New Secondary Schools for Richmond 2

[BayJay]

I'm starting this new thread because the other one of the same name has filled up.

I would agree with most if the above points. I suspect there is a degree if suspicion regarding TM - fair enough - unless interested previously I don't think you would consider a TM school above a 'normal' LEA state school. My concerns are that I do feel some of the Maharishi school statements are misleading. For example: 'Maharishi schools are consistently rated outstanding.' surely less misleading would be 'the current Maharishi school, whilst previously independent and smaller than the proposed new school, has been rated outstanding at it's most recent Ofsted.' once you start being concerned about certain claims then obviously all other statements are taken with a pinch of salt. And I don't think Richard has really answered why he consistently makes this claim

Thanks BayJay for the doc link - but that does not mean that Richmond Education Authority has been rated as #1. Is this an another example of the numerous misleading / factually inaccurate statements that we are getting from them.

Happy new year to all and hope everyone had a good break. Interesting focus on this thread in the New Year! I must confess this is the 1st time I am looking at the Maharashi school proposal. So I just googled to see what TM is all about
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation_technique

Some interesting facts - wonder if students learn to do Yogic Flying ???

Another free school proposing the same site is Hampton church school - they seem to be a church school that is fully inclusive although they are prioritising the south Hampton area.
sites.google.com/site/hamptonchurchschool/

I'm no expert in the inclusive faith school debate but is this a model?

DentVincent yes the trend is towards inclusive faith schools. I had last month posted links to new CoE inclusive faith schools. . Two new CofE Inclusive schools have been recently opened in London 1) Secondary: schools.london.anglican.org/119/north-ealing-church-of-england-academy-necea and 2) Primary: www.stlukesschool.org.uk/. The "Coalition Agreement" included a commitment to increasing inclusivity in faith schools

I was wondering who would be the first to mention Yogic flying! What a load of nonsense it is.

There is nothing amounting to a league (now ?performance?) table of educational authorities published now as the government is determined to emasculate or abolish them and turn all schools into academies; such tables were published years ago by the previous administration.

Hampton councillor Gareth Roberts has written to the RTT about the tinyurl.com/7ew9jhm Provisions [sic] of school places (RTT Nov 25) in his ward, pointing out that the local community primary schools (Hampton and Carlisle) are full, need to expand and cannot do so on their present compact sites and that the Oldfield Centre, a empty public asset bought for public use, could be used for this. It seems obvious to me that if the residents of Hampton were asked, this is what they would choose and the Maharishites would be invited to find a site at their own expense elsewhere.

Dentvincent, thanks for the info about the proposed Hampton Church School. From my brief look at the website it certainly does seem to fulfill the definition of an inclusive church school, and I particularly welcome the fact that they are going further than is required by Free School legislation by being 100% open, rather than the mandatory 50%.

Thanks for sharing the Hampton church school link. It looks promising - purpose is to solve the burning need of parents living south of Oldfield and is run by people who have experience in local education. Local parents will no doubt be expressing our preference on use of Oldfield site to our councillors, Richmond education authorities and DfE.

As promised following are some abstracts of research on TM published in the
International Journal of Neuroscience

2006, Vol. 116, No. 12 , Pages 1519-1538 (doi:10.1080/00207450600575482)
CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF EFFECTS OF TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PRACTICE ON INTERHEMISPHERIC FRONTAL ASYMMETRY AND FRONTAL COHERENCE

Two studies investigated frontal alpha lateral asymmetry and frontal interhemispheric coherence during eyes-closed rest, Transcendental Meditation (TM) practice, and computerized reaction-time tasks. In the first study, frontal coherence and lateralized asymmetry were higher in 13 TM subjects than in 12 controls. In the second study (N = 14), a one-year longitudinal study, lateral asymmetry did not change in any condition. In contrast, frontal coherence increased linearly during computer tasks and eyes-closed rest, and as a step-function during TM practice?rising to a high level after 2-months TM practice. Coherence was more sensitive than lateral asymmetry to effects of TM practice on brain functioning.

Short-Term Longitudinal Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Technique on EEG Power and Coherence
1981, Vol. 14, No. 3-4 , Pages 147-151

EEG alpha coherence and slow alpha power were recorded from frontal and occipital derivations during relaxation or the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique in fifteen subjects. Subjects were tested before and after a two-week baseline period in which half practiced twice daily relaxation and half did not change their schedule. All subjects were then instructed in the TM technique and retested after a two-week period of twice daily practice of the technique. During the first two-week period there were no group differences or group by session interactions, but there was a significant effect of repeated measurement, indicating a decrease in occipital power independent of group. After the two-week TM technique period, subjects showed a significant increase in frontal alpha coherence above a 0.95 threshold. Frontal alpha coherence was found to be a more sensitive discriminator of the TM technique than alpha power, which may clarify previously reported nonsignificant EEG differences between the TM technique and general relaxation.

