Noel Park academy sponsor 'pleased' to work with school (From Haringey Independent)

Noel Park Primary School academy sponsor Academies Enterprise Trust 'pleased' to work with school

4:28pm Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News By David Hardiman

The sponsor set to run a Wood Green school after governors agreed to convert it into an academy has said it is “extremely pleased” with the agreement.

The headteacher and chair of governors at Noel Park Primary School, in Gladstone Avenue, wrote to parents last week to inform them that becoming an academy was “the best option for the school in difficult circumstances”.

The school will work with the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), which runs Nightingale Academy and Aylward Academy in Edmonton, after the Department for Education (DfE) warned that it would remove the board of governors and impose its own board if staff resisted the change.

Mike Barnett, of AET, said: “We are extremely pleased to be given the opportunity to work with Noel Park Primary to become an academy in the drive to raise standards and take the school on to a higher level.

“We believe this proposal will lead to success and stability for the whole school community.”

Noel Park was recommended by Ofsted to be put into special measures in December after a report found it was “failing” and that those leading the school were “not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement”.

AET runs 20 academies across the capital and was set up in September 2008.

The school must now hold a formal consultation period with parents and has organised a meeting tomorrow evening at 6.30pm where governors and the new sponsors will answer questions.

Noel Park is one of four schools that were told they must agree to become academies in December.

Ofsted investigators visited Downhills Primary School in Philip Lane last week to carry out an inspection after campaigners forced Education Secretary Michael Gove to put a hold on plans to convert the school into an academy until Ofsted had reported back.

The Haringey Independent understands that governors at Coleraine Park Primary School in Glendish Road have written to Mr Gove to say they will not agree voluntarily to become an academy, while governors at Nightingale Primary School in Bounds Green Road are also set to reject the idea.

More than 1,000 protestors marched from Downhills to Haringey Civic Centre on January 28 to show their opposition to the plans.