‘Medieval institution built on human exploitation’ has no place running schools

Christine Townsend has reiterated her call for the Society of Merchant Venturers to stop their involvement in children’s schooling.

The shadow cabinet member for education said that “the individuals who make an active choice to be members of this medieval institution, built on the exploitation and extortion of fellow human beings and the environment, are surely the most contemptuous and damaging ‘community’ in this city”.

“To use a well-worn phrase, ‘in the name of God, go’,” wrote Townsend in an eviscerating member forum statement ahead of Tuesday’s full council meeting at City Hall – which she stressed was her personal opinion.

“The years it has taken these people to get out of state schools has seen generations of our city’s children subjected to inadequate education, safeguarding risks, being made to engage in ritual worship of slave traders in Bristol Cathedral, their staff being subject to institutional racism, Venturers on a school governing body writing supportive character references for a senior staff member later found guilty of sexual crimes against a child, continuous unlawful admissions practices designed to filter year 7 intakes – and that’s just some of the stuff that has appeared in the press.

“Only the children and families that attended these schools and were on the receiving end of these people’s attitudes and approaches can truly understand the contempt with which the Merchant Venturers treat the working classes and the levels of entitlement and arrogance within which they live their lives.

“Getting out of our state school sector is only the beginning, these people must get out of our democracy entirely.”

She added: “It seems as if any activity where public money can be turned into private profit ends up having the dirty fingerprints of Merchant Venturers all over it, their noses well and truly troughing in the public purse.”

Christine Townsend is the shadow cabinet member for education and Green Party councillor for Southville – photo: Rob Browne

Townsend’s comments come after Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire said in an interview with Bristol24/7 that the Society of Merchant Venturers “appears to me to be an unaccountable, undemocratic network which aims to control important decisions in our city from the shadows”.

“They have no place in a modern, multicultural Bristol that welcomes everyone. I don’t want to see them have a role in running our schools.”

The Green Party councillor’s comments also come after pupils at Merchants’ Academy were told they had to find a new school to do their A-levels just days before term began after the school’s entire A-level provision was scrapped.

The Withywood school is one of eight across Bristol run by the Venturers Trust, responsible for 3,900 students and 700 members of staff, and sponsored by the Society of Merchant Venturers and the University of Bristol.

The Venturers Trust board of trustees recently announced it will likely join forces with national multi-academy trust E-ACT.

Also part of the Venturers Trust is Bannerman Road Community Academy in Easton, Barton Hill Academy in Barton Hill, The Dolphin School in Montpelier, Fairlawn Primary School in Montpelier, The Kingfisher School in St Annes, Venturers’ Academt in Withywood and V6 on Cheltenham Road.

Bristol24/7 have asked the Society of Merchant Venturers if they will continue their involvement in Montpelier High School – previously Colston’s Girls’ School – once the merger happens, with the organisation believed to own the land the former private school occupies on Cheltenham Road.

Bristol24/7 director Marti Burgess has been a member of the Merchant Venturers since 2019.

Main photo: Betty Woolerton

Read next:

• 10 Questions: Thangam Debbonaire – ‘The Merchant Venturers have no place in a modern, multicultural Bristol’
• The Colston statue still standing in Bristol
• ‘The Society of Merchant Venturers need to get out of our democracy’
  

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