The defiant former headteacher of one of Michael Gove’s embattled flagship academies has given an ultimatum to ministers, claiming the school will have to be shut down if funding is taken away from the trust that runs it.
In an interview with TES, Sir Greg Martin said the charitable trust that supported Durand Academy, as landowner, would not allow another organisation to take over if the funding was pulled, meaning the government would have to close the school.
For ministers to make such an “extreme” move, he said, could potentially “ruin the hopes and aspirations” of generations of children.
Sir Greg, who is now chair of governors, added that his “only regret” about how he had run the school was that it had converted to academy status.
‘They will ruin the hopes of generations of children because they don’t like me’
In a reference to the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and the Department for Education, he said that by doing so, schools put themselves “into the hands of unscrupulous people who are not conditioned by democratic practice and who are a law unto themselves”.
His claims come just weeks after the EFA said it would be terminating the South London school’s funding agreement, amid high-profile concerns about conflicts of interest in its complex management structure.
Asked if the Durand Education Trust (DET) - the charitable foundation behind the academy - would give up ownership of the land to allow someone other than the Durand Academy Trust to run the school, Sir Greg said: “The answer’s no, and also we are not moving. They can’t move us. The only thing they can do, as far as we understand it, is distribute the children and make all teachers redundant. That’s a very, very extreme thing to do to a fairly successful school.”
He added that the trust would be left with a large, empty site. “We could do all sorts of business, make a much bigger business out of it,” Sir Greg said. “But they will ruin the hopes and aspirations of generations of children because they don’t like me and what I got paid out of non-public money.”
Potential legal action
In a wide-ranging interview, the unapologetic teacher, who retired as executive head last year after 29 years leading the school, said the academy trust was now demanding a face-to-face meeting with education secretary Justine Greening to argue against the decision to stop the funding. The trust is also bracing itself to take legal action if the plan goes ahead.
The notice came after the trust failed to comply with a number of steps that the EFA had called for in July to deal with “repeated significant breaches” of its funding agreement. Many centred on concerns about conflicts of interest between various organisations connected to the academy trust, including private companies (see box, below).
One of the EFA’s demands was that Sir Greg should resign as chair of governors of Durand Academy Trust by 1 August and hold no other position in the organisation, but he refused.
Saying that he had “the proven track record of ability to deliver”, he added: “I think I’m very valuable to the school. I’m very good for the school. I know how it works, obviously.”
He believes that, after Mr Gove’s departure from the DfE, he and Durand have become victims of an establishment “conspiracy” to ruin his reputation, singling out his criticisms of the state education system and the money he received from a private leisure centre run on the school site as reasons.
‘We all think we live in a parliamentary democracy, but we don’t, we live in a totalitarian state’
He said the system offered no avenues of appeal: “The only thing they leave you is the courts, and we will apply to the courts for intervention against what is an oppressive, totalitarian approach.
“We all think we live in a parliamentary democracy, but we don’t, we live in a totalitarian state. These people set themselves up - we don’t know who they are - with immense powers from the secretary of state.”
Sir Greg maintained that the official findings about conflicts of interest were incorrect. He was, in particular, at pains to note that his £229,000 executive head pay made him only England’s ninth highest-paid teacher.
He was also unapologetic about the extra £175,000 he received through a leisure centre on the school site, which he said was a just reward for commercial success. But he understood the controversy surrounding his pay, saying that society now harboured “bitterness and resentment” towards the well-paid.
Now, as the story of Durand moves towards its end game, Sir Greg has stepped up a campaign to seek wider support for the school and its management, using 12 YouTube videos to put his case directly to parents and the public. An online petition calling for Ms Greening to stop the EFA “attacking” Durand has also been launched.
Je ne regrette rien
Given the controversies and adverse publicity, does Sir Greg have any regrets?
“No, none,” he insisted. “The one mistake I made was becoming an academy. I would say to other schools: do not under any circumstances become an academy. You put yourselves into the hands of unscrupulous people who are not conditioned by democratic practice and who are a law unto themselves.
“Bad and difficult though some of the local authorities are, I would much prefer that - there, at least there’s a measure of democratic control.”
‘The one mistake I made was becoming an academy’
For Sir Greg, setting up a private company to make money for the school was the logical conclusion of the academies programme that promoted entrepreneurship and innovation.
“Well, we’ve got it, haven’t we - and now they don’t want it,” he said.
The DfE was unable to comment on whether the DET, as landowner, could prevent anyone else running the school.
In response to Sir Greg’s claims, academies minister Lord Nash said: “Following much consideration, we have advised Durand Academy Trust that we are planning to proceed with the termination of the trust’s funding agreement. This is not a decision we have taken lightly, but it has been done to safeguard the future education of Durand’s pupils, and to ensure public money and public assets intended for the education of children are managed effectively.”
