Pupils plan strike to stop London school being turned into an academy

 
Taking a stand: Crown Woods College pupil Georgia Abbott, who says teachers have ignored her concerns about the school being made an academy (Picture: Lucy Young)
Jennifer Smith30 May 2014

A 12-year-old girl has organised a strike after saying she is being ignored by teachers proposing to turn her school into an academy.

Georgia Abbott and about 50 other pupils will protest outside Crown Woods College, in Eltham, next week, claiming their concerns over the school becoming an academy were not taken seriously.

The schoolgirl, who launched a playground petition for her campaign, said she was prepared to accept punishment for the strike if it meant being listened to.

“Our headteacher said everyone was happy with the plans to turn the school into an academy and I want to show that we’re not all happy,” she said.

“They try to sweep [my speaking out] under the carpet because I’m young and they think that people won’t listen to me.

“But not a lot of people are as up-front about it as I am. People need to understand and know that if they listened to each other they would see that everyone has their own opinion and it should be heard.”

Georgia is among concerned pupils and teachers who fear turning the school into an academy would lower the quality of teaching.

“There are already teachers doing more jobs than the one they’re meant to do in the first place and we’re worried it’ll get worse,” she added.

“If you look at other schools that have been turned into academies their Ofsted rating has gone down.”

After collecting more than 150 signatures against the plans, Georgia was called to headmaster Michael Murphy’s office.

“He brought in his financial man who said what we were saying wasn’t true. But I said ‘I’m sorry sir, I have looked at both sides and have decided which side to choose’.

“Mr Murphy said if we went ahead then we would be punished for being truant. But if it means being heard, I’m happy to take that.”

Crown Woods College governors voted last year to join Leigh Academies Trust, and will see the school partner with Ravensbourne College after consultation with teachers and parents.

Georgia and her fellow pupils plan to strike on June 3.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in