintegrate all existing academies back into the local authority schools system, where they would be subject to control by locally-elected officials, with a strong parent component on school boards.

Access to good education for all is a crucial component in the fairer society the Green Party wants to promote – a society of citizens who are well-informed, creative and productive.

The events of recent years show conclusively that it is time communities and politicians with their interests in mind took a stand against the centralisation and clandestine privatisation of basic public services.

JONATHAN WRIGHT
Islington Green Party