Taking a message to the Leathersellers' Company - think again, no academy!

Hundreds of parents, students and striking staff gathered today to protest outside four Lewisham schools to protest, once again, against the threat of academisation.

The focus today was on the battle to stop the Governors of the three Prendergast schools in the Leathersellers' Federation pushing through an academy conversion against the wishes of the local community and without any serious attempt at consultation.

See a video of the day via: http://youtu.be/k_kI_oqpXv0


A large and noisy delegation went to the City of London to hand in a letter to the Leathersellers' Company at their headquarters in Garlick Hill. 

Here's what the letter said:

"As parents, staff and students in Lewisham, we know that the Leathersellers' Company is proud of its traditions and its support for education in our borough. It therefore saddens us to know that you appear to have put your support behind a proposal which will permanently divide and damage education in Lewisham.

Even the research carried out by the Leathersellers’ Federation’s own Governor’s Working Party had to agree that academies are ‘controversial and unproven’. The Education Select Committee has found no proof that they raise standards. Yet, if Governors vote to turn the Prendergast schools into academies, it could quickly push other Lewisham schools into becoming academies too. 

Do the Leathersellers’ Company want to be forever remembered as the institution that triggered the break-up of maintained schooling within the Borough of Lewisham? Please, think again and withdraw your backing for the proposed academy conversion".

We hope the message is beginning to get through! If not, then the SAiL campaign will only get bigger and louder until our message is acted upon.

Delivering the letter