TEACHERS, staff and academics in higher education have boycotted the introduction of trust schools in the borough.

At a University and College Union (UCU) annual general meeting today, a motion was unanimously passed opposing the involvement of the Institute of Education in the management of a trust partnership involving primary and secondary schools in Waltham Forest.

There are plans to create three trust schools, created as part of the Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) program, giving the governing body ownership of buildings and control of the day-to day running of the school.

The plans have been met by fierce opposition from parents, teachers and governors.

The motion states: “Trust partnerships therefore remove democratic representation in the management of schools. They isolate schools from other schools in the borough, excluding trust schools from electorally determined education policy. They create a higher degree of competition between trust and non-trust schools.

“The management of the trust partnership will involve Institute staff in unpaid time to carry out their management duties. This is the last sort of financial burden that the Institute needs at this time.

”We believe that every child should have access to the best possible state school. within a democratic framework We deplore the marketisation of state education and the elitism that trust schools create.

“We therefore resolve to boycott and campaign against all attempts by the Institute to engage in the management of trust partnerships and to join with members in the NUT and over 900 Waltham Forest residents in our abhorrence of this project.”

NUT members at Norlington School in Leyton are in the process of being balloted this week for discontinuous strike action over the 'change of employer' that would come about from it becoming a trust school, which is grounds for a dispute under union rules.

The University and College Union (UCU) represents more than 120,000 academics, lecturers, staff and postgraduates in higher education, prisons and training organisations across the UK.