Teachers vote for walkout over Durham academy plans

May 5 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

CONTROVERSIAL plans to replace schools with a privately sponsored academy have been branded an "appalling reflection" of public opinion.

Teachers are to strike over controversial plans to replace their school with a privately-sponsored academy – as first revealed in The Journal last month.

Members of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) will stage a one-day walkout at Belmont School, in Durham City, on Thursday. Despite opposition from parents, school governors, staff and local residents, Durham County Council’s Cabinet agreed to go ahead with three new academies in Consett, Durham and Stanley, at a meeting on April 22. Diane Rowe, a teacher at Belmont who attended the Cabinet meeting, described the decision to create the academies as “an appalling reflection on how council view public opinion.”

She said: “Since academies were first suggested I, and other colleagues, along with parents and members of the Belmont Community have clearly shown all the reasons for our school not to be an academy. We are a very successful school, we have excellent SEN and Hearing /Visually impaired facilities and staff and we have staff and students who work well together .

“I have been at the school for 14 years and have obviously seen many changes, but the change due in 2012 is one that has been clearly expressed as not wanted or needed. The rationale for academies on the government website is to improve failing schools not for rebuilding.”