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!

Like Kewcumber, I'm against state funding of any religious education. Surely when resources are scarce we should be providing a school that will accept 100% of children, not one that will give preference to 10%.

Here is the briefing paper produced by the Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign laying out the case for preferring a fully inclusive new school to a Catholic one. I'd be interested in everyone's thoughts.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13158380 Hearing this on the Today programme heartened me somewhat, though I know it has no immediate bearing on issue of a Catholic school in Richmond.

singersgirl, yes it was interesting to see the issue getting prominence in the news. For info, the Catholic Church has quite a different approach to the Church of England when it comes to admissions. Here is their response to the story.

For anyone with views on the provision of 6th Forms, there is still time to respond to the council's consultation. The deadline is May 6th.

I'd be interested to know how many Richmond parents have heard about this consultation via their schools? It began just before Easter, so it hasn't made it into our school newletter yet. I'm curious to see if it appears this week. In the meantime, I've been spreading the word, because I think it's important that people have the chance to express their views over this sort of thing.

Just an update on this thread. A group called the Richmond Free School has submitted an application to the Dept for Education proposing a Free School on the Twickenham Sorting Office site opposite the station.

Has their been any official update on the sixth form plans or the planned new secondaries?

obviously, I meant there

The council has just announced it has a site for the new Catholic school, in central Twickenham. See here for details.

Why are they all going to be in Twickers? The "free" school and now this one. Twickenham's already got three excellent secondaries and strict catchments/feeders etc. What about the barnes/sheen/kew/mortlake end of the borough? Just one secondary (and rather a lot of room for improvement). Where's the exasperated emoticon...

So the Catholic school is going ahead? What a shame

Well, there's already a campaign against it. Now that a site has been announced it will no doubt focus people's attention on the issue. Lord True's quote about the school's opponents is interesting, and in my view misjudged, as I have talked to many ordinary local parents who are against this school, including some Catholics.

The plan to have a Catholic secondary school is absolutely preposterous, given that the majority of people in our society are not practising Catholics, and I cannot see why taxpayers of all beliefs should subsidise the teaching of a single faith.
All schools should be inclusive so that all young people have the same opportunity regardless of their parents beliefs or attitudes. Whilst it would be impossible to abolish the existing religious schools due to the church's historic involvement in education and ownership of school buildings, our society is now one of many faiths and non-believers, and the council should not be selling off public assets to the Catholic church.
Why do some Catholics complain their children have too far to travel to go to secondary school? You can't have everything. I would love to have a state funded Montessori nursery at the end of my road, I'm sure it would be oversubscribed in no time, but obviously I'm not going to ask the council to set one up. Many parents send their children on long journies across London to go to their chosen independent school - if you want a specific type of education that's the price you pay.
Now that the leadership of our council has made it clear that their priority is to work towards the establishment of a Catholic secondary school in Twickenham by 2013, I feel that all parents who are not Catholic, or would prefer their children educated in a secular school, join the Inclusive Schools campaign to make it clear that this is not what our borough needs.

Like a lot of people, I also oppose the Catholic secondary school, for three main reasons:
(i) Schools should bring children from different communities together, not segregate them - this is a key part of preparing them for adult life;
(ii) As the mother of non-christian, ethnic minority children, it appals me that I should have to pay for my children to be discriminated against;
(iii) The council has identified that there's going to be a shortage of secondary places in the borough, but this school that will give preference to out-of-borough catholic children over in-borough non-catholic children. So it's not really a solution. And as Kora noted, there's no sign of the council actually doing anything about another non-catholic school.

I guess I wouldn't feel so strongly if there were enough quality places across the borough, but if the Council's record on primary schools is anything to go by, the vast majority of the borough's children are going to end up shoe-horned into over-crowded schools with 'temporary' classrooms and excessive class sizes.

Exactly, Rodmellgirl. There is no way this option can be justified by the needs of the local population as a whole.

The opposition spokesman on Education, Lib Dem Cllr Malcolm Eady, has made a statement saying that a community secondary should be the first priority.

There are lots of interesting comments being posted about the Clifden Rd school site story on the RTT website. Apparently all that is being proposed so far is that the site should be bought for a school. The type of school is yet to be decided. Let's hope there is a full consultation on that.

