FORCED ACADEMIES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

That this House believes that the Government's threats to force primary schools in Haringey to become academies are undemocratic and threaten to reverse many of the improvements made in those schools in the last year; notes that these forced changes are opposed by parents, governors and teachers at those schools; further notes that the academies policy of the previous administration did not force schools to become academies against their will; understands that the Secretary of State for Education is threatening schools in other areas, including Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Durham, Essex, Kent, Lancashire, Leeds and Northamptonshire; further believes that raising and maintaining high standards in primary schools is vitally important but that the most successful approaches work with the school community; further notes that there are many methods of raising standards apart from forcing academies, but that the Secretary of State has ignored these methods; and calls on the Government to end its policy of forcing primary schools to become academies and to work with parents, governors and teachers to raise standards.