Who Wants To Be An Academy Teacher?

Well it's a question facing every teacher in the three schools. For the vast majority it is one of the hardest to answer.
Many have mortgages or other financial commitments and many more have families of their own to support. It cannot be an easy thing to have to decide.
The amount of information produced by the Sponsors and their chosen management company Mouchel is scarce, vague and misleading enough to warrant an emergency governors meeting at Parkview to discuss TUPE irregularities, the outcome of why like almost everything else surrounding this sea change in education, still hasn't been made public knowledge.

One of the key 'benefits' the sponsors get for spending huge sums of public money without any responsibility whatsoever is that the Academy school can ignore the nationally negotiated wage agreements. This is how the DCSF play this fact as a benefit which is quite amazing really as this government is a Labour one.
The unions seem to be completely impotent and no wonder because another key benefit for sponsor led Academies is that they have no need to recognise the unions!

So two of the big benefits for the sponsors are significantly altering their employees terms and conditions of employment.

There is also a way round the TUPE regulations which are meant to ensure that people moving from Secondary schools to Academy schools have their pay and conditions transferred as is and maintained for a period of time which varies based on the kind of job they do. But there is a massive loophole which may be being exploited by the Sponsors and Mouchel.
These regulations only count if the position is transfered as is.

There are going to be a massive 51 new 'management' positions in the Academy NONE of which exist in any of the predecessor schools. There is a Principal, 2 vice principals, four directors of learning and so on down through the levels with very few people actually transferring in their current positions. This is a disgusting use of the 'rules' and is a way the sponsors, principal and their management make sure they get the people they want not necessarily the best people for the jobs.

The teachers and support staff are in a cleft stick. Many have already left the schools as they saw the problems coming. Many others do not have the luxury of being able to move so they have to stay and either get on the 'Academy bus' even if they don't believe in it or they have to hope that they can make the right noises to be kept on and transferred to the Academy.
Those that don't make the cut will have a 'meeting' with their current employers and then thrown on the scrap heap. Those that do get a job may find themselves out of one within a couple of years as a lot of the rights they currently have as County Council employees are thrown out of the window.
so do they stay and work for something they don't believe in hoping another opportunity will allow them to escape or do you bury your principles and all that you have worked for just for the money?

What sort of choice is that to be offering really committed people?