Sorry to disagree with most of you, but I am delighted that the possiblity of a Catholic secondary school looking more and more likely.

There are enough children attending local Catholic primary schools to fill a secondary several times over.

Rest assured though that this will only happen if the Dioceses are willing to help fund it and clearly this will save the council money.

Thanks for your viewpoint SeeButNotHeard, and there is no need to apologise for disagreeing with the majority of people posting in this thread. It is certainly true that there are a lot of children at Catholic primaries in the borough, and that those of them who wish to stay in the borough are badly served by the link system. However, if that system was reformed so that they were given access to more of our excellent community schools do you not think that many of them would be satisfied? Do you not think that many of them would be pleased to see their children being educated alongside non-Catholics in a new potentially outstanding community school on the Clifden site? Also, as its being widely quoted that there are already 8 existing Catholic secondaries within a 5-mile radius of the centre of the borough, it must be the case that many Catholics who wish to stay in the RC system will find that this Clifden site is not going to be the best option for them anyway.

Their may be 8 Catholic secondaries in a 5 mile radius but it is increasingly difficult for richmond residents to get in - particularly for boys. For those who do manage to get in, it usually involves 2/3 bus journeys or a combination of train/bus.

As a Catholic parent with 2 children, i strongly support this proposal and urge all Catholics to contact their councillors as well as the Diocese to make their views known. The provision of a Catholic secondary in the borough is long overdue.

But why do you not want them to go to our outstanding Community Schools? I agree that there is a problem with access, and that should be resolved, but surely demands for an exclusively Catholic school that 90% of the population would not be able to attend, is not going to gain sympathy for an otherwise worthy cause.

I wanted to extend my previous comment with some personal perspective. My own children go to a Church of England school, linked to Orleans. However, as Orleans is very oversubscribed, even with a link in place there is no guarantee that my children will get in. Despite that, I would be very supportive of an additional link being given to the nearby St James RC school, because I think its incredibly unfair that children (in particular boys) from there don't have the option of a local community school. To balance that I would also expect that any school created on the Clifden site might be an option for my own children. To make that new school the exclusive option of Catholics seems deeply unfair, especially as it will be our closest secondary school.

Whether a secondary rates outstanding by ofsted is not my main concern. A Catholic education will and should be ranked higher (in my view) for any Catholic family.

The argument that 90% of the children in the borough will not be able to access, is neither here nor there. If the demand is not there then surely the distance criteria would apply. If it doesn't come down to the distance criteria then that simply means that the demand for a Catholic secondary is there.

Anyone know what happened at yesterdays meeting??

I am not sure what happened last night (I was at the 'demo' but could not get into the meeting)

As I have said up thread 'we live just around the corner from an 'outstanding' non-denominational primary and chose to go the primary attached to our Catholic Church which is 'good' rather than outstanding and a little further away.' It is not all about Outstanding Ofsted status.

In terms of attendance, actually, a Catholic Secondary would serve more of the borough, as a whole, than a non-denominational school, as it will hopefully mean that Catholic children living on the other side of Richmond will also have an opportunity to attend, not just children living in the Twickenham area.

I still find it tricky to understand why someone would give stronger weight to the desire to segregate their children, rather than wanting a good school. But my opinion on that point doesn't matter; they aren't my children. What is perhaps a more crucial issue is that when there are limited resources and a a real need for an additional secondary school, those resources should be used for the widest benefit of the whole community. Despite help from the church, much of the funding for a catholic school will still be from local taxpayers. This does affect my children.

I see no sign of a community school being given priority. On the contrary, I hear that the council is "working on this", but a) no news is likely to come to light for ages as more secondary places are not considered to be needed until 2015/16 and b) the site may well be in Twickenham alongside already good schools as it is considered very difficult to find a site in the Richmond end (which is less well served). Anyone with good site ideas, or who would like more info sooner, tell the council!

Finally, although nobody has come out and said it, the Richmond Free School, with its vague admissions policies etc, seems to be "The Plan" as far as it goes for the community school. There certainly doesn't seem to be anything else on the cards... All very unclear.