New Secondary Schools for Richmond 3

[BayJay]

Hello and welcome to the Mumsnet thread about Richmond Borough Secondary Schools. The discussion started in February 2011 in two parallel locations here and here.

In November 2011 the most active of those two threads, in Mumsnet Local, reached 1000 messages (the maximum allowed) so we continued the conversation here.

Now its May 2012 and that thread has also filled up, so the conversation will continue here ......

A google search on "secondary school" expansion "grey court" site:kingston.gov.uk returns 34 hits which I trust someone else will make time to study. One from Richmond, undated explains why we believe that the case for a new eight-form entry school specifically within the North Kingston area is not proven, especially as the Council already has plans to provide some extra places across the borough under the Building Schools for the Future programme. We consider a more cautious approach should be adopted . .

A search on "secondary school places" expansion site:kingston.gov.uk 2012 "School Admissions Forum" yields 8 hits. The most recent is School Admissions Forum 16 February 2011: Information About School Places And School Expansion In Kingston.

I've been doing some searching too and as Richmond say in their response on the North Kingston consultation it doesn't seem as if Kingston make figures public on the geographical nature of the need. However the Infrastructure Plan Page 11 onwards does make it appear that demand is slightly skewed to the south and east in that the new primary classes proposed are for 4 new forms of entry in their Kingston Town area, 4 in Maldon and Coombe, 5 in Surbiton and 2 South of the Borough. However this might just be a function of where suitable sites are and it is also clear that existing secondary school provision is concentrated in those areas (hence the numbers at Greycourt) and the plan states that there is room for expansion in existing schools (albeit they may not meet the want for coed non selective places). Also the very south of the borough where it would be most difficult for pupils to reach a new school in the north, which might dictate a different site for the school, is quite definitely not the main area of need.

The Cof E bid for the North Kingston site mentions that half of North Kingston pupils attend Greycourt whilst the remainder attend other schools in borough (no firm figures though) . There are 120 out of borough pupils at Greycourt, so it does appear 8 forms of entry would meet a local geographical need, as well as a wider need, freeing up spaces in schools south and east.

The key issue is if funding is forthcoming. If not then Richmond may be right and there is sufficient room for expansion in existing schools for Kingston to be able to continue to rely on Greycourt to meet the needs of it's North Kingston pupils, and of course parents may well want to continue to send tehir children to Greycourt.

Interesting to look at it in the context of Whitfields approach to education strategy, with the aim of minimising the risk of spare capacity (and ignoring "soft" areas of risk assessment like parental preference, community cohesion etc.). A new school in Kingston, potentially half emptying Greycourt is a big risk for him, alongside continuing spare capacity in RPA, so he doesn't want a valuble pool of spare pupils in Twickenham to have another option of school. Perhaps he will lay on a ferry service? (I did used to see St James's pupils disembarking from a small rowing boat in Ham!)

From the Kingston Guardian: Faith-based free school emerges as plan B for Kingston parents.

If approved by the department of education, King Edward the Martyr's School would be the borough?s first free school. The non-selective, co-educational school would have a Christian character, but would be open to all regardless of faith, according to the bidders, and will be named in recognition of Kingston's royal heritage as the place where Saxon kings were crowned.

The foundation has written to the Education Funding Agency, which secures locations for free schools, to request they find suitable premises in the north of the borough.

So does that mean that there could potentially be two new secondary schools in north Kingston? And what would be the implications for Grey Court?

It depends whether there is a demand for a evangelical prosletysing faith school, in line with what Dave Campenale appears to feel called to achieve. Since the Academy competition went to a secular bidder rather than the Cof E bid it was presumably felt that the need was for a non faith school, however inclusive.

Seeing the comments after that article, the attitude to the link policy by some in Kingston is really bizarre. They'll be winners on distance, not losers - how do they think the schools got links in the first place? Doesn't entitle parents to keep priority over places after moving away though.

The N Kingston adjudication (4 Jan 2011) said:

' . . 38. As mentioned above both proposals would broaden the range of schools in the Borough . . In practice, many parents . . have access to . . [a] range of options, including faith schools.

39. The Council undertook . . consultations about school provision before inviting proposals . . We note from the records of those consultations that there was little evidence of demand for faith-based provision . .

