New Secondary Schools for Richmond 4

[BayJay2]

Welcome. This is the fourth (or perhaps fifth) in a series of threads about Richmond Secondary Schools.

The discussion was originally triggered by Richmond council's publication of its Education White Paper in February 2011. It started with two parallel threads here and here.

In November 2011 the most active of the original two threads reached 1000 messages (the maximum allowed) so we continued the conversation here.

That thread filled up in May 2012, and was continued here.

It's now November 2012, and once again we're at the start of a new thread ....

Majority of people in Richmond belong to a faith group and want faith schools. The Council fulfilled its pledge to support that popular demand and I see no reason why they will not continue to promote choice and diversity.
Dare I remind the Lib Dems, that their leaders are Chair of Governors, Governors and parents in our comunity of faith schools. None of them have inclusive admissions. It does not makes sense to turn away a child who believes in the schools faith, in favour of a child who does not believe in the schools faith!

I would like to see Councillors Eady and Knight use their influence to make changes and introduce inclusive admissions. And why are all the foundation governors men?

It does not makes sense to turn away a child who believes in the schools faith, in favour of a child who does not believe in the schools faith!

Did the council contribute money towards capital costs of expansion of this school? If so, it does not make sense to turn away Richmond borough residents from this school when there is a shortage of places and other schools in the area are being asked to take bulge classes.

Where is the shortage at secondary level - there are more than 150 spaces in the academies!

There are 1750 places this year. 1450 inborough applications. And 400+ outborough applications which are likely to be successful due to proximity. So more than 100 Richmond residents will have to go elsewhere. Some will go willingly, many will be disappointed.

For 2014 there will be about 1570 inborough applications for 1680 places. If still 400+ outborough applications and rising - including for St RR - then there will be a serious shortfall.

A large no of those applicants will go private. Are you suggesting that all our secondaries will be full in 2013 ? If so that can only be good news for all taxpayers!

Not that I believe that and would rather trust the Councils forecast that projects around 150 spare spaces in 2013.

It would be preposterous to add more capacity whilst there are spare spaces in the system.

Councillors Eady and Knight have sought to liberalise St Mary's admission policy on many occasions without success as they are always out-voted. The school is voluntary-aided and therefore entitled to act as it does.

muminlondon2: thanks for the correction - an error in transcribing numbers which I should have spotted.

mmptsa I have already provided you with the link to the Councils' s current forecast for 2013, 122 spare places of which 100 were forecast to be made available in a Free School, no Free School with secondary places was approved. They are as I pointed out now actually on the wrong side by some margin of the 4-5% spare capacity that the National Audit Office, who do determine what is good value for the tax payer, regards as prudent to ensure that there are sufficient school places. Not only that but they have acknowledged that as a result of a number of the assumptions underpinning their forecasts, not just no free school, having been undermined they will need to revise their forecasts. We have had this conversation already.

Why are Councillor Knight and Eady then holding onto their Governor post in schools that do not follow the Lib Dem and coalition policy of inclusivity?
They need to put their skin in the game for the community. Perhaps they should use their talents to help our academies improve and join their boards instead.

Good point JoTwicken.

Some people choose to go private, or selective (e.g. Tiffin). And that goes for Catholic families too - about one-third of St Elizabeth's pupils in 2011 went private. Like Marshgate next door they had no link school (although they still had some priority for Christ's foundation places). They used to have a link with Orleans Park so perhaps some will choose it now. There's certainly no reason for them to go private or out of the borough now.

More information on the Governing Boards at the academies can be found here.
Twickenham
Hampton
RPA

So parents at St Elizabeth's get to choose between out of Borough Catholic schools, Sir RR, Christs, Richmond Park Academy and still one third of them go private, but parents of most children, especially boys, on the Middlesex side of the borough, have no choice whatsoever of school and some may have no place at all as early as 2014. All this talk about parents being able to chose the right school for their child is such nonsense as it only seems to apply to a small percentage of the LB Richmond population. Even those of us who are happy with our local comprehensive didn't actually have any other choice. Most children are just numbers who have to be shoved in whereever possible so far as the Council is concerned, and if you question that you are accused of being prepostorous by the likes of mmptsa. It seems that by this time next year the Council could well be asking local secondary schools to take a bulge class in Year 7 unless the free school gets both the money and the site it needs. I hope that now they are academies those schools will stick two fingers up at the Council. If Sir RR only took Catholic children from within LB Richmond and filled up its spare places with local children who have nowhere else to go that would be slightly more acceptable. However, I'm sure masses of fake Catholics will be emerging to take up the Catholic slack, although a school full of boys whose parents have faked Catholicism to get them in because they feel they have no alternative may not be ideal!

"Why are Councillor Knight and Eady then holding onto their Governor post in schools that do not follow the Lib Dem and coalition policy of inclusivity?"

I'd prefer them to stay there to continue putting the case for more inclusive admissions (if what Chris says is true). If everyone who believes in that walks away from VA schools, then it will never happen. Parents at those schools can help too. If they vote with their wallets and refuse to pay the "Voluntary" contribution to the maintenance fund the VA schools would have no choice but to change to Voluntary Controlled instead. That's happened in lots of schools around the country (usually in less affluent areas). The council controls the admissions of VC schools, and the vast majority of them are fully inclusive.

Then perhaps they need to be doing more and create more awareness. Just being a silent minority does not help anybody.

We live in north St Margarets and some RC families are switching preference to The Blue School (CE) since it was announced 6th best performing in the country in the Sunday Times.

