The following article opens with a re-print from the 22nd January Edition of Private Eye, under the heading 'T IS FOR TORY'
It has been expanded considerably since first publication.
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Conservative politicians and Telegraph columnists alike have been falling over themselves to praise Kent-based live online lessons service Invicta National Academy since the beginning of term.
The website's daily offering of live video is hardly unique and its reach is not that enormous - one day in January its Twitter account excitedly trilled "a whopping 1,376 users accessed @InvictaAcademy lessons today!" Education programming on Children's BBC, secondary schooling on BBC2 and the Department for Education-funded "Oak National Academy" collection of teacher-made online content are helping tens of thousands more youngsters, as are home learning packages from various subject associations. So why the fawning over a small pop-up tuition website?
While former Tory MEP turned peer Daniel Hannan described the site's founders as "a mother of three and a Folkestone teacher" in the Telegraph, Anna Firth is a Conservative councillor in Sevenoaks and a former parliamentary candidate. Co-founder and teacher Stephen James is also the founder of Conservative Friends of Education (not an especially heavyweight organisation, it seems mainly a vehicle for James himself who says he started it because someone complained to his headteacher when he was campaigning for Damian Collins MP in the 2019 election). He is also approved to be a parliamentary candidate when a seat is available.
There were already concerns from many teachers that relying heavily on Oak National gives a lot of clout to the DfE-favoured academies who have been invited to contribute, which tend to be those with a more, ahem, "traditional" outlook. Figures like Tory peer Baroness Jenkin are now demanding on social media that DfE should also back Invicta, saying: "This should be rolled out across the country. The model is proven. Is works [sic]. Wake up @GavinWilliamson". Parents and pupils should know who is providing their "free" home schooling.
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Commercial Enterprise
In spite of labouring the fact on its website that 'Invicta Academy was set up with the sole purpose of helping the children of the United Kingdom catch up on missed learning', the organisation also runs a commercial 11+ preparation service 'little and often, throughout the school year' through the same site.
Stephen James, co-founder of Invicta National Academy
He is undoubtedly a very high profile teacher, with an impressive list of achievements including wide political involvement, together with a background in the Intelligence Corps including service in Afghanistan. He is also 'a School Leader at a local outstanding primary school where I teach 8-9yr olds. Through this employment, I also hold the role of a Specialist Leader of Education – this role involves supporting under-performing schools to develop leadership capacity. I am also a Maths Specialist for the National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching Mathematics. I have been a teacher since 2013 and won an award at ‘Kent Teacher of the Year’ in 2018 (Shepway Mathematics Teacher of the Year) and was also selected to go to Shanghai in 2017 by the Department for Education to fact find from a high performing education system'. He is described on LinkedIn as a staff member at Sandgate Primary, but not mentioned on the school website. Amongst his vast range of activities, Mr James is CEO of the commercial company: Social Media for Schools. Its website leads on a large case study with Seabrook Primary, omitting to mention he is a governor there (the school is federated with St Martin's which is also a member of the ten school #SocialSchools Family). The company has been shortlisted for the Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year category, at the 2020 Great British Entrepreneur Awards for the South East region.
Anna Firth, co-founder of Invicta National Academy
Anna Firth also has a strong political pedigree, being an unsuccessful Political Parliamentary Candidate for Canterbury and Erith and Thamesmead at General Elections, and also Chairman of Sevenoaks Conservative Party. A former investment banker and a barrister, I am not sure what her qualifications are for the job.
Conservative Friends of Education
A visit to the website of this organisation, founded and run by Stephen James, may give you a flavour of the political philosophy presumably underpinning the National Academy. Its advocates, who support its core aims and have publicly supported Conservative Friends of Education, include a range of Cabinet Ministers (one of whom is of course Gavin Williamson), eminent and also local Members of Parliament,
From the website:
'Please visit www.invictafoundation.com to find out more'. I am not sure what this is about, but the link takes you to the opportunity to purchase the website!