School parents speak out against academy plan
Parents and residents voiced their opposition at a public meeting last night over plans to transform a Northampton church school into an academy.
More than 100 people turned up to a consultation meeting on the future of Unity College to listen to a presentation on the proposals by the Peterborough Dioceses' Board of Education, the lead sponsor of the proposed academy.
But in a question and answer session, many of the parents criticised the handling of the consultation process and showed their support for the current headteacher, Margaret Gwynne, who was given a standing ovation when she came into the room at the end of the meeting.
In a spontaneous vote, John Henry, a member of Save Unity College action group who has a son in Year Nine at the school, asked everyone who was against the proposals to put their hands in the air and received almost uninamous support.
He said: "The next meeting will be even bigger than this one. We are now going to organise a petition. I called the vote early on purpose and almost the whole room put their hands up. Everyone here wants it to remain Unity College. There is no support for the academy scheme from the parents.
"This is the biggest meeting we have had in the whole consultation process and we organised it."
The Venerable Christine Allsopp, Archdeacon of Northampton and Chair of the Peterborough Diocese Board of Education, Rachel Singer, from Northamptonshire County Council, Chris Moody from Moulton College and Margaret Holman from Bishop Stopford School in Kettering all spoke in favour of the academy plan at the start of the meeting.
Mr Moody said: "We want to support Unity to help it achieve its potential."
However, the majority of the meeting, which lasted two-and-a- half hours, involved them fielding criticisms from parents who felt they had not been given any sort of say in the whole consultation process.
Many expressed anger at the way it had been announced that Vanessa Ray had already been chosen as the new headteacher if the school did become an academy.
Karen Jolly, who has a daughter, Katherine in Year 10, said: "Mrs Gwynne has not been given a proper chance to take the school forward. We just want to be heard and we believe the students deserve that respect as well."
At the end of the meeting, representatives from the Peterborough Diocese Board of Education including Stephen Partridge and Archdeacon Allsopp were booed as they left the room.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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