According to St E's only 4 Y6 pupils transferred to private schools in 2012 (p.9)

St Elizabeth's School Profile 2012

Cat242 Interesting to see the actual destinations of St Elizabeth's pupils last year. From what I hear the preferences this year are no different. In spite of all the issues around journeys and splitting up of the St Elizabeth's community highlighted at Cabinet, parents only see St RRs as a back up to those established excellent out of borough schools, and will continue to do so as long as places are available, which of course at Oratory they always will be.

The issue is that non Catholic parents do not have those options, let alone a back up.

Stephen Knight, an atheist, is an interesting choice for Chair of Governors of St Mary's and St Peter's in Teddington! One thing that is different about SMSP admissions criteria from totally exclusive schools like Sir RR, however, is that it only gives preference to church goers in Teddington (linked churches and then Churches together in Teddington which includes Methodist and Baptist, but not the fiery evangelical Christ Church I believe!) and then it admits on distance. So someone who goes to a C of E church in Hampton Hill would not get in in preference to a non-religious child living closer to the school. I think this is a change of policy from 10 years ago when any child of C of E parents living anywhere could trump a child living in the same road as the school from a non C of E family. Presumably this has been brought about by negotiation with councillors such as Stephen Knight and the offer of money for rebuilding/expansion as a result of the catastrophic lack of primary school places in central Teddington over recent years? I am not familiar with the admissions policies of other borough religious primary schools - have all C of E primaries changed in this way? Do Catholic primary schools allow anyone in on distance in preference to distant Catholics?

Heathclif, with respect the 2013 applications data suggests that there could be lot of spare spaces in the academies in Sep 2013. Then if what you are saying is true, there will be open spaces in St RR as well.
I like the suggestion here of people getting more involved to help the academies - especially the Lib Dems who created them.
It is for people to decide where to invest their energies - existing schools or worrying about new schools that the Councils eductaion plan will anyway deliver.

"new schools that the Councils eductaion plan will anyway deliver"

Mmptsa, under the latest education act, which came into force in Feb 2012, local authorities are no longer able to "deliver" new community schools. Any new community places will need to come from the expansion of existing schools (no longer an option dues to space issues, and no longer under the control of the council as they're all academies) or the creation of Free Schools. Richmond LA understand that, and is therefore being encouraging of local Free School proposals. In parallel, it is also investigating Egerton Road as a potential site for a future secondary school, but under existing Government policy that would need to be a free school too (so not directly under Council control).

Its worth emphasising, as you are new to the thread and may not have read it from the start, that many of the people in this discussion are already contributing significantly to the success of existing local academies and future new schools.

mmptsa "with respect the 2013 applications data suggests that there could be lot of spare spaces in the academies in Sep 2013." You may choose to interpret the preferences in that way but as I am sure you know you cannot forecast without making your assumptions explicit so people can judge whether your interpretation is accurate. Implicit in your "forecast" are the assumptions that

1. A lot of people who have made the RPA, TA, and HA lower preferences will get the school(s) they have made higher preferences. We obviously cannot say whether those higher preferences had high chance of success but certainly there are a large number of applicants to Tiffin and the other oversubscribed state schools for whom they were not. We will know that after allocations. However there are enough parents making those academies preferences for them to fill up at least in line with the Council's forecast of 22 places. Obviously with such a small margin of error it could go either way. There is a significant risk with at least 1850 applicants for 1720 places of no spare capacity especially on the Middlesex side.

1. That a very large number of those applying for the oversubscribed schools will have the means, and the will, to go private or move away if their applications are not successful. Clearly if they have applied to the state schools in the first place that is far from their preference and "desire". Aside from issues of morality and fairness the Council has for decades had implicit in it's education strategy the assumption that one of the highest proportions of parents in the country will be deterred from it's secondary schools. However rising standards, and the prospect of a triple dip recession makes that a very risky assumption. We have already seen it undermined at primary level with the response being hastily assembled bulge classes and some children still left without places. Surrey have been planning on the assumption that trend will now feed through to secondary schools.

1. That out of borough applications will fall. However the situation on school places in neighbouring boroughs has not improved as the Council predicted it would, in fact with the school in Kingston failing to materialise, it has got worse. Nobody knows how the distance criteria is going to affect out of borough admissions since areas of for instance Kingston that did not get in on links will now on distance.

1. That no Catholics who will now live within the catchments of oversubscribed secondary's will have applied successfully, as the figures show 6 out of 28 St Elizabeths parents did to Christs's and Waldegrave in 2012, now they will get in on distance.

1. That the much desired St RR will have spare capacity for non Catholics. Whilst in borough Catholics may be sticking with established out of borough schools, and there are places for them, there is disillusionment with the Catholic options out of borough in the south west. It should also be borne in mind that St RRs admissions policy means that non Catholic families offered places will be discriminated against when it comes to subsequent siblings, a significant factor in Sacred Heart, Teddington remaining with spare capacity in it's bulge reception class.

I therefore do not agree with your implicit assumptions, and neither do the Council anymore.

It seems that by this time next year the Council could well be asking local secondary schools to take a bulge class in Year 7

Free schools are having to find temporary accommodation while they are being refurbished and/or the site is still occupied, like Bolingbroke in Wandsworth which moved temporarily in with Burntwood School]. I think this has been mentioned before but in Richmond it would be an irony if the only free space is at St RR.

On the other hand, St RR itself could still be housed in portakabins until the summer of 2014 as RACC doesn't finish its own refurbishment until then.

Bayjay councils could potentially set up voluntary community schools under Sec 11 outside of free school and academy competition.