Campaign to defend Birmingham Schools – Public Rally

19 May 2016, 5pm Outside Waterstones, by the Bullring APF will be supporting this rally – please come along and spread the word.

Birmingham City Council must stop colluding with the DfE on forced academies.

APF demands open and democratic consultation for the parents and staff of Small Heath School while matters are at a formative stage. Analysis by Henry Stewart for the Local Schools Network of the latest GCSE data once again shows that non-academies improve faster than academies. The evidence now is overwhelming, yet schools like Small Heath […]

No to Colmore Academy

Colmore Junior and Infant Schools in Kings Heath recently announced their intention to ‘investigate seeking academy status’. Parents have been given until 31st January to send in comments but no parents’ meeting has so far been arranged. A group of concerned parents have set up ‘No to Colmore Academy’ to campaign against the proposal […]

Is your school on the list? 27% of Birmingham Primaries converted or in the process of converting to academy

The following was published as part of the previous post about the parent victory at West Heath Primary, but it deserves its own post, so here it is again with a bit of added detail; A recent Local Authority Fortnightly Academy Summary Sheet shows that 63 Primary Schools are in the process of converting. […]

West Heath Primary parent victory against forced academy

Governors, Headteachers, and above all the new administration at Birmingham City Council take note – West Heath parents have shown there is everything to fight for. On 26th September West Heath parents learned that they had won their campaign against forced academy. Sadly the Headteacher and Governors fell at the first post, caving in to […]

Mansfield Green Primary is being forced to convert to academy, but why are Local Authority Officers applying the pressure?

Over the past year scores of Primary Schools in Brimingham, all situated in economically deprived areas, have come under intense pressure to convert to sponsored academy status as part of Michael Gove’s drive to expand the number of academies. This pressure, which has been described by MP Richard Burden as bullying, has typically been applied […]

APF’s written submission to the Birmingham Inquiry into Academies

Inquiry into the future role of the local authority in the context of more schools becoming Academies Written submission by Ask Parents First About Ask Parents First Ask Parents First (APF) is a parent campaign group that was formed in April this year in response to concerns that schools in the city were converting to […]

Montgomery Governors resign over broken promises

A report by parent Mohammed Ashraf Earlier this year I led the campaign at Montgomery Primary School against forced academy conversion. We campaigned for parents to have a say in the future of the school. Sadly, despite overwhelming opposition from the school community, governors took the decision to proceed with conversion, choosing AET (Academy Enterprise […]

West Heath parents betrayed by DfE, Headteacher and Governors

Parents who have been campaigning since May 2012 for a say in the future of their community school, learnt last night that the Secretary of State signed an academy order for the school months ago, despite there having been no consultation of any kind, and despite there being no sponsor or funding agreement in place. […]

Birmingham City Council to conduct inquiry into Academies

It was announced in an article in the Birmingham Post earlier this month that the education scrutiny committee at Birmingham City Council will begin an inquiry into academies. Councillor Brigid Jones confirmed the plans today in a television interview for BBC Midlands Today. (Also reported were Birmingham City Council’s plans to develop a co-operative model […]