Cllr Mili Patel breaks silence on The Village School academisation

Cllr Mili Patel

Cllr Mili Patel, Brent Cabinet member for Children and Young People, yesterday broke her silence regarding the proposed academisation, via a Multi-Academy Trust, of The Village School. The MAT would consist of The Village and Woodfield School, which is already an academy. The other Brent special school, Manor, is also an academy. The three schools are involved in a project to set up a free school together.

If academisation were to go ahead it would mean special education in Brent was outside local authority oversight.

In a statement to the Morning Star yesterday she said:

The Village School and Woodfield School have worked in partnership for some time.

The education policies of the Tory government - including a 2.7billion cut to the schools budget and barriers to schools partnering up in any way that doesn't involve them becoming academies - have led to the Village School governors considering joining the same multi-academy trust as Woodfield. This is something most of the governors themselves would tell you they never thought they would be considering.

As a Labour Council we do not want them to take this step and I have been working hard to demonstrate the advantages of staying within the Brent school of families [sic 'family of schools'] to its governors.

It is encouraging the governors have taken this important decision out to consultation which will give local people the chance to demonstrate the strength of feeling there is in Brent against these plans.