Members of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) voted, at their annual conference in Birmingham, to empower their national executive to “continue to challenge the perception that structural change is a panacea for improvement” and “consider all options up to and including as a last resort industrial action to ensure the defence of our comprehensive state education system”.
At the same time, they have called for their union to instigate a public inquiry into the likely impact of forced academisation on the education system. The move came just hours after Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, was jeered during her speech to delegates.
Janice Turner, a Nottinghamshire head, who spoke during the debate in favour of industrial action, said: “For a long time we’ve been bribed, we’ve been threatened, we’ve been blackmailed and we’ve been punished. We have no further means other than to say an absolute ‘no – you can’t do this to us’.”
Mike Millman, the NAHT’s West Midlands regional secretary, accused Ms Morgan of being economical with the truth on academisation and added: “Never before have parents been so let-down, lied-to and patronised by this government.”
Earlier, Ms Morgan told delegates that the six-year run-in to the full academisation of all schools would give heads a “clear sense of direction” to help them “make the right choices” about conversion.
To jeers from angry headteachers, she said the timescale would allow for effective planning “for a sustainable future in the model – standalone or multi-academy trust – that works for them, keeping in place local arrangements that work and looking at new arrangements aimed at driving up standards”.
Ms Morgan used the speech to reiterate her commitment to every school becoming an academy and said she expected three-quarters of secondaries to have converted by 2022.
She said this would improve outcomes for students and give schools greater autonomy to “make the right decisions” for their pupils.
The secretary of state said that while academy status in itself did not raise standards, it paved the way for greater collaboration and support between schools.
She said the aim was to build the “scaffolding” to support struggling schools, and academies were the best way to spread “the reach of the best leaders over several schools; recruit, train, develop and deploy better teachers, incentivising them to stay in the profession through new career opportunities; and ensure teachers can share best practice on what works in the classroom”.
Local authorities would continue to provide SEN services and ensure every child had a school place, she said, and academies would be able to continue buying in their services.
Mr Morgan was heckled during her speech and the questions that followed, and was accused by NAHT members of not listening to their concerns.
Many laughed when she told heads her “door was always open”. One shouted: “But you’re not listening”.
Following the debate, Russell Hobby, the NAHT’s general secretary, said: “We’ve seen the serious concerns school leaders have about the government’s plans to remove the sensible element of choice about academy conversion, and impose the change on all schools regardless of how well they perform.
“The government has failed to win the argument on academies, so this motion empowers NAHT’s negotiators to press them hard on the detail and the rationale for conversion. As things stand the government has no answers to school leaders’ sensible and reasonable questions. The secretary of state has said her door is open and that she will listen. Now she needs to honour that offer.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said “The academies programme is at the heart of our reforms which have raised standards for children across the country. We want to work constructively with the sector to ensure every child has the excellent education they deserve.”