Hands Off Our Schools is a local Anti Academies Alliance campaign composed of unions, parents, pupils, teachers, councillors and MPs. We are the Nottingham and Notts branch of a national organisation against academy status in schools. We also campaign against the setting up of Free Schools.
Find out more by browsing through our site. There are videos, articles, and news of campaigns to oppose academy status and ‘free schools’ in Notts and nearby. If you’d like to get involved drop us an email at the address below or come to our next meeting.
What are Academies?
Academies are schools that are not under Local Authority control. They are outside of the local family of schools, not accountable to the local community, allowed to set their own curriculum and terms and conditions for staff. We oppose the government’s Academies programme and believe we need ‘a good school for every child’.
The government initiated PriceWaterhouseCooper Academies 5th Annual report concludes that “there is insufficient evidence to make a definitive judgement about the Academies as a model for school improvement”.
The TUC, NASUWT, NUT, ATL, UCU, UNISON, UNITE, GMB, PCS, MU and FBU are affiliated to the Anti Academies Alliance.
What are ‘free schools’?
A similar initiative to academies, any group of patents, teachers or so-called ‘edubusinesses’ can propose to set up a ‘free school’. If supported by the DfE they can start up using whatever premises they can find with financial support from central government. Ongoing funding is direct from central government but is ‘top-sliced’ from the funds available to the local area.
Both academies and free schools are outside the democratic control of local authorities but their funding impacts on what the local authority can do.
To get involved in our campaign, contact us on nottshandsoffourschools@hotmail.co.uk
Hands Off Our Schools 