The Hewett School, Norwich

EDM number 158 in 2015-16, proposed by Clive Lewis on 18/06/2015.
Categorised under the topic of Schools.

That this House condemns the Inspiration Trust's attempt to take control of the Hewett local authority school and gain ownership of its £60 million site, land that should remain a public asset; believes that the Inspiration Trust's family of schools is run by a small group of trustees, lacking transparency and accountability to the communities they serve; notes with disapproval the lack of democratic structures allowing for meaningful parental and community engagement in their children's schools, as well as Government policy exempting the Trust, along with other academy chains and their leadership teams, from Ofsted inspections; further notes the highly unsatisfactory investigation into the allegation that Dame Rachel de Souza received early warning of Ofsted inspections at Inspiration Trust schools and the suspicious disappearance of emails critical to the investigation from an Inspiration Trust school computer system; requests the Department for Education re-opens the investigation; calls on the Secretary of State for Education to ensure that the Hewett School site remains in the hands of a trust democratically appointed by Norfolk County Council; expresses its disappointment that the Department for Education's appointed Interim Executive Board has failed to conduct real and meaningful consultation with parents of children attending the Hewett School and the wider community; demands that the Department ensures this consultation takes place and publishes in full the results of the Hewett consultation and its reasons for rejecting Norfolk County Council's Village School proposal; and applauds the spirited defiance and campaign against the forced academisation of the Hewett School by pupils, parents and the local community.

This motion has been signed by a total of 24 MPs.