Richmond Borough Schools Chat 5

[BayJay2]

Welcome! This is the latest in a series of threads about Richmond schools, which was first triggered by the council's publication of its Education White Paper in February 2011.

Please do join in the chat. There’s a bunch of us who’ve been following the thread for a long time, and we sometimes get a bit forensic, but new contributions are always welcome, and if it’s something that’s been covered before we can always direct you to that part of the thread.

We generally talk about local education policy, the impact of national policy, the performance of the borough’s schools, and admissions-related issues. We began by talking about Secondaries, but tend to talk a lot about primaries too, so the title of the thread has evolved this time to take that into account.

If you have a few hours to spare and want to catch up on 2 years of local education history, then below are the links to the old threads. We have to keep starting new threads because each only hold 1000 posts. The first two threads run in parallel, as one was started on the national Mumsnet site, and another on the local one:

1a) New Secondaries for Richmond Borough?: Mumsnet Secondary Education (Feb 2011 – Nov 2011)
1b) New Secondary schools for Richmond!: Mumsnet Local (Feb 2011 – Nov 2011)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 2: Mumsnet Local (Nov 2011 – May 2012)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 3: Mumsnet Local (May 2012 – Nov 2012)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 4: Mumsnet Local (Nov 2012 – Oct 2013)

1. This thread: Richmond Borough Schools Chat 5: Mumsnet Local (Oct 2013 - ????)

Finally, to find out how to add links, as well as smilies and emphasis, see these Mumsnet guidelines.

RISC website: 'Once the site details are confirmed, Parents will need to choose whether to take an offer from the Council’s scheme or from Turing House.'

That's not exactly correct. The deadline is 17 March for acceptance of offers - I'd be surprised if the TH site were confirmed before that. It would certainly be unwise for parents to reject any LA offer, as then they wouldn't have the right to remain on waiting lists for other schools. Turing House is an additional/alternative offer, but until the site is known, for many it would be like being on an extra waiting list.

It's been confirmed that the first free school allowed to be run for a profit, IES Breckland, is in special measures. The company had aimed to open a school in Richmond.

I think it's pretty unsatisfactory that the D of Ed and Council still have no site for Turing House so parents have to hold both offers. I understand that this year there are quite a few families living in what used to be the Teddington catchment area last year who are only on the waiting list for Teddington and have been allocated places elsewhere in state system, and I know of at least one who has a Turing House offer aswell, so it's causing a lot of uncertainty for children starting secondary in the Autumn who don't know which of 3 schools they may be going to.

The current rumour, apparently, is that Turing House will be at NPL for the first year and then moving to the Imperial College Sports ground.

I hope these IES people don't get their bid for the Teddington/Twickenham Green primary approved - they sound unsuitable.

The sneakily taken picture of school offers on the RISC site seemed to suggest the Teddington catchment was a few hundred yards better this year, but it wasn't that clear. The RISC newsletter also suggested some non-Catholic Christians gained places at StRR - as two of the schools most affected by the 'black hole' are CofE, maybe some pupils got places there anyway? At least all allocations were to non-religious schools.

I believe that list goes out with all the offer letters, so all the Y6 parents will have it. It may be online somewhere too.

It's stressful for parents allocated a school they didn't put down, who are on waiting lists. But it is encouraging that LA allocations to TA/HA or predecessor schools have gone down quite significantly in the last two years considering numbers applying - they were in double figures before they converted to academies.

Either the sponsored academies are becoming more attractive options, or some local places have been freed up by Sacred Heart/St James's pupils going to StRR. Unless many more are getting offers at Tiffin, Green School, Twyford, etc.! I hope the waiting lists move efficiently this year.

Here's the list, courtesy of my PhotoBucket account.

@ChrisSquire2: thanks, but the file is too small so not easily readable.

You can drag the file from my Photobucket folder onto your desktop then look at it in any image handling software - I use Preview on my Mac -and can easily read all the numbers except the final column.

The file is indeed small - 66k - so the resolution is indeed poor but good enough to read nearly all of it. I can see that the cut off distance for Christ's = 7877 and for St RR =2465 metres.

Satirical post on faith admissions here.

Turing House now not opening until 2015. I've just had an email from them.

That's very sad news about Turing House. There's a statement on the website:
www.turinghouseschool.org.uk/deferral.php

A lot of parents and children will be very disappointed. Commiserations to you and all your colleagues Bay Jay.

Turing House link.

Thanks LP. It's devastating for the many Y6 families who had their hearts set on places, and a huge disappointment to us.

That"s a shame, BayJay. But a good call to make this decision now if there was so much uncertainty over the site, so you have more time to recruit teachers and resource the school.

The Teddington Ofsted is up. Good

ChrisSquire2

What was the Cut off Distance for Waldegrave and Orleans?

