The Sage & The Swan

The swan was in a foul mood. She had got wind of the pupil protest and had had a vision from her recent past at the Richard Rose portacabin city. She was taken totally off guard by the persistence of the Carlisle parents and the action of the Carlisle Children who had had enough of being ignored. The memory of it sent a shudder down the spine of the swan as the sage walked into the room.
The sage sensed the swan was tense. "We must stop this pupil protest as it could get out of hand like Carlisle" said the swan. The sage said that as far as he was aware the pupil protest was organised by the pupils themselves last Saturday and they have said that it will only occur within their break time. The swan wasn't impressed. "You must stop it to prevent another catastrophe like Richard Rose." she said.

The sage argued that stopping it at this late stage might incense the pupils and make the situation worse. "Why do the pupils feel like they have to protest?" asked the sage.
"Just stop the protest!" snapped the swan.

The sage then set off back into the South. He was in a quandary. He knew that stopping the protest would be difficult if not impossible and he would be the devil of the piece. Still he was sage so it was his duty to carry out the swans instructions. He new from the local chronicles electronic pages that there appeared to be support for the pupils from certain quarters of the teaching staff but the swan assure him these were actually people who weren't parents mischief making for their own ends.
The sage was under orders and he knew it. He had to stop this demonstration and prevent it from being used wrongly against academy but he still didn't know how to stop it.
Then he had a brainwave. The teachers were the key. If they could be reassured that the TUPE were transformed from a verbal agreement to a written one by the principal, sponsors and the LA that might be enough to defuse the situation.

He sat down and drafted a letter...

We have as a group actively supported the creation of Furness Academy since we became aware of the concept in 2006/7 and we are pleased to do so for the benefit of the 'Furness Learner'. I along with other sages have attended many meetings and provided comment on numerous occasions hopefully for the benefit of the Academy and it's acceptance by the students and their parents or carers and the Furness community.
Recent events though are calling this support into question, particularly the staff appointment and follow up procedures for the Academy that have or just are taking place.
Firstly the staff interviews in my opinion were not conducted in accordance with normal recruitment procedures due to the time constraints. Additionally if an independent interview panel member from another secondary school or the LA were present the interview process would have had more credibility.

Secondly the follow up process conducted by the LA was frankly appalling and devoid of any sense of decency or sensitivity where the candidates were effectively told to accept a compromise payment as there was no position for them at the Academy and indeed being told that the Academy would make them redundant within a month to three months with no reference if they didn't accept the compromise offer, making it hard for them to find another post. This treatment of our loyal and highly qualified professional staff in this way has upset me and the whole school staff community including students who are so incensed they plan a protest demonstration in the school grounds this coming Monday.

The lack of one to one communication between Parkview staff and the Academy throughout has led to all sorts of speculation by staff as to their future and this final humiliation has compounded this as 'the last straw' as far as staff are concerned.'

The sage sat and re-read what he had just written. Yes the strength of the wording is strong enough to get over to Academy the importance of doing things properly.
He carried on.

Furthermore I believe these one to ones should be re-run with Mouchel, a union rep or a sage being present to ensure the staff are treated fairly and with sensitivity.

As a result of receiving numerous complaints from staff regarding the above issues over the last week I have called a extraordinary general meeting of the sages this tuesday evening 2nd June 2009 and I do request in writing that the TUPE requirements together with pension rights and the three years guaranteed salary together with an equivalent status post in the Academy is available to all staff previously advised verbally by principal and LA.
We need this to be with us by Tuesday morning at the latest so we can brief sages and staff during or just after the EGM

I would like to remind you that Parkview HAS NEVER been a failing school and has consistently improved KS3, KS4 and GCSE. The staff and the sages continually strive to improve our student provision by being a school where students enjoy and achieve through innovative visionary leadership that pervades though the school resulting in an excellent student teacher relationship and impressive student self esteem and citizenship skills.
Our staff naturally are concerned that we do not lose this unique position in the academy as a result of the loss of key staff through the the above somewhat flawed staff selection process and also where is the student voice and their opinion in all of this?
I feel it would be with a heavy heart that we had to take steps to withdraw our support from the Furness Academy project and seek to return Parkview to Foundation School status within LA control

There it was done. This hoped the sage would be enough to shake Furness Academy Limited and it's Mouchel management company into providing sufficient guarantees to allow the protest to be stopped on Monday. He didn't know if it would be enough he just hoped. If he got it wrong the angry swan would spit feathers!

To be continued...