Participation in the transcendental meditation program and frontal eeg coherence during concept learning
1986, Vol. 29, No. 1-2 , Pages 45-55

This study assesses variation in frontal bilateral EEG coherence among normal subjects during trials of a concept learning task; the task used a concept-reversal paradigm found from prior research to distinguish frontal lobe patients from normal adults. Subjects were either participants in the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program or controls matched for age, sex, and intellectual ability, and additional experimental factors were whether or not the subject gained information on a given trial and whether or not the trial occurred before, during, or after the shift of concept. It was hypothesized that: (1) higher frontal EEG coherence (alpha and beta frequencies) would be associated with trials on which information was gained; (2) higher coherence in the same frequencies would be found in the two concept-solution periods in contrast to the concept-reversal period that divided them; and (3) these patterns would be more clearly expressed among TM program participants. Each hypothesis received partial support. The first hypothesis was true only for TM program participants for alpha coherence, and only during the first concept-solution period for beta coherence. The second hypothesis was true for alpha coherence only, and the third hypothesis received support for alpha coherence. Results were not attributable to muscle or eye artifacts. However, a different response style was found to the change in concept among the two groups; control subjects displayed greater arousal (muscle artifact) during the concept-reversal period, while TM program participants displayed less arousal.

Effectiveness of the Transcendental Meditation Program in Preventing and Treating Substance Misuse: A Review
1991, Vol. 26, No. 3 , Pages 293-325

This article reviews 24 studies on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation (TM) in treating and preventing misuse of chemical substances. Studies cover noninstitutionalized users, participants in treatment programs, and prisoners with histories of heavy use. All the studies showed positive effects of the TM program. Some of the survey-type studies were unable to exclude the possibility of self-selection or responder biases. However, longitudinal, random-assignment studies with objective measures also showed positive results. Taken together, these and other studies indicate the program simultaneously addresses several factors underlying chemical dependence, providing not only immediate relief from distress but also long-range improvements in well-being, self-esteem, personal empowerment, and other areas of psychophysiological health.

BayJay and Parrich

www.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/richmond-upon-thames

There is another reference rating them as #1, but to be honest, i could spend my life looking up references

hope this helps

The keyword "transcendental meditation" found 291 journal articles in PubMed a database of more than 21 million citations (going back to 1970) for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books created by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information.

No titles included the word ?child? and only two included ?school?: one (dated 2006) related to middle school students (The experience of transcendental meditation in middle school students: a qualitative report. Rosaen C, Benn R.) and the other (dated 1973) to African American adolescents (What school physicians, nurses and health educators should know about transcendental meditation. Bright D, Buccola VA, Stone WJ, Toohey JV.).

I conclude that no reputable research has been done on the benefits of teaching TM to primary school children.

ChrisSquire

I'm glad you found 291 journal articles in one medical related database. I think that indicates the volume of research that has been done. Hope you found the 'Neuroscience' abstracts of interest.

Regarding your point on schools and children, look into databases that include education and social sciences and you will have more success. None of the articles that appeared in say 'Education' journal would be in the medical database.

Having said that, I would agree that there is very little if any research on primary school students.

There is a different meditation technique taught to young children, they do not get the ordinary sitting technique until they are around 10 yrs old. Think of it as 'TM light'. They use it for just a few minutes twice a day and do it with their eyes open, and not sitting down.

School performance

To address an earlier question...

Ofsted lists only our 2 most recent inspections, a full inspection followed by a light inspection in 2009, but there are many more inspections before that which reported essentially similar results.

Since 1990 the School has also reported 3 times the national average of 'A' and 'A*' grades and nearly twice the national average of achieving 5 or more 'C to A' grades.

Regarding our Admissions and Over-subscription criteria I've taken what you have all said on board.

We are trying to adapt to local requirements and I expect to be issuing something new very shortly that will, I hope, go some way towards satisfying everyone's concerns.

Bye for now

Richard, thanks for taking the time to find those references. They're certainly interesting.

Here's where I'm at:

• As I said before, I'd be prepared to accept that meditation could be beneficial in the sense that it is a deep relaxation and visualisation technique, but I'd question whether it was necessary to teach children "The Science of Creative Intelligence" for them to benefit from that. I wonder if any studies have been done to compare with people who have learnt to meditate without those lessons (that's a rhetorical question, so please don't feel obliged to go and search for some).

• If it was called "The Philosophy of Creative Intelligence", I'd feel a bit better about it. It's not science, its pseudoscience. I would expect you to teach children the difference.

• I welcome the idea that parents are encouraged to learn the technique too, as at least that way they will understand what their children are learning about. I would expect to talk to my children about what they were learning and to encourage them to question parts of it that they didn't agree with. Would that sort of critical evaluation be encouraged?

• The fact that there are substantial course fees involved in learning TM is an issue for inclusivity. Would you be offering to subsidise those costs for parents who wanted to learn the technique but couldn't afford it?

• Sorry to say this, but I would like to think the Government would reject your application on the grounds that your Lancashire Free School is embryonic at the moment, and that its success should be proven before you expand to other areas. After all, the original independent school was created to serve a community that were already practising TM, whereas people's motivations for selecting the Free School may well be 'despite' the TM rather than 'because' of it, so it will be interesting to see how those parents rate the school over the coming years.

