Ealing Council 's chief member for education has said she could "write a book" about some of the things that happened at Acton High School before it became an academy and that some of what went on was "frankly pornographic".

Former teacher, councillor Yvonne Johnson said she could "sell her stories" about it to a tabloid newspaper after the school went into special measures in 2017 and was later ordered by the Government to become an academy.

And although she said the school was now improving, the Labour stalwart said she would have preferred if it had remained under the control of the council.

Her strong comments came at a full council meeting on Tuesday (October 9), as Conservative councillors demanded that Labour apologise to parents for "failing past and present students" at the school.

The Department for Education appointed Ark Schools to turn the school into an academy - which officially opened last month as Ark Acton Academy - as part of the Government's plan to turn all 'failing' schools into academies.

Staff at the troubled school also went on a series of strikes to express concerns about the way the school was being run and also to protest against the academisation order.

Banners touted by striking teachers at the time read: 'Teachers' working conditions are children's learning conditions. Ark's conditions drive teachers out. How is Ark the answer?'

Earlier in 2018, staff held strikes protesting against Acton High School being turned into an academy. Pic: submitted. Clear for use.
Earlier in 2018, staff held strikes protesting against Acton High School being turned into an academy

Cllr Johnson reacted angrily to the demand for an apology, though, telling the Tory group: "It was your Government that said failing schools should become academies. One can't stop schools failing Ofsted inspections.

"I'm sorry the school failed its Ofsted. There was a whole set of circumstances there. I mean I could probably write a book about what went on at Acton High. Some of it was frankly pornographic. I could make a lot of money by selling the story to The Sun.

"But I'm not going to do that. The results at Acton High this summer were very good and a lot of students taking their A levels did really well and will be going to all sorts of top universities in the Russell Group."

Councillor Yvonne Johnson said some of the goings on at Acton High were "frankly pornographic". Pic submitted. Clear for use
Councillor Yvonne Johnson said some of the goings on at Acton High were "frankly pornographic"

She added: "I'm proud of the hard work our schools do. We do extremely well."

"I would have preferred the school would stay with Ealing but you can't predict what's going to happen in the future. Hopefully when we have a new government we will have local authority schools back again."

The council will have to pay out the school's deficit at the time it was ordered to become an academy, which amounts to some £1.532m.

The school was rated the worst secondary school in Ealing by the The Real Schools' Guide before the academy launch. The guide considers data in areas including attainment, progress, attendance and outcomes.

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But this summer's GCSE results showed good signs of progress with the proportion of students earning a grade 4 or better in both English and Maths increasing, the percentage of students gaining two or more Science GCSEs at grade 4+ increasing by almost 15% and a more than 10% increase in the overall number of 9 to 5/A* to C grades.

Individual successes saw more students gaining the most prestigious A*, A/ 9, 8 and 7 grades, with the number of grade 9s trebling compared to last year.

An Ealing Council spokesperson said: "Acton High is no longer a maintained school and transferred to the ARK Schools Group.”