Dear Neil,
As the chair of the Education Select Committee I am sure you have the best interests of the nation’s children at your heart.
In the next four years my own children face GCSEs and A levels, their biggest challenge yet.
They are both scientists with bright futures – the sort of children I know you speak about championing.
And I am worried now – because their school, Rednock, is not an academy.
It is a comprehensive, community school whose teachers have worked so very hard in the last few years to raise standards with great results – in the top 25% of schools in the country.
I have two questions I would be very grateful if you could answer.
Can you reassure me that in the next four years teachers and governors will be able to continue their focus on supporting all Rednock pupils to succeed? Or will they now have to spend their time and energy on the bureaucracy and red tape of academisation?
Secondly, did you consult with the head teachers of our local primary and secondary schools before this major change was announced?
I had hoped that the next four years would be a time of hard work and stability at school. Now it looks like it will be a time of change and uncertainty. I don’t see how my children’s education will benefit from this.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Doina Cornell
I wrote this to our MP on 16 March 2016. On the back of this letter I put together a joint text which was signed by many others. The outrage was great locally. In May, at our district election count I was standing near Carmichael when he got a call to say the proposals had been dropped: https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/14480576.delight-as-government-backs-down-over-forced-academy-plans-for-stroud-schools/