40. Responses to the proposals themselves fall into two very distinct groups. A relatively small group of respondents express strong support for the SDBE proposal . . A second, much larger group express strong opposition to the principle of faith schools. Some of these respondents draw attention to what they regard as the potentially adverse effects of a faith school?s admissions arrangements on the core purpose of making provision for children in this part of the Borough . .

41. On balance we have concluded that the KET proposal is stronger than SDBE?s when . . from the point of view of diversity of provision and local support. Its proposal would lead to the establishment of a unique new option which would be welcomed by parents.

. . 45. We have . . concluded that the Kingston Education Trust's proposals are stronger particularly with regard . . the enhancement to the range of options available for parents in the area.

Determination: Under the powers conferred on us by schedule 2 to the Education and Inspections Act 2006, we hereby determine that the proposed new secondary school in North Kingston shall be established by the Kingston Education Trust from 1 September 2015.

There will be a considerable row if the site is nonetheless given to a faith school.

Presumably at some point the Kingston Education Trust has to throw in the towel on the funding route it is currently pursuing where the funding pot seems to have disappeared and rejiggle itself to become a Free School bid? Otherwise there is no other show in town other than the Evangelical bid so no reason why they shouldn't get the North Kingston Center site?

I notice that there is a full page add for the Reach Academy Free School in Feltham in the last RTT and it claims that all the children that go there will get 3 good A-levels and go to good universities. That seems pretty wishful thinking if it is non-selective. But presumably it is hoping to tempt some parents in from LB Richmond as it has spare places in Year 7.

The adjudicator writes: ? . . Since the Council was a partner in one of the organisations submitting a proposal (The Kingston Education Trust (KET) formed by Kingston Borough Council, the University of Kingston and Kingston College), it referred the choice to an Adjudicator as required under 10(1)(a)(ii) of Schedule 2 to the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (?the Act?) . . ?

The Council had the leading role in the Trust, which was just a necessary tool for getting funding to set up essentially the same sort of school as it would have set up anyway. It now has to bow out and create a vacuum which a group of local parents can fill if they wish to do so. [[http://newlocalschool4twickenham.org.uk/welcome.php The New Local School
for Twickenham]] have shown the way - let us hope some Kingstonians have been inspired to follow it and even now are working up a proposal below the radar.

No doubt the news of a possible faith-based free school will be spurring them on. It is unclear from the Kingston Guardian report whether or not Campanale?s unnamed ?foundation? is asking the DfE to add it to the set of free school proposals currently being evaluated. I would have thought that the DfE would tell it that it is out of time and must wait until the call for next year?s bids

Are Kingston University and Kingston College also not allowed to be part of a free school bid? Am I the only person who finds the whole system of refusing to fund local authorities to open secondary schools that are badly needed but encouraging and funding random groups to do so instead quite bonkers? I certainly never realised that allowing free schools to get funding actually meant not allowing local authorities to have it and that this was the Coalition's grand plan for secondary education. Some free school bidders, of course, appear to be a lot more capable and mainstream than others but I wonder who will be expected to pick up the pieces if all these wacky schools fail.

If Free schools are the only way to create a new school, and councils cannot do this temselves anymore.....
.....then when the Council said the Egerton road site maybe availiable for a new community secondary school in the future ( as a way of making the Catholic school seem more acceptable for everyone) what is their plan for it?

They can't change it into a secondary school themselves, so all they could do is encourage or assist another party to put a school there ??

We should probably be careful about calling the proposed school "wacky" since, whatever Mr Campenale's agenda, it appears to be seeking a sponsor in an established provider of state and independent Anglican Schools that don't have a wacky reputation though they of course haven't agreed yet (so it seems likely they will be organising for this round?) . There is undoubtedly a need for a school, perhaps this will be more of a broad Christian alliance seeking to meet that need?

Though there was at least one openly evangelical school in the running for this round of Free School funding along with the Maharishi School and others who you might say some people might feel were outside the mainstream of parental demand and subject to some cynicism However that bid didn't make it to interviews although it isn't known why. I suppose Gove would argue that this is all about parental demand, and taking the process out of the hands of Councils, who parents often feel fail them in school provision. However it is above all political and with well organised expressions of local mainstream demand like NFS4T and some established education providers, including a couple of independent northern grammar schools (even with their record of providing Labour Ministers) you'd think a Conservative Minister would ultimately be traditional and conservative, and influenced by his own subjective values, as he is on so many other education issues, a bit like the Leader of our Council.....