• If your school was excellent in every other way then I might be one of those parents choosing it 'despite' the TM. However, as I said previously, I'm suspicious of your ability to provide a wide curriculum with only 3 forms of entry. For example, would it be possible for children to take all three sciences as separate subjects at GCSE?

BayJay

Thank you very much for some very thoughtful comments! It is really appreciated.

Regarding your first point - TM without SCI. One of my favourite studies was conducted at York University in Toronto. They chose a secondary school and had one group learn TM, one learn SCI and no TM, another learned both and a fourth was the control.

After about a year (not sure about the time here), they compared the academic performance of all four groups. The TM group and the TM and SCI group improved their academic performance significantly and by the same amount. The other two groups showed no change.

The obvious conclusion is that TM is responsible for an improvement in academic performance and that SCI is just like any other subject a student learns.

oops, gotta run, I'll finsih this later...

Thanks for clarifying that there is nothing to support benefits of teaching TM to primary school children. So why do we need a primary school with TM, when nothing of TM is done till a child gets to 10 and then its only 4 mts a day at primary level.
Is this serving a critical need for local Hampton residents ( especialy south of Oldfield) who are concerned about primary and secondary school places?

Do they want the the only public site and funding for a new state school in their neighbourhood to be filled mainly by an exclusive group of out of Hampton and out of borough TM followers ?
Will this encourage a hypocritical trend that makes parents practice few mts of TM a day to get a much needed place in a local state school, at the expense of their neighbours?

Jeev - welcome to the government's new model of school provision! Anyone can set up a school now. They just have to prove that there is a demand for it (and the motivation behind the demand is not necessarily something that will be measured). However, they do also need to show that they are capable of running a good school, and that they will cater for the full ability range, including children with SEN. I note from the Lancashire Maharishi school's most recent insection that they didn't have any SEN children. Nevertheless, in order to secure Free School funding they must have convinced the government of their case.

One point worth noting is that it is a competitive system, which could arguably be seen as having benefits. I wonder if the Hampton Church School steering group would have been motivated to initiate a rival bid if they hadn't been stirred up by the Maharishi school's interest in Oldfield Road? Just a thought.

Potential bidders will have a better chance of winning bids and building sustainable relationships with the local community, if they solve the burning local needs, as opposed to to forcing their agenda. It is for them to decide whether they want to be there for the local people or just smooch the authorities

Happy new year all. Just noticed that this seems to suggest that there may be an additional form of entry at Christ's this year. I think the Council mentioned 2013 in the forecasts, but happy to be corrected on this.

RCs get go-head:

Latest move on Clifden School site: The Secretary of State for Education has granted permission to allow the Diocese of Westminster to propose the establishment of a voluntary aided Catholic Secondary School in Richmond upon Thames.

Council officers will now meet with the Diocese to discuss next steps and establish the Diocese?s timetable for publishing a statutory proposal to establish the school. The Diocese?s consultation will be done in two phases, and last a minimum of 10 weeks.

The Council will launch its own consultation later this month on the establishment of a new Catholic secondary and the use of the Clifden Road site that the Council purchased last summer.

Cllr Paul Hodgins, Richmond Council Cabinet Member for Schools, said: ?One of the very top priorities for this Council is our programme, working in partnership with our schools, to create further capacity, quality, and choice across our secondary system. This programme includes working with schools on standards, facilitating sixth forms, commissioned services, and capacity planning. It also includes continuing the Council?s longstanding support for a Catholic secondary in the borough.

?There has been much debate over the past few months about the prospect of a new Catholic secondary, and rightly so. Few issues are as important to our borough as education. We made a commitment to support the introduction of a Catholic school. We also made a commitment to be a consulting council, and to listen to the views of residents, in this case on the use of the Clifden Road site for the introduction of a Catholic school, or otherwise. We will honour both commitments.

We will launch our consultation this month, with more details to follow soon. Once both the Council?s consultation and the Diocese?s consultation are complete, all results will come back to the Council?s cabinet, and we will make a decision based on all factors.?

Ends

Council press release 06/01/12

It is disappointing that they are planning to conduct the Clifden Road consultation before the result of the Linked School consultation is finalised.

Chris - Are there any details on Gove's approval - why was Vince Cables solution to resolve the controversy in his area not considered ? What action will you - this is against Lib Dem National Education policy and Coalition agreement.

Posting as have same issues to akhan.

Also tories must have a death wish in Twickenham area with feeling on this and station development running so high .

I know no more than anyone else what is going on behind the scenes. However note that this is a decision to allow a consultation, not a decision to go ahead with the RC school. We must now wait to see what the consultation of residents amounts to, what the response to it is and how the council then acts. The council has so far given no clues to what questions it will put to residents or whom it will consult. This is not a statutory consultation, so they don?t have to do it at all and it is up to them how they do it. Nor do they have to take any notice of the responses they get if they don?t wish to.

It is distinct from the consultation which the RCs must do, which is statutory and set out in the School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2007: they must consult governors, parents, teachers, etc. at the local primary schools and other interested local representatives but need not actively canvass the views of other residents (who can, nonetheless, contribute).