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 ......

Fair point copthallresident, I may not have been comparing like with like there either. Results do not always convey the true achievements of pupils and teachers in schools - it's certainly true of community schools. I'm sure St C does a good job too and provides something different (it is also inclusive).

Plan for two new Catholic schools in London under threat reports the Catholic Herald, sparking a vigorous exchange of views between the faithful and the RISCites.

The e-admissions system for Y7 2013 entry officially opens tomorrow. Yet everything on the admissions section of the LBRuT website seems to still pertain to 2012 entry. No details of upcoming open evenings, booklet or anything.

Does anyone know if all the 2013 Y7 secondary admissions info on hold until the outcome of the judicial review?

Cat, it looks like the updated info has just been published.

Well I never! I am sure it wasn't there when I looked earlier. Mumsnet speaks LBRuT listens - thanks BayJay

That's also the first I've heard of the name of the Twickenham catholic schools - St Richard Reynold's.

He's a local Catholic martyr: St. Richard Reynolds was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He was born in Devon in 1492 and educated at Cambridge. In 1513, he entered the Brigettines at Syon Abbey, Isleworth. When King Henry VIII demanded royal oaths, Richard and others opposed the monarch. They were executed at Tyburn. Richard was canonized in 1970. He was canonized in 1973 by Paul VI.

The school, if it comes to pass, will no doubt be known as 'Saint Dick's'. I didn't find any mention of the school on the council website.

So teaching of the Tudors will be entirely without bias......

Hmm, interesting that they didn't use Lord True's suggestion of naming it after Pope Benedict.

Perhaps they'll change it once they're confident the school won't be martyred to the rule of law .

St Richard Reynolds appears on the E-Admissions form but there's no info other than a link to the RCDOW website, which doesn't have any info either.

In the LBRuT admisions booklet it offers the info that the PAN is 150 in 2013.

In MT FEATURE: DIY free school Ian Wylie describes the creation of England's most northerly free school: Cramlington Village Primary School, Northumberland. It can be done but boy, was it a struggle...

The Diocese of Westminster website lists St Richard Reynolds in its 2013 prospectus but the website given (www.rcdow.org.uk/StRichardReynolds) has no info yet.

The Sept 2013 Secondary Amissions brochure includes St Richard Reynolds School on p. 15:

St Richard Reynolds Catholic Secondary School (318 9901) Information provided by the Diocese of Westminster
The long-awaited Catholic secondary school has now arrived in the borough. It will meet a significant demand in the area for Catholic maintained secondary education. Children who, in the past, had to travel many miles to the nearest Catholic secondary school will now be able to apply to the school which will be situated in Clifden Road, Twickenham, with a new Catholic primary school on the same site . . It will have a Catholic ethos and a policy of inclusivity . . The Admissions Policy and Supplementary Information Form will be available in September 2012 from the London Borough of Richmond and the oversubscription criteria for 2013-2014 can be found on the Diocese of Westminster website: www.rcdow.org.uk.

Can anyone actually find the oversubscription criteria on the RCDOW site though?

Chippy, unless they've changed since the original proposals were published (and I can't see why they would have since the council accepted the proposals without recommending any change), then the oversubscription criteria for the Secondary are here and the Primary ones are <a class="break-all" href="http://www.rcdow.org.uk/download.asp?filename=www.rcdow.org.uk/fileupload/upload/DoWPrimarySchPI(Final)242012471716.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here.

The FT writes (Back to school Sep 02):

. . Instead of waiting for private groups to come forward, the government should identify areas of need: places where existing schools are too small or are weak performers. Then it should buy the sites, put up buildings and ask people to bid to run them.

Some currently approved schools would still open: London?s new primary free schools, in particular, meet a need to provide school places. But lots of the others would not. In their place, the DfE could probably start by holding contests to run schools in areas such as Hull or Doncaster.

This approach would mean there would be fewer ?parent-led? schools and more school chains. Good. Schools should not be run as cottage industries. If there were tens of thousands of headteachers able to run their own schools brilliantly on their own, education would not be a problem . .

Chris, in a sense that route is already available, but needs to be instigated by the council, i.e council buy land (funded through Basic Need grant if necessary), then open it up to competitive bids from government-approved academy providers. In a sense, the free school approval process is about creating 'one off' academy providers out of parent groups etc.

In the case of RET (NLS4T's educational partner) either route is feasible because they're already approved academy providers.

"the free school approval process is about creating 'one off' academy providers out of parent groups etc"

Or, one off partnerships between parent/charitable groups and existing aicademy providers, as in the case of NLS4T and also Hampton Church School (in partnership with the CodE which is also an approved provider and not dependent on the free school process).

The reason why some approved academy providers are using the free school process is because they want to create schools that are tailored to their local communities rather than schools that are clones of each other.

