It’s like living in a dictatorship,” fumes Peter Hawkins, reflecting on the situation facing the school that he and generations of his family have attended. “There’s no way of knowing what’s going on, or of communicating with the people making the decision. We have no say in the future of our children’s school. It’s disgusting.”

On Friday the school in question, the Barclay school, Stevenage, is set to join Future Academies, the chain founded and chaired by the Tory peer, party donor and former academies minister, Lord Nash.

Hawkins has two children at the Barclay, the first comprehensive set up when the Hertfordshire new town was established after the war, and which would be celebrating its 70th birthday this year. Like hundreds of schools since 2010 it is being forcibly converted into an academy after a poor Ofsted report in 2016.

The policy has been in place on a large scale since the days of Michael Gove. Nine months ago, Damian Hinds, the education secretary, told headteachers he wanted to take away the idea of forced academisation “being seen as this punitive threat”. Yet the battles continue, and observers say there is increasing anger as more parents discover they are shut out of important decisions about their children’s education.

Parents at the Barclay were told of the takeover in October last year, in a letter from the headteacher, Mark Allchorn. Hawkins says parents, pupils and staff have received no information on Future’s vision for the school from Nash or his trust, or from the decision-makers: the regional schools commissioner, Martin Post, and the government’s semi-elected board of academy headteachers, who advise him.

Teachers at the school went on strike for a day in December, and four days of action have taken place this month. More than 2,700 people have signed a petition opposing the takeover, and nearly 200 packed a church hall for a meeting where worries were voiced – from concerns about the staff to questions about the school’s Henry Moore sculpture, worth about £20m. Parents fear this could be transferred into private ownership, although Hertfordshire county council says the sculpture will continue to be its property. The work was created for the schoolunveiled in 1949 by the artist and .

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, has backed the protesters, accusing ministers of imposing their academies policy, under a trust with Tory links, on a community that does not want it. Even the Ryder Cup golfer Ian Poulter, a former Barclay pupil, has told his 2.3 million Twitter followers that the move should be stopped.

The Barclay is one of at least seven schools in recent months around which angry community campaigns have sprung up. Common concerns include little or no information being provided to justify or explain decisions and the fact that there is no mechanism for stakeholders, including parents and pupils, to have their views taken into account.

When a school fails an Ofsted inspection, the same prescription is made in every case: academisation under a sponsor trust chosen by the Department for Education. Sponsors are picked following recommendations by the government’s regional headteacher boards at private meetings.

The Henry Moore statue Family Group pictured at The Barclay school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 1952. Photograph: ANL/Rex/Shutterstock

There is little evidence that forcing struggling schools to become academies improves them. MPs on the cross-party public accounts committee have highlighted recent failures and said academies “are not sufficiently transparent or accountable to parents and local communities”.

In the Barclay’s case, a different trust had been approved to take on the school in September 2017, Herts for Learning. There was no explanation as to why HfL was dropped as the sponsor; instead, in February 2018, the headteacher board approved the Barclay’s transfer, with two other Hertfordshire secondaries, to Future Academies, based in London.

In the meantime, last April, inspectors returned to the Barclay and found it improved, praising the new leadership team as “making a positive difference to the quality of education the school provides”. They removed the school from “special measures” – the judgment that had triggered the path to academy status. At the public meeting, many speakers highlighted this and called for the school to be given the chance to improve under its current leadership.

Some were worried by news that the same chain had introduced compulsory Latin at the Laureate Academy in nearby Hemel Hempstead, which it took over this year. They feared the trust planned a grammar school in all but name, with its emphasis on academic rather than vocational options, which was not, they said, what Stevenage needs.

Concerns were also raised about Future’s links to decision-makers at the DfE – a Freedom of Information response revealed that Nash discussed the takeover with three ministers.

Meanwhile, in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the DfE is moving forward with plans to academise Crigglestone Mackie Hill primary school, under an organisation specialising in post-16 education 18 miles away, ending a partnership with the local secondary school. A petition has nearly 1,500 signatures. Mary Creagh, the local MP, said: “This is a decision motivated by political and ideological needs rather than the needs of the children. I will fight this plan every step of the way.”

In Waltham Abbey, Essex, parents last month packed out a community hall calling on the government not to academise Waltham Holy Cross primary school under its sponsor, NET Academies Trust.

And on 1 January, Littlegreen, a special school for boys in Chichester, was taken over by the Solent Academies Trust, despite a campaign that garnered more than 1,000 signatures calling for more time to improve under the existing headteacher.

In Ilford, east London, another campaign has sprung up around government moves to follow up on a failing Ofsted judgment for William Torbitt primary school, by forcing it away from the largely successful local authority of Redbridge.

Other campaigns built up last year over forced academy moves at Springfield primary, in Birmingham – which is now an academy under the Reach2 trust – and the John Roan school, in Greenwich, south London.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, says parents are finding a voice and are waking up to the fact that they have been bypassed by those bringing huge changes to their local schools.

“There is a host of quite incredible campaigns going on,” he says. “Parents feel really strongly that they have the right to a say on what happens to their child’s school. They have a real sense of injustice when they do not get that.”

A DfE spokeswoman says: “We have seen many sponsored academies dramatically improve their results.

“Future Academies has an excellent track record of school improvement, which is why it has been chosen as a sponsor [of the Barclay school]. We are confident it will deliver the improvements that staff and students deserve and ultimately provide an excellent education.”