The Department for Education’s vision is for a highly educated society in which opportunity is more equal for children and young people no matter what their background or family circumstances. I recently presented my cooperative schools bill to parliament with the aim of bringing forward this vision.
I believe part of the vision is a society that values self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. These are the values of the cooperative movement and of the Cooperative party.
The Schools Cooperative Society, the coordinating body of cooperative schools, shares these values which are evident in cooperative trust schools. Parents, teachers, pupils and the local community all work together for mutual benefit. Performance improves: pupils learn and are more engaged with the life of the school.
The best possible environment for young people to learn and develop is created – where everyone is encouraged to take responsibility for their own actions, the local community has a say in how the school is run, and with a commitment to equality and equity everyone is helped to be the best they can.
In 2008 the prime minister, then leader of the opposition, spoke of the desire to see a ‘new generation of cooperative schools … funded by the taxpayer but owned by parents and the local community.’ However, there is no sign that this has been attempted by this government.
Michael Gove has made academies the centrepiece of education policy and furthermore the free schools policy hasn’t led to a new generation of parent-owned cooperatives. To date, just one of the free schools is expected to operate as a cooperative. Much is said about choice in education, but if this is to become a reality we need to allow cooperative school trusts to flourish and remove hurdles that make that difficult.
At the moment the legal forms of cooperatives are determined as Industrial and Provident Societies, or cooperative or community benefit societies, and there is no provision in the relevant acts for cooperative schools. They have to work around the existing legislation in a clumsy and confusing way.
The first clause of my bill seeks amending future education legislation to make provision for Industrial and Provident Societies, ensuring a level playing field with other school structures.
Despite the legal difficulties, in just five years cooperative schools have become the third largest grouping within the English education system, with currently over 450 operating. Thirty have become cooperative converter academies, a small number are cooperative sponsor academies and we have seen the creation of the first cooperative multi-academy trust.
They have developed a distinct model that enables schools to embed cooperative values into the ethos of the school. This also includes ethical values in keeping with the founders of the cooperative movement – openness, honesty, social responsibility and caring for others.
As the secretary of state for education has recognised, when extending the academies programme to primary schools, it is vital that children get the best foundation at primary level to realise their potential at secondary level. I agree, and I think we also need to get it right at nursery level.
Many cooperative networks and cooperative trusts are based on strong geographical clusters. They wish to raise achievement by supporting young people from nursery to school leaving age. Yet the Education Act of 2006 prevents nurseries setting up as school trusts.
Consequently, clause two of my bill would remove the relevant clause in the act enabling nursery schools to be established as school trusts.
Cooperative schools are very well placed not only to ensure high standards of education, but also to teach children that the values of cooperation have a great deal to offer. Pooling resources across schools is something to be welcomed at a time of austerity, but doing so at any time ensures a productive collaborative approach and the most effective use of resources.
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Meg Munn is MP for Sheffield Heeley. She tweets @MegMunnMP. Please see here for more on the Schools Cooperative Society
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