Thanks BayJay.

Apologies if this has been covered before, but the need to submit an application for 2013 is sharply in my focus right now:
Are there any predictions about the impact of St Richards on applications to Catholic secondaries outside LBRuT eg St Marks, Gunnersbury, Gumley? Do we know how many places Richmond pupils have taken up in these schools?

Hi Chippy. There's nothing official on that, no. If you go back to the first of these Mumsnet threads and text-search for individual RC primary names, then there are some figures there for transfers from individual schools (e.g. the 2010 transfers from St James, Sacred Heart, St Edmunds are all there I think). However, you can't assume that families from those primaries will automatically switch to St Richards as their first choice in 2013. Assuming it goes ahead as planned, the school will inevitably take some time to establish itself.

Thanks. You are right, of course, about time to establish. Presumably anyone with sibling rights outside LBRuT will continue to leave the borough.

I'm interested because i'm in a parish outside LBRuT that's in the same Deanery as half the catchment parishes. The Deanery has an allocation at the Hounslow schools, so wondering if there will be a chance of getting in on distance criteria if the LBRuT pupils go for St Richards - we are at the 'wrong end' of the deanery.

LibDems are now saying that the administration is not telling the truth regarding the legal position. They are putting a lot of tax payers money to risk to fight the case - and without the Council's approval

Chris is that not maladministration. I cant find your post but you had posted a few months ago ?

Jeev: I?m unclear just what you are referring to as you didn?t provide a link.

This is the latest Lib Dem statement, dated Sep 04: Tory mishandling leaves parents uncertain over Clifden Road School

?THE decision of the High Court to grant leave for a judicial review of Richmond Council's handling of the proposed new Catholic secondary school at Clifden Road Twickenham, shows how badly the Tory council has handled the issue, according to the Lib Dem opposition.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Stephen Knight said: The council has wrapped itself in procedural knots trying to force through a school with an admission policy entirely restricted to pupils from Catholic families, when recent legislation suggests new catholic schools should have at least 50% of places open to all. In order to circumvent the law, the Tories want us all to believe that the council didn't propose a catholic school, but simply responded positively to a request from the church.

We all know that this is stretching the truth and now the whole messy process is going to have to be reviewed by the courts. Meanwhile parents are left not knowing what sort of school will open in September 2013 or what its admissions policy will be. The council could and should have avoided this mess by following the normal process for opening a new school, even if it wouldn't have achieved their preferred exclusive admissions policy.

Before that, came Free Schools decision leaves Tory plan for secondary school places in tatters on July 19 and Teddington & Twickenham 11-year-olds face journey to East Sheen secondary school within 15 months on May 29.

I do not know what lies behind Cllr Knight?s statement. He may know things that we don?t, having been briefed by Council officers. Or he may know less. Either way it shows a toughening of the Lib Dem line, which I welcome. Let us wait and see.

Just had an update that the New Local School For Twickenham will be called Turing House School. Assuming it is named after Alan Turing en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing who has also inspired the naming of some other impressive science and technology based institutions, my science geek daughter studying at UCL is very impressed. Inspiring and relevent. Being a History geek, not entirely sure the names of other proposed new schools entirely meet that description.....

Hi Copthall. Here's the full announcement ....

Dear parents and supporters,

We're back! As the new term begins we want you to know that although we were disappointed not to get approval for our school to open in 2013, the DfE has encouraged us to re-apply and we think we have a strong chance in the next funding round, which opens in December.

A lot has been happening behind the scenes:
- We?ve chosen a name for the school; Turing House after the inspirational mathematician Alan Turing.
- We have a new look and logo, so we can hit the ground running after approval.

- We have an admissions policy

...and (cue drum roll)....

- We have a potential new site.

Not bad for a summer's work! Visit our website to find out more.

So what?s next? Well we?ve already convinced the DfE that there is strong demand for our school, and this time we want to show them how the pressure is building, with even more families registering their support. We will need you to help us once more in spreading the word, so watch out for another email about that in the next few days, and don?t forget to ?like? our posts on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

We'll also be printing more leaflets to distribute and will need volunteers. Thanks for all your help in the past; one final push and we could have that school we all want and need so much! Do let us know if you can help.

Best wishes,

Turing House School Steering Group
(formerly New Local School for Twickenham Steering Group)

This is excellent news. What a contrast with St Dick's!

Turing was at the NPL from the war's end until October 1947, when ' . . the NPL allowed, or preferred, that Turing should spend a year at Cambridge . . Newman offered Turing the post of deputy director of the Manchester Computing Laboratory. Turing accepted, resigned from the NPL, and moved in October 1948.' [DNB]

He stayed at a guest house, Ivy House, in Hampton High Street, which is now marked by a blue plaque: picture