#hebden bridge

As most of you probably already know, my little corner of the world (Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge) has had a lot of press attention lately, following the huge floods we had on Boxing Day. They were worse than any in living memory, and hit much of the Calder Valley, but particularly the town I call home and the village just down the road where I live.

It’s been disastrous, and though I just managed to survive (another hour of rain and I’d probably have been flooded too), it’s awful seeing all those other homes and businesses get completely ruined. Still, the local community has pulled together incredibly, plus there’s been an overwhelming and heartwarming influx of people from further afield coming to help.

Other people have covered this better than me, but I did just want to mention something interesting. The local school, just around the corner from me, also got inundated, and they’re saying it’ll be months before it’s able to reopen, given the amount of work which needs doing.

This is a bit of a problem.

Y’see, the Labour Party, while it was still in power, toyed with the idea of devolving power from local school districts, (Local Education Authorities, or LEAs) to the individual school themselves, who would function autonomously as a new type of school called an academy. It was a bad, dumb idea, but a few schools did it anyway. The main reason was that this meant they had control over their own budgets and policies, rather than being answerable to the LEA. Some Head Teachers (Principles, for you non-Brits) quite liked the idea of being able to decide how to spend their budget without anyone checking they weren’t pissing it away on frivolities. Others liked the idea of being able to fire pesky teachers who questioned whether a new £10,000 desk in the reception was more important than replacing out-of-date textbooks. Many found both of these possibilities thrilling (and I’m not exaggerating here; these things have really been happening), but the process of becoming an academy was tricky, with lots of criteria they had to meet, so it didn’t really happen much.

Then the Coalition between the Tories and their enabling lickspittles the Liberal Democrats took power. They wanted to slash public expenditure, and experienced teachers are expensive. Also, they have well-organised unions run by well-educated and intelligent people. The last thing a right-wing government wants is intelligent lefties disagreeing with them. But how oh how could they crush the teachers?

Academies of course!

Labour’s model was dusted off, and basically opened to pretty much anyone who wanted a go. Schools which were struggling to get good results were forced to become academies, and a huge number of other schools have jumped at the chance too.

However, there’s one tiny hitch in the no-budget-oversight-no-policy-oversight-heads-become-a-law-unto-themselves party; the LEAs actually did have other responsibilities too. Specifically, they also watched schools’ backs, supported them, and bore the brunt of any large financial or legal burdens on their far broader shoulders.

You think schools shut at the first sign of snow now because it’s “health and safety gone mad” or because it’s lazy teachers who want the day off? Nope. They shut because they can’t afford the lawsuit if your kid falls over and breaks their wrist on an untreated path, and when you have extensive grounds with playing fields and a limited budget, it’s just not feasible to grit and police such an area.

Which brings us back to my local community and the local primary school. Who are an academy too. Have been for a few years. And now they’ve flooded, who’s gonna pay for the repairs? Not the LEA - they don’t have the money. The school already got that money and was supposed to spend it wisely. One would assume that since they’re in the valley bottom, in an area which has flooded in the recent past, when climate scientists are warning of more extreme weather including floods, that flood insurance would be a good idea.

One would also assume that such insurance was essential for health and safety reasons, given that the flood could have happened while the children were in school. It’s only fluke that it happened during the Christmas holidays. One has to question if it would even be legal to operate a school under such circumstances without proper insurance. But since they’re an academy, the school leadership is free to decide these things without anyone really checking. There should be oversight from the governors, but they’re well-meaning amateurs in most schools and so it’s easy for them to miss the important stuff. So things don’t get checked like they should be. That’s what happens in academies, over and over again.

Not that I’m saying they don’t have proper insurance. I have no idea. But what I do know for a fact is that this school has called round every single school in Calderdale, asking them to raise money. A non-uniform day has been suggested, where the students donate a pound to wear their own clothes, with the proceeds going in some vague way which really hasn’t been made clear to “affected schools.” A high school typically has around 1000 students. Get multiple schools involved and that’s thousands of pounds raised rather quickly, because given all the good spirit already demonstrated, who wouldn’t want to get involved and help?

I also found out just this morning that it’s not just Calderdale. This school has also been in touch with schools outside Calderdale as well. I know of at least one school in neighbouring Kirklees which is also having a non-uniform day for this cause, and I can only assume there will be others. This could quite easily raise £100,000 or more. I have no idea how far this goes.

I don’t mean to begrudge people’s goodwill, nor do I wish to see the school not reopen, but it does all rather beg the question why, if they were properly insured, do they need this much money all of a sudden? If they have insurance, shouldn’t the insurance pay? And if the insurance does pay, where does all the donated money go? And if they need it because they didn’t have insurance, why on earth didn’t they have it? Who is responsible for all of this?

The Academy system and Tory policies at work, folks.