New schools should be co-operative schools
Councillor Warren Morgan, Deputy Leader of the Labour & Co-operative Group of councillors in Brighton & Hove, says we must take the opportunity to ensure new schools are fit for purpose, rooted in the community and run on a co-operative basis.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Free schools are not something Labour and Co-operative members should be in favour of. They use funding that should be being spent in the state sector, by local authorities making existing schools better and building new schools for the future. Schools that exist outside of the state sector can set their own pay and conditions for staff.
However, the reality is that the current Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition has said that any new schools, or schools going into special measures, should be academies or free schools. Unless the Lib Dems suddenly grow tired of the ministerial cars and red boxes, and discover an unnatural desire for electoral oblivion at an early General Election, we seem stuck with that reality until 2015.
In Brighton and Hove we have an acute shortage of primary school places in the west of the city, and a history of some schools in the east struggling to attract pupils and achieve good results. Overall our secondary schools are not performing as well as they should. Two secondary schools are already academies run by the Aldridge Foundation, and there is a risk that Michael Gove will be imposing a further academy school on us soon.
The answer of the previous minority Conservative council administration, one being continued by the minority Green administration, is to expand existing schools or create “new” schools in separate buildings but which are part of “extended” existing schools. Some of these buildings are former schools, like my old primary school built in the Victorian era, or are portakabins.
It seems likely that the Tory government will tolerate this kind of expansion for only so long. In some respects they are right; it cannot be good for primary schools to grow bigger and bigger, and for children to be taught in buildings which are not fit for purpose.
If the Conservative-led government is going to block further expansion of existing schools or the creation of satellite or federated schools, block any new school that isn’t an academy or free school, and refuse additional funding for state schools, then, as Stephen Twigg has said, we need to look at the reality of the situation and do what is best for children starting school now or in two, three or four years time.
We can’t put children’s education on hold while we wait for a Labour government in 2015, and we can’t make children’s education a victim of the Tories’ ideology. As someone educated in the neglected state secondary sector from 1979 to 1986, I know how harmful this can be.
At our recent full council meeting the Labour & Co-operative Group proposed supporting the principle of Co-operative schools as a way of dealing with the fact that we may have no choice but to accommodate free schools and more academies. Despite their professed support for co-operatives, the Greens voted against, saying that no matter how they are “branded”, they implacably oppose free schools and academies.
The Greens, as with so many things, may want to ignore the reality of the situation, retreat into opposition and step back from their responsibilities, but we in the Labour and Co-operative movement, in all good conscience, can’t. Children need decent local and accessible school places and a good education. They only get one chance. Teachers need a good teaching environment, good pay, conditions, pensions and a route back into the state sector.
We need to engage with the process, influence how these free schools and academies are set up and run, wherever and whenever possible as co-operatives rooted in the community and run by the community, on a not-for-profit basis in partnership with the local authority and other local educational bodies.
Councillor Warren Morgan is the Deputy Leader of the Labour & Co-operative Group on Brighton and Hove City Council, and tweets @warrenmorgan - www.brightonhovelabour.com
For more on Co-operative Trust Schools visit www.school.coop and the Co-operative Group’s site
Policy areas: Education
Tags for this article: academies, Brighton, co-operative trust schools, education, free schools, Green Party, Hove, schools, Warren Morgan
What will you do in 2015, Cllr Morgan, if Labour are returned to power? Scrap ‘free schools’? If not, your sentiments will be seen as hypocritical.
Well Mikelmas, it probably won’t be up to me personally, but I would not want to advocate any school being “scrapped”, I know from experience in my ward how painful school closures can be. I’d like all schools to be brought into LA control or to work in partnership with the LA via co-operative school clusters. It may not be possible to reverse all of the measures implemented by the Tory Coalition govt, education included, but wherever possible we should keep to the principles stated in the last line of my article.
@Cllr Morgan, I am a member of the Lewisham Green Party and must admit I like what you have just written. It sounds like the B&H GP is being very firm and trying to force the hand of the ConDem coalition, but as you say it is risky. Nevertheless I do not agree with some of the smears by certain Labour councillors against the Greens. I would happily see a coming together of Greens and Co-operative Party members as they are close in many ways. I have read both manifestos and by working together we could go far.
Good luck
Matt, thank you for your constructive comment. The consequence of the Green administration in Brighton and Hove “standing firm” against the government on this does mean that children will be educated in old Victorian buildings and playground huts, not in a new school but in buildings far removed from the actual schools that run them. As I say in my article, this was my experience and it was not good, and it can only harm he education of young people in the city in my view.
We can and do co-operate with the Greens on many issues, we share many policies. Sadly when it comes to crucial votes like last year’s Budget they have let us down, and at every opportunity in public they attack Labour with what many Labour members view as smears, with the explicit aim of winning seats from and ultimately replacing Labour entirely.
There is a contradiction between the Green wish for co-operation and their ruthless competition with Labour for votes and seats which they continue to pursue even four years from an election.
@Cllr Morgan, there does seem to be a bit of a cat-fight between certain Greens and Labour persons, be they councillors or party members. I get the feeling it is just that certain members from both parties react then over-react. I would not be surprised if the press and/or Tories stir things up a bit TBH, and to be fair to both the Greens and Lab/Co-op, they are different parties so some members will feel very strongly about certain issues. However I feel smearing personally is not on, as do you, and if I were to ever stand for office, I do hope I will stick to the facts, as in say ‘the reds and blues are mistaken on this, I, as a Green, propose this instead because…’. Let me know if I deviate should I ever be challenging you!!!
I say, as I am sure you will agree, take the fight to the Tories, and hard. I say this to Lab/Co-op and Greens. However, in public, the cabinet do seem to have shown good leadership on MOST issues. You have to often use what instruments you have to influence the outcome for the good