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 ......

NLS4T sponsors and parents should be proud of what they have achieved and should re-apply with greater support and enthusiasm - Feb 2013 is in only 7 months !
I hope Dfe gives us a valid and objective explaination for the reasons for rejection. Unfortunately politics won the battle and the Council will deeply regret for stabbing the backs of the local community.

New Local School for Twickenham Press Release posted here.

I am appalled to see the double standards and hypocritical attitude of dfe and council . If catholics have demand its ok to meet them .
100 kids from twickenham will not have school now in 2013 wheras catholics who as paul barber said have no shortage yet will get extra luxury of exclusive spaces .

Will the catholics and the council do the honourable thing of making the clifden school a catholic academy ? It will save the taxpayers money and respect localism that Lord True is so concerned about

Here is a link to the 2011 census data published today. Does anyone have the 2001 data for comparison?

Richmond borough (1,000s): total = 187; 10-14 9.7; 5-9 11.1; and 0-5 14.0 = + 44 % on 10-14

Kingston: 160.1; 8.5; 9.0; and 11.0 = + 29 %.

Hounslow: 254; 13.9 144.9; and 19.7 = + 42 %.

So anyone who thinks thei=re a lot more pushchairs around than there used to eb is dead right. I wonder what Nick Whitfield thinks about these figure.

2001 census information is here The number of 0-5s over 10-14s was +30% in 2001 , and the number of 0-5s has increased by 18% compared with an overall increase in population of 8.5% (increase in 5-9s 12% and 10-14s 8%). In absolute terms there are 2,200 more 0-4s, 1200 more 5-9s and 700 more 10-14s. The question facing Nick Whitfield is do all those 14000 0-4s and 11100 5-9s stay here when they come up against the realities of Richmond schooling. I would suggest that is a factor in the differing numbers of pre school and secondary school children.

Thanks; here are straight comparisons (2001, 2011, change %):

total: 172, 187, +9%;
10-14: 9.1, 9.7, +7%;
5- 9: 9.9, 11.1, +12%;
0-4: 11.8, 14.0, +19%.

The 10- 14 year olds in this census were 0-4 in the last. There were 11,828 of them then, 9800 now.

Free schools: why applying was 'utterly horrendous' Toby Blume wants his community-spirited plan for a new school to inspire more parents to come forward. But after the arduous experience of applying, he fears only faith groups and private chains may bother:

Just before Christmas last year, I joined a small group of other parents for our weekly meeting of the "local schools for local children" group we'd started a few months earlier. It had started off as a parent campaign to improve the provision of secondary education and offer more choice in and around the East Finchley area of London, where we live. Discussions with the local authority had shown them to be sympathetic, but their hands were tied when it came to creating the type of provision we sought ? these days it has to be a free school, or nothing . . .

[Guardian Jul 16]

Meanwhile, in other news [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/17/creationist-groups-approval-free-schools?newsfeed=true Creationist groups win Michael Gove's approval to open free schools
.]]

Just posting a link to this ITV piece on the Bristol Free School, which was the first to be set up by NLS4T backers RET, and has now been open for a year.

Very interesting articles/film people. The Bristol report didn't really make it clear to me whether the issue was really lack of places in North West Bristol, or the quality or type of other schools in the area. The type of schools available (religious/single sex/grammar/secondary modern) seems to have been the motivating factor in East Finchley. I would have thought that the Government would prioritise schools in areas where there is an overall shortage of places but it doesn't seem to necessarily be doing so?

Bay Jay is your second choice of site in Twickenham still likely to be available now NLS4T is delayed for a year?

Lottie, this info on the NLS4T's site preferences is up to date, and I'm sure will be kept updated as things evolve.

Article on abandoned free school in Newham:

"The impact of free schools would be enhanced if they were developed strategically in localities where new places are needed or where there is school failure, rather than investing in extra capacity in areas where the school system is performing well."

Let's see how popular the creationist schools are.

Bay Jay - well I will keep my fingers crossed that it's not on the market yet and that it wasn't Twickenham studios which seems to have been sold again!

Mum in London - agreed. Converting failing private schools to free schools seems like a very cost effective option and one which most people would support I'd imagine, although if the site has to be bought from the private school operator it would cost a lot more than £177k. I don't think there are many failing private schools big enough to be converted into secondary schools around here though.

Lottie, you can uncross your fingers on both counts.

The 2012 admissions report (pp 11-12) yields these total secondary offers by local authority:

LA: 2011/12; 2012/13; Change.

Hounslow: 160; 181; + 21.
Kingston: 165; 171; + 06.
Wandsworth: 59; 62; + 03.
Others: 31; 19; - 12.

Totals: 415; 433; + 18.

