EXCLUSIVE: Eight teachers are to be made redundant from schools in Croydon run by the Harris Federation, according to an internal document obtained by this website. By GENE BRODIE, education correspondent
The multi-academy trust with a half-million-a-year chief executive based in Croydon wants to cut eight teachers’ jobs in the borough, Inside Croydon can reveal.
According to a confidential briefing document obtained by this website, six teaching posts are to go at Crystal Palace (it is unclear if this is Harris’s secondary or primary, or from both), and one at Aspire, the Harris Academy in Oliver Grove, South Norwood.
The list also includes one job loss at South Norwood.
According to the document, hardest hit is the Harris school in Peckham, where eight jobs are slated for the chop.
Cashing in: Harris spends massive amounts of public money on high-paid execs, while cutting teaching jobs
Harris’s school in nearby Beckenham stands to lose seven teaching jobs.
Teachers’ unions are blaming the job cuts on the Federation’s top-heavy bureaucracy, headed by CEO Sir Dan Moynihan.
Last night, the National Education Union, issued a statement: “Teachers and parents will not tolerate academies that put profit and personal gain ahead of educational standards.
“While Harris Academy spends £3.2million a year on senior management, they tell our members to get ready [for] redundancies.
“We will organise against this.”
Under the academy system, the Harris Federation manages schools with state funding provided through the Department for Education. It has become a massive education business which has 44,000 children across its schools. It was founded by Lord Harris of Peckham, a carpet salesman and prominent donor to the Conservative Party.
In addition to its chief executive, Sir Dan Moynihan, and his massive salary (listed as being on at least £600,000 in Harris’s 2023-2024 accounts, and making him the highest paid academy boss in the country), according to their own figures in their 2023-2024 annual report, Harris has more than 30 employees on annual remuneration packages of £200,000 or more.
This may include some principals, senior managers of some of the largest schools, but is thought to comprise mainly Moynihan and his HQ executives.
It almost certainly does not include any of the teachers who are now facing possible redundancy.
‘Organise’: the National Education Union’s statement issued last night
“This raises serious questions about governance priorities and the Federation’s commitment to delivering high-quality education, rather than preserving a corporate-style leadership model,” a teacher at a Harris academy told this website.
And union officials are asking serious questions about how the Harris Federation is conducting the redundancy process.
“There’s a legal requirement to consult about redundancies when there’s more than 20 staff involved,” one source said.
“In Croydon, the council’s human resources department advises its schools to consult whatever the numbers being proposed for redundancy, even if it is just two. The schools in Croydon have always done so.
“But here, Harris are saying that neither that advice, nor the law, apply to their Federation.”
Read more: 1,000 Harris academy staff in call for improved conditions
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How was a middleman ever going to do anything but add (/skim) costs.