our middle schools appear to be saved...

[GypsyMoth]

Hooray!!!

but at what cost?

local paper states due to camerons cutbacks there are no funds to complete the necessary moves....so they stay

anyone know anything about this?

Are you in Beds by any chance?

yes i am!! take it you are too...

Yes!

We are actually in Central Beds but feed into a Bedford middle school. We were going to be left with nowhere to go after year 4. I'm very relieved and hope they leave the middle schools alone now. The story in todays local paper doesn't really say what they are going to do next....

Intersting, we are just going through this process at the moment.

no,i dont know what happens next...will we get letters home from school maybe?? am very happy tho,as i was seriously concerned!

i'm just south of bedford....one local ish school,though not ours,has been preparing to close this sept. all the stuff moved over and everything...and £460,00 already spent on facilitating the changes,so money wasted already

but i'm happy they are staying 3 tier

Can I just ask why you prefer the 3 tier system ?

my kids have thrived since being in 3 tier...we havent always been here,so was new to us

the move to middle school in year 5 seems to be the biggest advantage for us. alot more condfidence through independence and of course schoolwork has improved. also,just 4 year groups in each school makes them smaller

i have no idea if kids do better in this system tho....just mine have,alot of parents fought to save the school system

Both of my daughters went through the 3 tier system (We're in South Leicestershire)

My DD1 has a chronic illness which hit her during her last year at high school and my DD2 has AS which led to severe bullying right from as soon as she started school.

For my DD1 who academically and socially always thrives, we sent her to a different high school than her friends, she was the only pupil that went to this out of catchment school. I found her high school teachers were more equipped and really got to know who she was as a person. So much so her high school tutor still keeps in touch with her now. The option of a 3 tier system worked very well for her type of personality where she was always making friends and getting involved in school life until her illness.

As far as my DD2 was concerned, Initially I preferred for to follow the 2 tier system because the changes were a nightmare. However when she went to the same high school my eldest went to, she flourished once the initial stress has gone. The staff were wonderful with her and for both girls the high school staff ensured their transition to the upper school was as stres free as possible.

The upper school was not as good as the high school I will admit. Problems came for both girls when they moved into their sixth form so perhaps I should have gone down the 4 tier route instead.

I was very sceptical of middle schools when we first moved to this area but I only hear good things about our middle school. The children have access to secondary school type facilities and teaching from year 5 but in a smaller and younger environment. They don't get thrust into huge schools with 18 year ols when they are only 11.
Unfortunately 3 tier doesn't fit with the key stages and children have to move part way through key stage 2 and 3. My children are still in lower school (lovely small school and biggest kids are only 9) so I don't know what affect this will have on them.
I doubt we will get letters from school as Central Beds have rather stuck their heads in the sand over the whole thing (in hindsight maybe they have saved a lot of time and effort)

we got letter before and update letters,so maybe we will do. its not even talk of the playground yet,so i will give it time!

A happy 'bump'!!

oh lucky you! we lost ours a few years back - think it was such a mistake

msybe i should move

We are in the process of losing ours - this year we have no Year 5 coming into my middle school as they are staying in the first schools and then next year all the middle schools are closing and we will become a 2-tier system. The whole thing has been, and continues to be a huge mess and an announcement that it could and had been stopped would go down very well.

We have first schools with mobile classrooms - some with no space for the upper key stage 2 children and no money for building works so in some cases there is still no idea where they are going to put kids this coming September.

Congratulations on keeping your 3 tier system - . I have no problem with the 2 tier system; I was educated that way myself and have taught within it on the mainland, but the reorganisation here has been appalling.

thats a shame dysgu. that was what worried me,lack of space to do it comfortably,with no resources

I wonder if the last labour government had an ideological aversion to middle schools as pupils move in year 9 - which is the same as most public schools. It also might have been an way back for selection (at 13) at some point in time - with an academic high school option and a more vocational option. Although, I doubt ConDem have given it that much thought.

IMO 13-18 makes a more natural grouping than 11-18. It allows the school to focus on the needs of adolesents. I would imagine the 'middle schools' become experts on pre-teens and enable them to have a bit more childhood.

We are still going ahead with the closures here. I have V mixed feelings our local middle school is poor, individually there are a few v good motivated teachers but with closure hanging over they have struggled to recruit, poor leadership etc etc etc.
But lack of investment in the primaries to support the additional children is disgusting.
The local gov/LEA are selling the idea as evidence based for the best learning model but what it really is is a huge cost saving initiative.
Our local primary has to absorb an additional 40+ children but with no additional funding for staff, pushing the class sizes from 20 per class to 30.
I'm sure the evidence for small lass sizes is far greater than that of the 2 tier system.
Its all BOLLOCKS!"

Good news it is saved. We have the three tier system and I was initially very sceptical of middle schools but DD's is really fantastic. My DD has dyspraxia and it's been much easier for her to get used to the whole different classrooms/teacher scenario in a smaller enviroment.

They start them off in Year 5 with fewer teachers/room changes and increase up do that year 8 is the same as it will be in Upper school. Huge choice of clubs and much better facilities than I had at primary school, ie. Dedicated music room, cookery room, woodwork workshop, science lab, loads of lunchtime/after school clubs. By the time they finished year 4 at first school they were all ready to move up and I think it was harder for me as a parent than for DD. She's year 6 and as soon as Sats were over they started the KS3 syllabus so that they are slightly ahead and have a little leeway at transfer to upper school.

we do the early start thing here too. much better for them.

when the school returns after may half term they all start in the new year groups,which other schools leave for september. son they get a good 6 weeks to sort out new timetables and classrooms etc....makes full use of those last few dead weeks of term when everyone else has run out of steam.

we have had official confirmation that they are staying!!

now the teachers who slagged off the 3 tier system need to back track unless they will be looking for new jobs away from the system...doubt that!

Can I ask where the official confirmation came from - we haven't had anything here (nothing unusual about that!)

school themselves....they sent a letter.

I live in Bedford and have mixed feelings about the reprieve. Although my DCs experiences (1 in middle, 1 in upper) have been good generally - we can't get away from the fact that our GCSE results are not reflecting the ability shown in KS1 results and the only obvious reason I can see for this is the double transition that our children face.

I am also a middle school governor and it is getting harder to recruit good teachers, particularly NQTs as with the dwindling number of middle schools nationally, they are not attractive to bright young teachers starting off in their careers.

However, I would not want my children to be involved in the early stages of reorganisation. I'm not sure that we should be celebrating, but am still glad that my children have experienced middle school particularly in the early years - can go off the boil in Ys 7 and 8 as the Y6 SATs are what the schools are judged on.

I went to a 3 tier system in the 70s/80s and the facilities at my middle school were far better than DD will get at primary school in years 5 and 6, which is a bit sad really considering it was 30 years ago.