Teachers at an academy chain founded by the former Conservative schools minister John Nash and his wife are preparing to go on strike, claiming the trust is “blighting the life chances of the children”.
The curriculum used by Future Academies, developed by Caroline Nash, a stockbroker, is said in a letter to governors of one the chain’s schools to be among the most narrow in the country.
Latin is the sole language taught at primary level, it is claimed, while history exercises allegedly ask children under the age of 11 to replicate university-standard essays.
Separately, the Guardian has seen one textbook used by primary pupils that required them to put themselves in the minds of historical figures about to kill themselves.
“Imagine that you are Seneca, in the process of committing suicide, in AD65”, read one ancient history exercise book. “Write your final words to be dictated by your scribe before you immerse yourself in a hot bath and bleed to death.”
According to the teachers’ letter, children are only allowed to speak in class when asked a question by a teacher, and group work has been forbidden.
It is further claimed by the staff, who are being represented by the National Education Union, that the school fails to teach the national curriculum subjects of computing, and design and technology.
Academies are outside local authority control and have the freedom to innovate with their curriculum, set the length of the school day and term dates and introduce their own standards for teaching pay and conditions.
The teachers at Churchill Gardens Academy, a Future Academies primary where a ballot for a strike has opened, claim staff are being overworked and that the children have been left demoralised. They describe the situation as “untenable”.
“Staff are doing their very best to mitigate the failings of the trust, but this is now a question of public interest”, they write. “The trust cannot be allowed to continue its current course: blighting the life chances of the children in its care and treating its staff with contempt.”
The letter continues: “To ask these children to develop academically and emotionally in classes that are only ever silent, is morally reprehensible, and legally questionable …
“Asking a primary child to produce a university-standard essay is akin to asking an adult with no experience of engineering to design an engine with only a Ferrari Formula One engine as a benchmark. With the best teaching in the world, the vast majority would be utterly confused and demoralised by the completely inaccessible model they have been provided with.”
An indicative ballot of teachers at Churchill Gardens Academy earlier this summer found unanimous support for a strike. A formal ballot opened this week and will close on 28 September, before potential action on 13 October.
Future Academies, whose motto is Libertas Per Cultum, or freedom through education, runs 10 academies, including three primaries, in London and Hertfordshire, and a teacher training college.
It was founded in 2006 by Lord Nash, a venture capitalist and Tory donor, and his wife, Caroline, described as a “stockbroker by training” who had “a successful career in the international division of a French merchant bank”. She was also previously a Citizens Advice bureau counsellor.
Nash was a schools minister between 2013 and 2017 and was the lead non-executive director across the government from July 2020 until earlier this year.
Six years ago, the National Union of Teachers cited Future Academies as an example of the issues raised by deregulation of the sector when the couple’s daughter Jo, who was unqualified as a teacher and had previously worked for the Tory cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, was given an unpaid teaching position.
Last year, the headteacher at Pimlico Academy, a secondary school within the academy chain, resigned after hundreds of students at the school took part in a demonstration over changes to the curriculum, uniform policy and the siting of a union flag outside the academy building.
Students, parents and some staff at the central London academy were infuriated over new rules that prohibited hairstyles that “block the views of others” and stated that hijabs should not be “too colourful”. Pupils had accused the school’s management of racism, claiming that the policy would penalise Muslims and those with afro hairstyles.
The academies trust has rejected claims of discrimination, saying it teaches students to be “respectful of others, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, age, disability or religious belief.”
Future Academies did not respond to a request for comment.