At the end of the day it still leaves the freeing up of 72 spare places at Greycourt as subject to the risk that the proposed school doesn't get funding, that no NFS4K gets organised enough to successfully bid and that the potential Faith School, either doesn't bid successfully, or doesn't meet demand amongst Kingston parents choosing Greycourt. I do hope Whitgift doesn't come to regret his arrogant, and probably disingenuous, dismissal of the risk.

primalstream Bayjay is away at the moment but I think she has addressed this in the past, I just looked back and can't find it though. The Egerton Road proposal is based on a partnership with the College and as I understand it the means exist for it to be established as an Academy or Free School. However the availability of funding will be far from certain, as indeed it would be if a Community School was proposed under the old legislation. As Natalie Raja highlighted at the Cabinet Meeting Whitfield (sorry about the mistyping of his name in the last post, probably subconscious because I am looking over what will probably soon become a new Croydon complete with Whitgift Centre, by Twickenham Station...) has been promising Stanley School funding for their expansion, not newbuild, for 8 years.

Have some experience of David Campanale - lips sealed but definitely best blended with a majority of nice middle of the road C of E types! But my general point was that I wonder if some of these free schools with unusual ideas, including the Feltham one and the Maharishi and those run by ex-marines, will actually prove unsatisfactory to the parents who commit their children to them and if they will collapse - in which case it's not clear that the local authority can step in and turn them into proper state schools. Alternatively they could end up drawing in lots of parents from elsewhere who actively seek that type of niche education so they will not be terribly useful for the local area's secondary school places crisis. All a big experiment isn't it? Don't mind experiments when people have alternatives but don't think experiments as the core of eductional provision are a great idea.

Lottie - I feel it is better than relying on slippery officers like Nick Whitfield and a bunch of local politicians trying to sort our state education system. Successive administrations have failed to deliver a consistent and high quality secondary education state system in Richmond. The stats that show less than 50% (least in the most prosperous borough) show the magnitude of their failure.
I have no faith in either the Lib Dems or Tory politicians - most of them who do not even send their kids into state schools. Hence the idea of academies or free schools run by strong sponsors and with strong community involved makes me feel more comfortable.

It does seem so back to front though. I think it should be a niche Catholic school that goes though the Free School process, to attempt to serve only 10% of the population. And then the NEW SCHOOL For TWICK should be a definate, fully government supported school, inclusive for everyone that should be top priority and get the choice of site. What a weird and biased Council we have.

I agree Councils in Richmond have not done a good job before, so I do trust some enthusiastic local parent amateurs at setting up a school more than them!

Hi all. Briefly clocking in from a wi fi hotspot on my hols.

Can't speak for other free schools, but with RET on board, NLS4T is way more than just local enthusiastic parent amateurs. RET's parent group Education London are top notch school improvement specialists.

NLS4T definitely not included in the wacky category and sounds like a good thing that should be getting priority support from LB Richmond as primalsteam says. Have learned a lot from Bay Jay's explanations e.g. it was she who first drew my attention to the fact that you can't have a successful mixed ability school with less than about 5 forms of entry thus leading me to feel a tad concerned about the 2 form mixed ability entry free school in Feltham run by a headmaster who looks about 16 and says everyone is going to get 3 A levels and go to a good university. Agree that local politicians and Council around here are not great but actually banning all local authorities from setting up secondary schools is going too far in my view. Can't rely on a sensible bid for a free school emerging in every area nor should parents be forced to send their children to free schools through lack of any other choice when they would prefer a place at a decent local mainstream community secondary school.

Sorry Bayjay have now read up on NEW local School for Twick and can see its far more, you are right. We are so lucky to have this option locally, I will feel much better personally about the school situation if it is finally fully approved. I really hope it can get the Clifden site.

Lottie I suppose that their vision is to address the problem of children from poor backgrounds not realising their potential by providing continuity in a small nurturing environment with a culture of achievement, focus on literacy and numeracy, a longer school day etc. They must have demonstrated feasibility to the Dof E. I have experience of a mentoring charity that provides black children who teachers in inner city schools have identified as bright with role models and support to enable them to achieve, and they do, they get to Oxbridge and they get firsts (and of course Oxbridge can't do enough to help!). However often they have no encouragement from family and it is very difficult for them to develop the motivation they need to go against a prevailing culture in their schools and home and actually work hard, never mind gain the skills to do well in interview etc.. Our feeling is that they are the super bright and there are many many more children out there who would benefit from that sort of help.

