The Emmanuel Foundation are lying to us

Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Barry Sheerman, Chairman of the Education Select Committee noted this:

:“These are in the most difficult areas of our towns and cities and we could be persuaded that that’s good investment if it actually does the job.”

Sheerman, who is unconvinced the City Academies (of which Kings and Emmanuel are part) actually work, was answering the change that these Academies cost the taxpayer 33% more than an equivalent secondary – an eye watering £7,000 per pupil more in fact!

Sherman admitted that he was impressed with Emmanuel (at Gateshead) – but I wonder if he was just fed a diet of Vardy spin? Here’s Sir Peter Vardy, from the same interview, shortly before they ran out of time:

“We take the same children with the same behavioural problems, we take the same teachers and in the first year in Middlesbrough we’ve doubled the expected GCSE result. It’s only 34% but it’s a start.”

On the face of it, you’d think that was very impressive. But what if you discarded all the distraction – all the troublemakers - before you started? What if you sorted out the few percent that caused majority of the problems and got rid of them? Then you'd only have the cream and not have to worry about the 1-2% that might sour the whole milk.

Reliable sources from other schools and the LEA allege that Vardy’s people actively identified the problem elements and persuaded them not to sign up for the new school.

“Everyone knows the rules. By breaking them children exclude themselves.” - Vardy Foundation

Worse, their exclusion record is 10 times the national average. A Vardy spokesman is quoted as saying “Everyone knows the rules. By breaking them children exclude themselves.”

Rules that outsiders and parents alike consider as intractable as they are Draconian. Rather than working with these children, as other schools have to, King’s Academy simply discards them like so much trash. This isn’t the military, it’s a school for children as young as 11.

As for the claim that King’s Academy is in a deprived area of Middlesbrough – that’s simply not true. Coulby Newham is on the outskirts of Middlesbrough and nowhere near as run down as The Vardy Foundation would have you think. In fact, it’s a thriving, expanding community that has attracted investment from both WM Morrison and Bannatyne’s Health Clubs. Nearby Hemlington is more run down in places, but that is also nowhere near as deprived as they would like us to think.

Local MP, Ashok Kumar found little to worry about in his recent letter to voters. The best he seemed able to muster was the profusion of shopping trolleys strewn around the place - I counted three. No mention of the wandering tribes of Chavs that skulk around every town and city; no mention of the odd lunatic on a motorcycle terrorising the old and infirm; no mention of the drug problem lurking in the quiet, housing association owned estates; nothing.

Sure, Coulby Newham and Hemlington aren’t perfect, but failing? Not on your Nelly mate. The Middlesbrough conurbation does have problems – this was the place that spawned Supercop, Ray Mallon (now Mayor) after all – but to suggest the whole place is riddled with the same cancer is just erroneous spin.