When I zoom view the file figures get too blurred to read.
Thanks.

The RTT has Richmond Park Academy enjoys record enrollment (sic):

Richmond Park Academy has urged parents to respond to places quickly after it sent out 200 offers for 180 year 7 spots. Simon Danciger, chairman of governors, . . said: What is most noticeable is that the overwhelming majority of applicants are from our local community, with over 95 &from our most immediate SW13, SW14 and SW15 postcodes. Not only will September’s year 7 cohort be our largest for many years, it will also be our most local intake.

Applications for the academy’s sixth form, which opens this September, are running at twice the level initially anticipated.

minglemingle: my reading is:

Orleans 2006
Waldegrave A 1828
Waldegrave B 5546.

muminlondon It says in their letter they had a temporary site so getting everything in place for September was not the issue.

The DfE made the decision. Teachers considering a new job need to give a term's notice and other schools need to plan, so it was right to decide now, one way or another.

Even when a site is secured it can take a couple of years for refurbishment and relocation of tenants like at North Kingston, or planning permission and new build.

Any chance of Turing House moving to Egerton Road instead of the Michael Hesseltine Academy for children to learn how to flog advertising space in magazines about gadgets? It seems the Council has a massive duty to resolve this in view of its unforgivable behaviour over Clifden Road and keeping a site for a school that is opening 3 years later doesn't seem at all fair. I know the location isn't in the black spot but nor is Imperial Sports ground.

It's only a black spot for boys. And only a black spot in as far as Kew, Barnes and East Sheen are black spots if RPA doesn't do it for you.

RPA has gone up in popularity but it's still not any more popular than Hampton.

lottie I assume that the DofE /EFA will have advised the Council that failing another site, Turing House School would be at the Head of the queue for the Egerton Road site, over their proposal which has not yet even been approved. Presumably that will be focusing minds on finding another suitable site / not putting unnecessary barriers in the way.

mum "it's only a black spot for boys" I'm all for female empowerment but boys are 50 % of the population and I do see they have needs as well! The problem is that,as the Council have labelled it, their education strategy provides "Choice and Diversity" but at the moment if you are not Catholic, or your child a female, or you are not a fan of idiosyncratic Swedish educational approaches, particularly when OFSTED are still rating the school as requiring improvement, there is no choice which is why parents are so upset. It isn't being unreasonably demanding to just want a "bog standard" inclusive coed comprehensive.

RTT article www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/11076083.Parents_devastated_as_Turing_House_School_opening_pushed_back_a_year/?ref=var_0

And Facebook page www.facebook.com/TuringParents2014

This comment on the RTT article suggests the school could be ready in time and the reason the plug was pulled

.

"Stephen Knight is wrong to say the school could not be ready in time. A temporary site was available, and would have accommodated the school until the permanent site was ready. RET have successfully opened 4 other schools on similar timescales, and other groups are doing the same.

The minister's decision was due to just one thing - that the permanent site had not been secured. Financially that is a risk, because if a school is in temporary accommodation, with an obvious deadline, the EFA's experience is that the cost of the permanent site rises. They have recently been criticised by the Audit Commission for overpaying on permanent sites in those circumstances, so there is now a new policy in place which prevents it."

The RTT website has Parents devastated as Turing House School opening pushed back a year:

. . Parent Paula Muncey, 47, whose 10-year-old son was due to start at the school, said the situation was absolutely scandalous. She said: “Everyone is shocked, angry, tearful, devastated and thinking ‘what are we going to do next?’ We had no reason to think it was not going to happen and it feels like the rug has been pulled from under us. I now have to send my son to a school that I have little faith in.”

The announcement on Wednesday, March 12, came just nine days after offers were made and parents have until March 17 to decide on another school.

Mrs Muncey, from Teddington, said: “There is a real trust issue now and parents may not want to risk putting their name down for a free school. I am sure there are some parents who will have rejected their other place and some children are not going to have a place even at their second choice.”

. . Cllr Stephen Knight, leader of the opposition in Richmond, said the debacle raised questions over free schools. He said: “The whole process of starting free schools is clearly seriously flawed. It was always a bizarre fantasy to be offering places for a non-existent school. Even if a site had been secured by now, it realistically takes four to five years to plan and build a new secondary school and the idea that you can provide all the facilities in the meantime in Portakabins or converted offices is simply unrealistic.”

. . Parents have set up a meeting with Twickenham MP Vince Cable on Friday, March 14. (No time is given for the meeting).

A comment says: . . The minister's decision was due to just one thing - that the permanent site had not been secured. Financially that is a risk, because if a school is in temporary accommodation, with an obvious deadline, the EFA's experience is that the cost of the permanent site rises. They have recently been criticised by the Audit Commission for overpaying on permanent sites in those circumstances, so there is now a new policy in place which prevents it.