Parents spoke out about the way their school is being run at a special event in York.
Millthorpe School parents and teachers, along with supporters, gathered at City Screen on Wednesday night in the latest stage of their campaign to reinstate a teacher.
We previously reported that Joe Brothers, a teacher at Millthorpe School, was suspended, allegedly for speaking out against school budget cuts.
He had claimed that the cost-cutting measures had “wreaked havoc” at the school.
Parents told YorkMix that they believed Mr Brothers’ suspension sets a bad example for children about being punished for speaking out.
A petition to reinstate Mr Brothers has gathered more than 1,100 signatures.
To further their movement, parents partnered with the National Education Union yesterday evening (19 March) to organise a sold-out screening of The Great School Robbery.
The documentary explores the impact of school academies on children, families, and communities. Chester Yang, the director of the film, was also at the event to host a Q&A session alongside a panel of experts.
Students attended a banner making session prior to the screening and created signs in support of Mr Brothers, some of which read, “Fund schools, cut cuts,” and, “Freedom of speech shouldn’t be punished”.
Cathryn Auplish, one of the parents behind the campaign, believes the suspension is completely unfair. She told YorkMix that they won’t give up.
“Ultimately, this evening is to show that the issue isn’t going away. It’s not going to be swept under the carpet and we want the Excel Learning Trust to reconsider the suspension of the teacher.
“He should be reinstated. He has done nothing wrong,” she said.
The Excel Learning Trust has run Millthorpe School since April 2016, when it became an academy, alongside another five schools in York.
Parents at the film evening questioned the benefits of the academy.
One parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I don’t see any actual positives, other than very superficial things, but I don’t see any positives at all. Of course, there are a number of people now making very large salaries out of that.
“I think there’s an ethical side to this whole question of why are we moving education budgets into private hands, rather than keeping it for the kids? I believe that the per head spend for kids has gone down while the pay for senior managers has rocketed.”
Parents said that the budget cuts have caused noticeable drawbacks within the school, including staff cutbacks and larger class sizes.
They believe these changes have “visibly strained the teachers and hindered students’ academic growth”.
A teacher from another York school who attended the screening told YorkMix that all schools have felt the effects of the budget cuts: “It’s hard for us to book supply teachers, it means there’s less resources that are easily available to use with the kids, and I was also one of the people that was fired and rehired.”
She believes that anyone involved with the school has a right to speak up about how they feel: “We live in a democracy where people should have the right to speak out about something they see as unjust.
“Money is being taken from people who are working at the front line of education and syphoned off to people that aren’t necessarily working at the front line of education on hugely inflated salaries.”
The Excel Learning Trust has issued a lengthy response to this story, which you can read here.