Welcome to another update on the activity and action by the HPSPC. We appreciate how hard it is to keep up with fast-changing events, so will send updates regularly in this vital week.
In the Parents Collective we want to slow down and pause this irreversible process of joining a large, national MAT. We demand the opportunity for a meaningful say in the future of our school. We will do everything we can to fight for the best outcomes for the children, parents, teachers and staff at Holland Park School and to resist the flawed process and pattern of decision-making by others on behalf of our school. We will be left with the consequences of these decisions and our deep attachment to HPS at the heart of the community deserves more than a cursory and limited consultation in name only.
Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement.
This newsletter covers
Our Legal Challenge
Parent Governor Vote - today is the last day you can vote!
List of governors and their email addresses - please copy them in on all your correspondence as it seems the chair is not sharing our letters with them all
Current Communications - HPS students have created their own Student Voices profile, Snapdragon Consulting PR firm being used by United Learning, and United Learning's extremely odd choice of UL example school for us to visit.
URGENT: Huge efforts are being focused at this critical time on building our legal fund - any donation big or small helps us fight to have a say in the future of our school.
HPSPC Legal Challenge
Following the legal update in the previous newsletter (21 April) we are urgently asking for more donations to build our legal fund.
Ultimately we all hope that this does not go to full litigation but we have to pursue this strategy in order to achieve an acceptable outcome for stakeholders.
We are pursuing action on multiple fronts to pause this process and the legal route is just one of many. However, it is a crucial component and unfortunately despite the huge contributions from parents with legal backgrounds for free, we need to raise further funds to commence a judicial review which will be the next phase of our legal strategy.
We will be able to commence proceedings as soon as we reach £25,000. We are getting there with many pledges and promises. Please help us get over the line. Every little helps.
Any further contributions that parents can make will be hugely appreciated, and lots of small amounts boost the pot significantly.
To donate ANY amount, no matter how small (we appreciate every amount), please check out the How to Donate blog here on how to make the most of your donation - thank you for every contribution.
You can access the Collection Pot directly here, however, please do check the How to Donate blog first to save on spending your money on fees.
Please note that if you want to donate a more substantial amount or if you want to talk to us about your donation, you can contact Sebastian Peattie or other members of our legal sub-committee on how to do that.
Parent Governors: final day of voting- closes 5pm TODAY
Each parent/carer eligible to vote should have had a unique ID sent by the school (from Sarah Pitchford) by email. It should take you to a page like this.
IF YOU HAVEN’T RECEIVED A UNIQUE ID BY EMAIL YOU CAN VOTE IN PERSON AT THE SCHOOL (call first 020 7908 1000).
If you have experienced problems with voting please let us know.
The list of candidates includes 11 people with brief background on this page.
Parents who are the members of the collective:
• Sam Cockroft (Hesketh)
• Gaelle Deschamps
• Elizabeth McKay
• Melanie Juno Wolfe
We recommend including as many candidates from the list of eleven as possible (in your order of preference) as 2nd, 3rd etc votes are transferred under the system used for this election.
The election is open until 5pm on Monday 25 April 2022 - please use your vote.
Sharing all communications with Governors
We have discovered that letters to the Chair of Governors (Jane Farrell) may not be shared with the board and that several governors do not know either that, the HPSPC exists or that many parents have been unhappy with the processes and changes affecting the school.
If you are writing to any of the key decision-makers such as Chair of Governors Jane Farrell, Schools Commissioner Dame Kate Dethridge or Secretary of State Nadhim Zahawi (all contacts details at the end of previous newsletters or ask us at contacthpspc@gmail.com) please consider copying your communications to the following current HPS governors (and sending us a copy for our central database of parents' correspondence, we can remove your name if desired):
Teresa Tunnadine teresa.tunnadine@middlesexlearningtrust.org.uk
Dr Vanessa Ogden ceo@mulberryschoolstrust.org
Adrian Percival adrian.percival@loddoneducation.co.uk
Roy Blatchford royb88@gmail.com
Yasser el Gabry yassereg@esa-ltd.com or info@esa-ltd.com (fao YAG)
David Chappell David.Chappell@hollandparkschool.co.uk
Louisa Mitchell lmitchell@westlondonzone.org
David Laws david.laws@epi.org.uk or info@epi.org.uk (fao David Laws)
Ed Vainker ed.vainker@reachacademy.org.uk
*fao = For the Attention Of
Current Communications - update
Keep up-to-date with what is going on by regularly checking this website. We are doing our best to keep it current but things are moving so fast it is hard to keep up. If you want answers that aren't here then please reach out to us at contacthpspc@gmail.com.
You may have seen that a number of current HPSPC students have created Instagram and Twitter accounts to share their views of what is going on. They have now taken a page on our website entitled "Student Voices" where you can see some of their comments and letters. Please do follow them on Instagram and Twitter, comment and share too help them raise their profile.
Questions have been raised by parents on the HPSPC Whatsapp group about the role of the public relations and political strategy Snapdragon Consulting, which appears to be involved in the stakeholder engagement programme. We are not clear what their relation is to HPS and/or United Learning. Many parents are concerned about the employment of PR agencies in managing communications around issues and decisions involving our school and request immediate transparency from the Governing Body.
Further questions are being raised in the HPSPC Whatsapp group about the arranged visit to a United Learning School - this has now been updated on the stakeholder engagement website to a tour of Guildford High School on Tuesday 10 May 10.30-2.30pm. GHS is an independent (private) day school for girls and it is unclear why parents are not being invited to visit United Learning’s Paddington Academy, in the nearby Maida Vale (Westminster). It is branded as United Learning (as are most of their secondary schools with the exception of Guildford High School). Perhaps this will be made clear at the meeting run by United Learning at Holland Park School on Tuesday 26 April from 6pm - register on Eventbrite here. Some parents will be boycotting the meeting as no one from the HPS Governing Body is attending, however, others feel our presence in necessary to show our engagement and meet other interested parents.
All in this together
Finally, please spread the word: let friends, neighbours, fellow or future parents and the community know about the HPS Parents Collective and our efforts to question, challenge and understand these irreversible and opaque decisions on the future of Holland Park School - ask them to contacthpspc@gmail.com for background and previous newsletters or visit this website to browse.