New Secondary schools for Richmond!

[BayJay]

Richmond Council recently published a White Paper outlining plans for Secondary education in the borough (cabnet.richmond.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=23719). They want new 6th forms in every school, and would need to decrease current Yr7 intakes to accomodate that. To offset those decreases they are talking about creating two new secondary schools. One of those new schools would be a Roman Catholic school.

The Roman Catholic community in the borough are currently disadvantaged by the "link" system (www.st-marys.richmond.sch.uk/Newsletter%20Link%20letter%20for%202011%20links%20(2).pdf). Because the Catholic primaries are not linked to any secondaries in the borough, their children tend to go to a combination of out-of-borough Catholic secondaries (which are mostly rated as Outstanding), grammar schools and private schools, though some of the girls do go to Waldegrave, which is not part of the link system. Note that there is no reason, in principle, why the Catholic Secondaries couldn't be linked to local community schools, but because many of their children have other options, they simply don't meet the "25% rule" required to form a link. (See an example set of transfer figures at www.st-james.richmond.sch.uk/Admin/Uploads/Docs/StJamesSchool_Parents_NewsLetter_270910.pdf).

This raises several questions in my mind:

1. Does the problem necessarily need to be solved by providing a Catholic Secondary, or are there alternative solutions that would benefit the community as a whole (e.g. reforming the link system)?
2. Does the majority of the Catholic community specifically want to be educated separately from the rest of us, or is it the case that, like everyone else, they simply want an outstanding education for their children, and find that the Catholic route is often the best way of achieving that?
3. If Catholics had more options for transferring to outstanding community schools locally (as many already do, to Waldegrave), would they choose those options over travelling to a single-faith school in a neighbouring borough?
4. I accept that there will always be very religious people who want to segregate themselves, but would I be right in asserting that there are also large numbers of Catholics who would be happy to attend community schools, provided that gave them the same level of academic excellence that can be found in many Catholic options?
5. If a new Catholic secondary school is created, it is likely to have an entrance policy that requires a priest's reference (as per the majority of existing Catholic schools). How do people feel about that?
6. If a state-funded Catholic School is created in the borough, would non-Catholic parents also like the option of sending their children there, provided they weren't barred by the admission system?

I'd be interested to hear your opinions!

No mention of the Catholic primary application then? No consultation (even from 7 years ago) or previous announcement of this at all.

Shocking to see the latest press release from Cllr Eady - Lib Dems www.richmondinclusiveschools.org.uk/files/index?folder_id=6143985-
Cabinet member tries to cover up breach of procedure on catholic school plan
?Cllr Hodgins? denial that the Council has offered the Clifden Road site to the Catholic Church lacks any credibility when you consider firstly that he announced at the last council meeting (13th September) that such an offer had been made and secondly that the Archdiocese?s formal application to the Department for Education sets out both that an offer has been made by the Council and its terms (125 year lease at peppercorn rent).
?Cllr Hodgins is clearly trying to cover up the fact that the Conservative administration has bypassed the lawful democratic procedures of the Council and offered the Clifden Road site to the Catholic Church without any legal authority to do so. At no stage has a decision to offer the site to the Catholic Church been taken to a Council committee or open to public consultation. We have therefore asked the Chief Executive of the Council to investigate this apparent serious breach of procedure.?

Special meeting of Richmond Council, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 7 pm, to debate the motion: ?THIS council resolves to consult all parents of children at the borough?s maintained primary schools about the type of school places to be provided on the Clifden Road site, with options to include a new community school or a new Roman Catholic School. In the light of the results of this consultation, the Cabinet should recommend to full council the type of school to be provided on the site.?

The agenda will be published 5 clear working days before the meeting

Here's something interesting. Another new Free School is interested in setting up in Richmond. Looks like it has inclusive admissions, though presumably the ethos wouldn't appeal to everyone.

There's lots of coverage on the Catholic School issue in this week's Richmond and Twickenham Times. There's an article on Page 2 about the "decision" row, and more letters on page 29.

Plus, on page 13 of the same edition, there's also some coverage of the excellent exam results achieved by the academies.

Thanks Bayjay. I think there's some great work being done in the academies - but I'd watch out for the GCSE figures in the article as they don't include english and maths. I think for RPA it goes from 80% to 44% 5 A-C GCSEs if you include those two key subjects. It's early days though and the marks are moving in the right direction. For a good overview of how academies are faring, and the improvements being made, this article was quite good.

Kora, thanks for picking me up on that. Here is a link to the full Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 (GCSE) results for all borough schools.

Also, here is the council's headline assessment of them. However, note that these results are provisional, and a more detailed report will be produced in the Spring.

BoroughPix

The Richmond Maharishi School doesn?t say anything about a site, actual or possible, for their school but they do have a DfE Press release describing the Maharishi School, Lancashire and details of their Admission and Oversubscription Policies:

? . . Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, selection will be made by the School Management Committee who will apply the following criteria in the order set out below, to decide which children to admit:
a) Children in public care.
b) Pupils from the existing Maharishi School, providing continuity of education.
c) Where the applicant is considered a sibling of a child currently enrolled at the School (sibling, half-sibling, adopted sibling or foster sibling, whether or not their main address is the same).
d) Pupils transferring from another school that is approved and supported by The International Foundation of Consciousness-based Education.
e) Tie breaker: Where having applied the above criteria, there are still more children than there are places available, 25 % (rounded down) of the final places will be allocated based on proximity of the child?s address to the School?s address. The measurement used will be a straight line distance from the pupil?s home to the school with those living nearest to the school being given priority. The remaining 75 % of places (rounded up) will be allocated by a random draw . . ?