However I do wonder how they are going to make that work with open inclusive admissions, unless they are assuming parents will self select? Surely a good school should also provide the option of routes into vocational training acknowledging university isn't the be all and end all and for some that will enable them to best realise their potential? I suppose that they feel that if they equip them with 5 A-Cs then they can move on at 16?

I do wish them well but I always did think a small school aiming to help the disadvantaged (which was it's original purpose) wasn't going to attract pupils away from Twickenham Academy as Whitfield assumes. But then if they are going to start marketing themselves in the borough?

It is going to be interesting to see how this pans out. New Schools need time to get an established reputation unless they start with the sort of parental impetus that Toby Young's school and hopefully NFS4T has. However if you are going to have these sorts of niche schools, including a Catholic School (which faces competition from established Catholic Schools, those parents clocking up the brownie points with priests are still going to try to get into the established schools, particularly girls into Gumley up the road and boys via the lottery of goodness to get into Oratory) touting around for parents who the Council has failed to provide for then the system will be unfair, as we have been saying all along.

The Kingston Secondary School Action Group (Facebook) is working on a forecast of demand for and supply of secondary school places in the borough, which they will issue as a press statement. There is no sign that they are working on a free school bid.

Read Cllr Knight and Nicholson's statements in RTT today finally admit that there will be shortage in spaces in 2013 in Twickenham. Well did this just dawn on them -all this time, including in last months meetings, they have been saying that new community school will be needed in 2015 and that Clifden should be mothballed.
They are proving to be a pathetic opposition. No wonder the Tories can continue to behave arrogantly and feel that they can get away with murder !
Agree with Jeevs comments the politicians on both sides cant be trusted on education.

The Council has published the draft minutes of the Cabinet proceedings on May 24 on the Clifden Road Site and on the Provision Of Sixth forms

. . Councillor Knight addressed Cabinet. He noted support for all schools across the Borough and an appreciation of the desires of Catholic parents to educate their children locally. He highlighted the assumptions on which the pupil place planning for the future had been based and expressed concern that utilising the Clifden Road site now, could prejudice the delivery of community places in future years. In response to questioning, he noted that in making the decision, the desires of the Catholic families in the borough needed to be considered against the needs of the wider population in Richmond. However, he did not agree with the arguments by those opposing faith schools in principle.

. . Nick Whitfield, Director Education, Children?s Services and Culture, and Matthew Paul, Head of School Commissioning, addressed Cabinet. Mr Whitfield noted that capacity within voluntary aided schools had been increased by the same percentage as community schools in recent years. Other options for future school expansion to meet projected need for community places in 2016 / 17 were being explored by the Local Authority. He reported that recent Central Government announcements regarding monies for school rebuilds would not have included schools within the vicinity of the Borough, due to restrictions on use of the monies.

In addressing Cabinet, Mr Whitfield noted that pupil place planning had proven to be accurate to date and despite the many variables, he was confident that plans were being developed to fulfil the local authority?s statutory duty to provide education for all children within the Borough . .

Here is Cllr Knight's statement, issued on May 29: Teddington & Twickenham 11-year-olds face journey to East Sheen secondary school within 15 months.

Chrissquire

Do you know if this is based on projecting the effect of the removal of Links and Matthew Paul's forecast of an Orleans catchment ending at the Heath Road bridge? Those are the only Council figures I know of that support that conclusion? Or have they done some other analysis?

The official Council forecasts are still saying TA doesn't get filled until 2016 and Matthew Paul is very tetchy about the suggestion that they are assuming pupils will travel across to Richmond Park Academy. This is from a recent email from him

"Re Richmond Park Academy, at no point have we said or indicated that we expect that RPA will be the only school in the borough with spare capacity and that Twickenham children would have to go there (though I gather that Cllr Hodgins may have been misquoted as having said that ? no doubt he can clarify that for you). Indeed, the forecasts that went to November?s Overview and Scrutiny meeting, and which were also included in the Clifden Road consultation document and the last few weeks? O&S and Cabinet reports, indicate that we expect Twickenham Academy to continue to have spare capacity in spite of its rebuild and improvement in standards."

(Actually Councillor Hodgins did say at a meeting in October that they expected TA to fill by 2015 and acknowledged that the only places available to those in black holes of provision would then be at RPA, prior to Whitfield deciding that a new school wouldn't be needed until 2016/17 and going public on Egerton Road as a possible site. )