No answers over Parkwood plan
YOU report the council believe the first round of the consultation process over the proposed privatisation of Parkwood is now complete.
Yet as you make clear, this is on the basis of only 23 responses from parents in a school of 750. The council's report laughably asserts 'the low response was likely to signify that parents were comfortable with or open-minded about the proposal'.
We have been petitioning in the Parkwood catchment area, and found that most parents had very little awareness of the consultation process or what was at stake. Very few knew it meant taking their school out of council control and handing it to a private company. And when they knew this, most were quite happy to sign our petition against it.
The "consultation meetings" consisted of long present-ations, all in favour of an Academy, with no balanced argument and very little time for questions. Some parents wanted to ask why a private charity couldn't just give to a school without having to take it over, but they didn't get an answer.
Our petition, which will be presented to council, now has over 250 signatures on it, many of them collected from parents at feeder primary schools.
Your report also repeats claims that Sheffield Hallam University is a co-sponsor of the Academy along with Edutrust. We have written to them about this and received the reply: "The University is not and will not be a financial sponsor of any academy and does not intend to become one". Someone has been misleading you on this.
Ben Morris, Sheffield North Anti-Academies Alliance
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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