Ever since the Council announced their new secondary school plans last October, RISC has pointed out the huge gamble they are taking by basing iton a set of questionable assumptions. One of the assumptions was that therewould be 100 new secondary places/year at Free Schools in 2013. Another was that a third of the places at Grey Court school in Ham would become available to borough pupils in 2015 because of a big new secondary openingin Kingston. Now we know that there will be zero secondary places at Free Schools in2013. And last week there was a major public meeting in Kingston to talk about the failure of the school there to receive any funding in the two years since it was formally agreed. Even if a new funding route is found,no-one knows whether or when it would be approved, how big it would be andwhether it would have any significant impact on Grey Court. At the same time the Census figures just released show that there were 12%more 5 to 9 year olds in the borough in 2011 compared to 2001,and 18% more 0to 4 year olds. In Hounslow, which accounts for around half theout-of-borough children at Richmond secondaries, there were 11% more 5 to 9years olds and an astonishing 38% more 0 to 4 year olds. On top of these increases, more borough parents are opting for state rather than privateschools. The Council even ran out of primary places in St Margaret's last year for that reason. The Council is not planning any net increase in capacity at existingsecondaries. They are only now exploring the feasibility of a site for a newsecondary for 2016 or 2017 to cope with the big growth in pupils coming outof the primaries. The only new secondary capacity planned before then is theVoluntary Aided Catholic school at Clifden Road. But that will effectivelybe closed to children of non-Catholics. Unless there are major changes in plans for school places during the next 12 months, the Council's own figures suggest there will not be enough secondary school places in the borough by 2014. Non-Catholic parents, especially those in Twickenham, will be hit. The Council still has the chance to reverse their decision to give the Clifden Road site to the church for an exclusive Catholic secondary, and instead use it for a school open to all, including children of Catholics. Why don't they take it?

Chris - presumably these are figures showing the number of children from other local authorities offered a school place in LB Richmond schools? Presumably most of these places will be taken up because children only get one offer of a state school place.

I wonder if the court case will be able to consider the fact that the factors that the decision to offer the site to the Catholic church were based on, including decrease in number of out of borough children, were clearly unreliable on the basis that they have now actually been proved to be wrong? Only considering the risk that there might be over provision of places in community schools like TA and RPA and not the risk that there might be under provision is looking more and more like a dodgy basis for a decision.

LottieProsser: you are correct about the figures.

I think the judicial review will only examine the lawfulness of the process that the council followed in deciding to assign a lease on the site to the Catholics. It will not assess the quality of the professional advice given by the council's officers, which has been subject to formal scrutiny and debate and formally adopted by the council.

Chris - I seem to remember something about the decision-making process needing to include taking into account relevant considerations and not taking into account irrelevant considerations - but it's a long time since I briefly studied judicial review - no doubt the RISC lawyers will be able to advise on that!

Todays RTT "^A spokesman for Richmond Council said "We currently have a large number of spare places in our secondary schools however (sic) , following the outcome of the free school applications, we will be of course be revising our forecasts once we know the actuall number of Year 7 starters in September.

We are looking at a number of contingencies, including progressing with the feasibility of a secondary school being established on the Richmond College site.

We have always said we don't need more secondary places until 2017 and there will be another three rounds of Free School applications before then^"

So its keep calm and carry on regardless at York House

However to be fair weren't the forecasts included in the Clifden Consultation for an increase in out of borough for 2012, 442 to 455 (though the figures don't reconcile)? I suppose they could argue they are on track, they forecast +13, 5 out isn't bad for the overall population. If my memory serves me right that was what Matthew Paul argued at the scrutiny committee.

However looking at the school by school forecasts (though links between boroughs and schools are not absolute ) within that it appears they overestimated Kingston applications (panic about the lack of a new school hasn't quite hit yet) and underestimated Hounslow and Wandsworth applications by a fair margin. If that is true it undermines their assumption that improvements in existing schools and the new free school (due on stream this year) in Hounslow will be attracting pupils away.

The crunch comes next year when they are forecasting a reduction of over 100 in out of borough applicants, assuming all those who don't get in on distance (out of boroughs to reduce by 46 at Orleans, 26 at Hampton, 25 at Greycourt) don't transfer their applications to undersubscribed schools and there isn't a whole new population of out of borough applicants who wouldn't have benefitted from links but will on distance. Their forecast of spare capacity is now effectively, since there is no free school, for 22 places.

I would have thought those from Hounslow, knowing they are no longer likely to get into Orleans, might possibly choose TA instead? It also seems that children from Ham and more children from Kingston might choose Teddington School next year freeing up more places at Greycourt for Kingston children and displacing children from the Fulwell part of Teddington who are further away and are then likely also to end up at TA, or even RPA. So 2013 will be interesting.

The Observer reports [Jul 22]: Why our primary schools are unable to cope with the pupil bulge:

. . the London Councils group estimate that together they will need a further 70,000 primary school places by 2014 . . councils have been discussing a range of emergency stopgap measures, such as using empty office space and teaching in school halls . . Barking . . council . . has looked . . using disused shops . . for schools in the next few years . . [and] introducing "split shift" teaching, a system used in beleaguered Gaza, where pupils would be divided into morning or afternoon shifts . . [the] borough has seen dramatic demographic change in recent years because housing is cheap . . [they] estimate that the number of children up to 4 years old in the borough increases by about 150 a month, while the birthrate in 2010 was 58 % higher than in 2000 . .

A reminder of how the other half are living. Richmond's problems are trivial by comparison.