SAVE OUR SIKH SCHOOL - PLEASE DONATE AT THE LINK BELOW FOR LEGAL CHALLENGE

PRESS RELEASE
 
KHALSA SECONDARY ACADEMY PARENTS & COMMUNITY GROUP LEGAL CHALLENGE AGAINST UNFIAR DFE DECISION TO TERMINATE
 
Khalsa Secondary Academy parents and the community “Save Our Sikh School” is launching a legal challenge against the decision by the Government to take the school away from the Trust. They are extremely troubled with this appalling decision taken by the Department of Education (DfE) who are considering handing over the school to a Trust which could be a non-Sikh Faith Trust. Our petition has resulted in over 3,000 signatures within 5 days, through which parents and the community members have highlighted the overwhelming need to start a legal challenge.
 
The Confederation of School Trusts was selected by the DfE to carry out an independent review of the Trust. The findings of this review were extremely positive, stating: “The Trust has made significant progress, understands its responsibilities to ensure robust governance, is tackling the issues with vigour and determination and is in a strong position to move the Trust forward”. The summary of the report can be seen here. More information about the Trust leaders, Trustees and Senior Management can be found here.
 
Khalsa Academies Trust manages two other schools, of which one rated as Good and another rated as Outstanding.
 
If an Ofsted inspection is carried out now, it would demonstrate that the Trust has successfully resolved the basis of the Termination Warning Notice being "the Trust's capacity to make rapid and sustained improvement, particularly in relation to keeping children safe" as evidenced by the independent safeguarding audit. We are disappointed that DfE has not requested an Ofsted inspection before taking their decision. It is important to note that Burnham Park Academy, located in the same area and rated as "Requires Improvement" in 2014 and "Inadequate" in 2016, was given 5 years and visited three times and inspected again in 2019 by the Ofsted (see here), why is the same not being done for our Sikh School? This is an injustice and totally unfair.
 
We strongly believe that the Sikh community is being disrespected and discriminated. The community makes a substantial contribution to the UK economy and society. Over the last two months of lockdown, the community has served over 100,000 meals to the NHS and other key workers and has been covered on BBC TV. Sikhs donate over £1.2 million a day to charities, equivalent to more than 6.5 times the average annual charitable donation per person.
 
“Our School is a Sikh Institution with Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Gurdwara within its premises. It is a place of worship for students and is highly regarded by our community. Students of all faiths and none attend our school, and every student is valued, supported and nurtured in a caring environment. Our respect for unity shines in all that we do” said Anita Singh, a parent and Chair of PTA.
 
These sentiments are shared by our parents:

“It is unsettling to know during lockdown, that the school may be taken over by those who do not know the school, its values and ethos, nor the students who attend there.  I have complete faith in the Trust, school and all its staff”, said Gurmeet Kaur, Y7 parent
 
“My son had been bullied for two years at his previous school and become withdrawn and unresponsive.  Since he has started at KSA, we have got our son back. I am in full support of the Trust and do not believe this proposed change is necessary” Mrs S Kaur, Y9 parent.
 
“I am a new parent to the school.  My son is happy and there has been no issues of bullying, no issues at all since he started”, said Peter Stanhope, Y7 parent.

Sadly, the Government has a history of discrimination against Sikh Schools. Parents of the Seva Sikh Faith School in Coventry sought a Judicial review in 2019 and the DfE lost when they tried to transfer this Sikh School to another Trust because of the community backlash. Seva School was given 3 years to improve by Lord Nash. Why has Baroness Berridge and Dame Kate Dethridge only given Khalsa Secondary Academy 3 months, and that too when the country was under full lockdown?
 
Senior Sikh politicians met with the Minister of Academies on June 15th, 2020 to raise their concerns with regards to this appalling decision. They were further disappointed to learn that a decision was being taken that could see the transfer of KSA into a Non-Sikh Faith Trust. At a time when people all over the world are standing up against inequalities and injustice we too stand for these beliefs.

The exact words used in the notice are: “transfer to a strong performing sponsor” that means an organisation which has many successful schools in their trust with experience of secondary school, and not a new single academy trust and “that will respect the Sikh ethos of the school” that does not mean transferring to a Sikh faith Trust. We wrote to Dame Kate Dethridge raising parents' concerns and asked her to explain what this really means to which she replied stating that KSA will remain a formally designated Sikh school and will retain the same religious freedoms with regard to using faith-based admissions criteria, the appointment of teaching staff with reference to faith, and the ability to conduct religious education and collective worship according to the tenets of the faith of the school. We made it clear that, as she states, no decision has been made, therefore we, the parents, or anyone else, have no idea of the future of our school, until the decision is made, as it is still an unknown. We asked her to explain why this decision was made in such haste without giving the School and the Trust a reasonable time to put into effect the recommendations given by Ofsted without any monitoring visits and re-inspection as we can see has happened in other Bucks schools. We also made her aware of the CEO of Purslow Group quoting incorrectly and disrespectfully about Guru Nanak which is available on public domain.

Parents, Carers and Community members must stand together against this unjust and unfair decision. Please join the cause and help raise funds to fight this battle. All donations, no matter how large or small, are greatly appreciated and will go directly to the lawyers.
 
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Thank you for your support as we stand United. Together as One.