Lewisham: Prendergast Vale PTA chair resigns after strikes

Emma Gray, chair of the Friends of Prendergast Vale (FOPV), resigned after 14 years, accusing some governors of “actively fanning the flames” as teachers received “vicious” messages “accusing them of inciting teen suicide”.

She wrote that she was “heartbroken” but felt senior staff and governors’ behaviour had left her with no option but to resign.

Prendergast Vale is one of three schools, known as the Leathersellers’ Federation, whose staff have staged a series of strikes since leaders announced plans in February to turn them into academies.

In her resignation letter, published on Facebook, Mrs Gray said schools’ leaders had “sent appalling letters to parents that seemed to be deliberately turning parents against staff”.

The News Shopper has previously reported that the schools sent letters to parents, calling the strikes ideological and “political activism”.

Emma Gray had served with the Friends of Prendergast Vale (FOPV) for 14 years. She said she published her resignation letter because the school had used its own communications to present a one-sided picture to parents (Image: Facebook (Emma Gray))

Parents and teachers complained that it was an inappropriate use of school communications, but the schools defended the messages as "factual” and “accurate”.

Mrs Gray said she had published her resignation letter specifically because the school had used its own communications to only present one side of the debate to parents.

“If I was in a position of choosing a school for my children, I would want to know about this,” she said.

"Failed"

Mrs Gray wrote that in addition to official letters to parents, some governors used “their own personal social media accounts” to fuel division.

One governor, Ian Duffy, called teacher strikes “cynical and malicious” and said they amounted to “blackmail”.

Mrs Gray continued: “Some governors were in WhatsApp groups where parents spoke hatefully about staff and did not intervene, moreover only chipping into conversations to deliberately escalate anti-staff feelings from parents.”

She added: “You failed to stand up for your staff and you failed to stand up for your parents.”

Teachers at the federation made national headlines by voting to strike for nine days after governors pressed ahead with academisation, despite their own consultation showing respondents were overwhelmingly opposed.

Mrs Gray characterised the schools’ attitude in her letter as, “We know what you think and we don’t care, we’re doing this anyway.”

An excerpt from Emma Gray's open letter of resignation, expressing her dismay at how school leaders have handled their plan to turn the Prendergast schools into academies (Image: Facebook (Emma Gray))

"Painful"

Despite previously suggesting they might consider alternatives, leaders announced last week that their decision to academise was now final.

Staff were said to be “devastated” when the news was announced on Friday by union leaders, with some reduced to tears.

Mrs Gray, who had chaired the PTA for five of her 14 years, resigned three days later.

Contacted by the News Shopper, she tearfully explained: “It was a very, very painful decision. That PTA means a lot to me, so it was a hard, hard decision.”

In her resignation letter, she wrote that while she was “not a fan of the academy system”, she had personally been “reassured” after attending a consultation event.

She resigned not over the academisation, she wrote, but over the way leaders had handled the process and taken the decision.

She even suggested they may have led staff on and prolonged negotiations just because “they didn’t want staff to find out until it was too late for them to resign, i.e. not before the end of half term”.

Teachers must give a full half-term’s notice if they plan to leave.

The Leathersellers' Federation, which owns the Prendergast schools, declined to respond to Emma Gray's resignation letter (Image: Google Streetview)

Mrs Gray wrote that leaders “chose to railroad an ideology at the expense of everything”.

“The only option I feel they have is to stand down,” she wrote.

“They will not be able to rebuild bridges that they themselves have torn down for a personal vanity project and ideology.

“They will never be trusted again by parents or staff at Vale or across the federation of schools.”

The News Shopper has been asked to send all press enquiries for the schools to a communications agency they have hired to promote academisation.

The agency said the schools would not be responding publicly to Mrs Gray’s open letter.