Sir – As one of a group of parents at Hampton Community College (HCC) who have raised objections to the proposed academy to be run by the Swedish company Kunskapsskolan, we are pleased that our concerns, plus those of the school’s governors, have been recognised by the council’s children’s services scrutiny committee.

It has put forward resolutions to the cabinet meeting recommending that the decision to make HCC an academy be reassessed and that the proposed sponsor must make clear it can deliver the required curriculum.

In addition, the issue of Kunskapsskolan running two academies in the same area should also be reconsidered given the resultant limitations on choice for parents.

Nick Whitfield, the director of education, promised that the academy proposal and the appointment of Kunskapsskolan as sponsor was not a certainty unless the council and he personally were satisfied the benefits could be delivered.

We are asked to believe that all of the issues will be resolved in the following feasibility stage when the detailed consultation will take place.

The scrutiny committee also accepted our view that the consultation to date had not been satisfactory.

We are concerned that the outcome of the consultations will unfortunately be a foregone conclusion.

The council has indicated to us that the Government department might remove Richmond from the process if it rejects the sponsor.

We fear the council may decide this is a risk it cannot afford to take, given the likely £25m per academy school which would be provided.

Therefore the academies will happen with these sponsors whatever the outcome of the consultation in the feasibility stage which would get the council out of a financial hole and fill an apparent policy gap.

Parents are unconvinced that Kunskapsskolan will deliver sufficient benefits to justify the enormous changes required to pupils’ lives, school buildings and teaching staff which they admit are required.

We are told there will be a period of transition but no one has quantified this and the uncertainty will be draining the morale of staff and parents already.

While little detail on how the school would be run has been revealed, some of the ideas put forward are already being used by the current school management who have effected considerable improvements.

We do not believe their style of teaching is transferable to England as Kunskapsskolan’s experience in Sweden, where a financial voucher system for each child exists for parents to use, is operating smaller private schools.

For those families with school-age children now and in the future, the proposal remains a large scale experiment with pupils the likely losers.

KEVIN RICE
Oldfield Road
Hampton