Hi,

I am putting my neck on the line here but unless somebody speaks up and says how things are then we are all heading for a big fall.

I am a teacher in one of the three schools due to close and I do have a post in the academy. I can categorically tell you that the plans are NOT in place for the opening in September. I have no idea where I will be based, if I will teach on one site or both, what curriculum I will be teaching….The list goes on and on. There is no infrastructure in place, nobody has any idea who is actually responsible for what. Despite all of the glossy titles people have been given, most of the job descriptions are so woolly that they don’t really help, the actual breakdown of who does what in the real world. The briefings that I have been privy to have just consisted of words with no meaning, similar to the press releases. Mr Blackledge comes out with statements about this and that but if you actually read them he is just stringing a lot of words together with no actual substance. One of the SLT has even told us what a shambles the whole situation is in and that there is no hope of being ready for September.

Myself and my colleagues have been forced to toe the line under threat from the county and the management. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side there is the management forcing us to do their bidding, on the other are the parents and children that we ourselves feel are being let down. We are forced to appear in support of the academy, breaking some of the kids hearts as they feel we have turned against them. We haven’t. We support them all of the way. We are just unable to show how we truly feel and many of us are being torn apart inside by the whole situation.

I have had no contact personally by my union, I feel unable to approach the union by myself as I will be labelled a troublemaker and probably lose my job. I like so many others still have to pay my bills after the current schools close, so I am again in a difficult situation, unable to take action on my own. I have read that in other areas the unions have joined forces and united the staff to protest with one voice. In our case there has been little more than a wimper. I feel totally let down by them as the children feel let down by us.

The statements by the management that all of the rumours are simply scaremongering are untrue; your children are going to suffer as a result of this without a doubt. I am so sorry we have been so weak and I fear it is too late for us to fight back, unless more of us come forward like this we are doomed. Time is running out but this process needs to be stopped.