Schools academies alert

SAATSA - the Sheffield Anti Academies and Trust School Alliance - says it is deeply concerned by revelations that Springs Academy wrongly axed 17 truanting pupils from its register earlier this year without permission.

The former Myrtle Springs School at Arbourthorne was rapped by Sheffield Council for its decision and told it must not happen again.

The Academy said the council's education welfare officers had failed to get the truants back to school, and insisted that by removing the 17 pupils from the roll it was acting responsibly by not claiming funding for youngsters who were never in class.

But Sheffield's National Union of Teachers divisional secretary Kathryn Stallard said the developments confirmed some of the fears unions had in relation to academies.

"Higher rates of exclusion than in local authority schools have been an issue with academies across the country," she said.

"Currently local authority secondary schools in Sheffield work closely together, so where pupils are having serious difficulties in one school there is an opportunity for them to settle more positively and start afresh in another school."

LibDem shadow cabinet member for children's services, Coun Sylvia Anginotti, said the Springs' action on truants had not come as a surprise: "Despite assurances of partnership working, it's clear academies will put the interests of themselves before the interests of education in Sheffield as a whole," she said.

SAATSA is holding a public meeting on the issue at the Royal Victoria Holiday Inn (7.30pm).

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