LBC Radio 97.3 covers Faith schools and Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign. Awesome interview and very well articulated points Hear the podcast on lbc.audioagain.

Thanks richst, though I imagine whether people think it is 'awesome' will depend on which side of the debate they are on. For anyone interested in listening to the LBC podcast, follow this link. You need to navigate to the 'Latest' tab and then find the podcast titled 'Should we follow Wales and their smacking rules'. The item on faith schools starts about 40 minutes in. You will need to register and pay a £4 subscription to download it, but can cancel the monthly repeat of the subscription straight away.

For those who don't want to download it, I can give a summary. The presenter has strong views about Faith schools herself because she felt her own choices for schooling her children were limited because of them. The item starts with an interview with Lord True (according to my husband, who heard it live, that was longer and more detailed originally, but has been cut down to a snippet for the podcast). Next there is an interview with someobody from the Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign (the interview referred to by richst in the post above). After that there is a phone-in with various people from around London expressing their own views on Faith Schools (mostly negative). However, the scope is very general and apart from the initial interview I didn't hear anyone talk specifically about the Richmond debate.

What did Lord True say. Does anyone know?

On the podcast Lord True says "its a matter for the diocese to ... provide high quality places for all children" but it sounds like its been edited in the middle. My dh doesn't remember what he originally said.

Lord True does support the Catholic school . So does his deputy Cllr Samuel who said in RTT this week that the Conservative manifesto was to do everything in their power to ensure that there is a Catholic school in the borough.

Purchase of Clifden Road site site for the provision of school places (Council minute, July 21):
? . . Following the agreement of the recommendations Councillor True spoke to those present about the council's intentions. He said that Cabinet heard and respected the arguments involved and was committed to increasing school places and that this would include the provision of a Catholic Secondary School.

It was true that the Diocese must make representation to the Secretary of State to waive competition on the creation of a Faith School and the council would support them in this process. The aim of the administration was to make good on its commitment to provide a Catholic School and he hoped that the cross party support so far received would continue.?

Hello riverview. From memory I think the Conservative manifesto (for Richmond Council 2010) said it would "encourage" a Catholic Secondary School rather than "do everything in their power to ensure that there is [one]". The statement was fairly deeply buried in the manifesto. Plus they made a very high profile commitment to consult with people before making major decisions.

I'd like to find a link to the manifesto so that I can verify all of that, but I've spent 30 minutes searching for it without success. Does anyone know where to find it? If so, please post a link.

Just for info, here is a link to the Government's <a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090324133709/www.dcsf.gov.uk/schoolorg/data/guidance_Documents/New%20school%20promoters%20guide%20amended%202008-10-08.doc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Guide for People Wishing to Set up a New School Outside a Competition.

These are the guidelines that the Diocese of Westminster are following in submitting their Section 10 Requests to Michael Gove for a new Primary School and Secondary School on the Clifden site.

Copy of Conservative Manifesto www.richmondinclusiveschools.org.uk/files/?folder%5fid=5955658

Thanks BayJay and Riverview. Cllr Samuel dont abuse power and lie about Tory manifesto. Say "everything in power to consult 1st, act afterwards". His article is now also online on www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/9320194.Peppercorn_rate_proposal_for_Catholic_school/?

Thanks for that richst. Here's a direct link to the manifesto to make it even easier. Warning: you may need sunglasses as the colour scheme is loud.

The exact wording used re the Catholic school, in a bullet point in Section 2, is "A Conservative Council will .... work for a Catholic secondary school".

It also says, in the introduction:

"After half a lifetime at the top, our local LibDem bosses have forgotten they are the servants, not the masters, of the public. Too often this Council has made war on residents, lecturing and hectoring them, rather than listening.
You, the people who pay, should be the people who have the say. After nearly a quarter of a century, it is time for a fresh start ? to put people first. The next Conservative Council will be a national leader in community involvement. It will set new standards for really listening and involving the public in policy."

BayJay: the link to "Guide for People '' doesn't work. This works: Guide for People Wishing to Set up a New School Outside a Competition

The Guide links to [[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/40/section/10
Section 10 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006: Publication of proposals with consent of Secretary of State.]]

' . . Before publishing any proposals under this section, the . . proposers . . must consult such persons as appear to them to be appropriate . . '

It will be interesting to see, if it goes ahead, whom the Church thinks it appropriate to consult.

I might have missed something here but are you saying that, in terms of a statutory consultation, the Catholic Church can just consult its own congregation who will of course all be very positive about a new school, and that's the end of the matter? So when the council says 'Of course there will be a consultation' - that's the kind of consultation to expect?

Muminlondon. Yes. The only consultation required by this process is the one conducted by the proposer, i.e. the Diocese of Westminster.

However they do need to consult more widely than their own congregation. The guidelines are laid out in the doc in Chris Squire's last post (I'm out and about at the mo so can't copy them in right now)