Primary school sponsor help

Mrs_J_S

Hi
I was hoping someone maybe able to help me out here, I have been searching the net for the last hour and a half and still can't find the answer. I'm fed up.

My children's primary school has recently been awarded academy status and apparently they have a sponsor as they were rated 'must improve' by ofsted.

I know the head has been approached by a mum and the school and she asked who was the sponsor and was told in no uncertain terms that 'you do not need to know'

Well I disagree, I think as parents we have a right to know.

I think i can request this information under the freedom of information act but I'm unclear who I make this request to. Is it the school or is it the Department of Education?

Does anyone have any experience or expertise in this area?

Hope you can help.

Thanks

Jen

balletshoes

have you asked the head? I would, in writing - I would also ask how the sponsor will help the school.

Mrs_J_S

Hii
Thanks for the reply.
The head has been asked already and said that parents do not need to know.
I will put my request in writing as you suggest I suppose it is good starting point, she can only say I do not need to know in writing too.

GobbledyGook

http://www.education.gov.uk/b00229151/sponsoring-an-academy

Your Head shouldn't be being shifty with parents though - you have a right to know who the sponsor is. Parental involvement will help the school as well.

thorsoak

If the Head won't give you this information, write to the Chairman of Governors, the local LEA and, possibly, your MP!

Mrs_J_S

I have had contact with the PTA 2 letters and an e mail in the last 3 weeks but have yet to receive any contact back from them. Not looking good, I think from what i can gather that rather than being impartial and holding the head to account they are actually in Cahoots.
My next stops were going to be ofsted, MP, LA and whoever governs the governors if I can this out.

bigmomma051204

Contact your local council - Just explain that you need the contact for freedom of information requests and they will be able to help... no need to give the person who answers the phone initially all the info you are after

They also have to respond in a certain amount of days to your request so not too much hanging around!

"The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) give the general public rights of access to any recorded information held by public authorities, unless a specified exemption applies."

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request/the-freedom-of-information-act

Mrs_J_S

Big momma does this apply to Primary schools with academy status too? I was going to quote the freedom of information act but write to the head not the LA

GobbledyGook

Has the school been OFSTED inspected recently?

If so the sponsor might be in the report. You can look the report up on the OFSTED page.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

This might help - but it is about six months' old. If they're already an academy, it might be there because of the time taken to arrange it.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/sep/26/academies-sponsors-list-map

securityguy

Google is your friend.

List of all academies, with sponsors where relevant, from the DfE website:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies/open/b00208569/open-academies