Trust schools – young minds put at risk

7 September 2006

Commenting on the Government’s announcement of the schools which are to pilot trust status, Steve Sinnott, NUT General Secretary, said:

“The Government’s Trust Schools take power away from parents and teachers and give control of our schools to the sponsors.  Parents will have no choice about the future of their schools – the Government rejected a parental ballot. Instead the sponsors – who may come from any extremist group or none – will be in charge.

“If the Government wants to tackle the problem of social exclusion and deprivation, setting up a network of Trust schools will not achieve that. The scheme will be wasteful in terms of duplication of provision and dysfunctional in terms of co-ordination.”