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.

Re the Turing House School newsletter (lithemind 1 October), we certainly wish them the very best of luck in acquiring a permanent site. Prospective parents really do deserve some positive news soon.

However, dates are slipping again in the plans for the RUT college redevelopment and new secondary school in Twickenham. The reec.org.uk website says an outline planning application for the entire development will be submitted in Winter 2014 but a newsletter delivered to homes recently said by the end of January next year.

Last week the Council’s press release about a further consultation says it is hoped that a planning application for the development will be submitted in February 2015.

I don’t think they have met a single target date for the project so far. It's not very reassuring.

The Guardian’s blog on Monday’s Lib Dem conference has this statement by Vince Cable on religion and education:

‘I was baptised a Baptist, went to a Methodist Sunday school, followed an attractive young woman to the Quakers and stayed. I married a Roman Catholic and we agreed in the spirit of compromise to bring our kids up as Anglicans who want to become Buddhist.

I’m now remarried happily and I married a humanist so I’m not trailing a lot of religious baggage. What I am trailing is a strong belief in the basic human right which is embodied in the European charter that people should have the right to choose their faith and that includes sending your kids to a school which has the ethos that you are comfortable with.’

I think many people would agree with that in principle Chris, but in practice sending your kids to a school which has an ethos that you are comfortable with (whether that be a CE/RC/Muslim/etc faith school, good comprehensive school, bilingual school, grammar school, Steiner school, science/arts/humanities specialist school, or a multitude of other school types) is the preserve of a privileged few who have the resources to either move within catchment or otherwise jump through the hoops of the oversubscription criteria - there just isn't enough slack in the system for everyone to have a choice, especially in London.

The National Audit Office recommends a minimum 5-10% surplus for there to be any reasonable level of choice at all (down from 15% in previous generations), and here in Richmond it is 0%.

Unfortunately VC, along with many other politicians of his generation, is simply out of touch with the experience of modern parents.

sending your kids to a school which has the ethos that you are comfortable with
So if you want your dc to be with a large cohort of other 'bright' children, you should be able to send them to a grammar school? Or largely middle class? That's just as much 'ethos' - can't see VC pushing that.
We see the main party leaders like Nick Clegg and David Cameron claiming to be supporting the state system by sending their DC to 'faith' schools which is often shorthand for schools-with -parents-like-us-and-low proportion-of-Ever 6- kids. ( No idea about Ed Miliband - does he have school age kids? Presume he'll wriggle like the rest of them when it comes to secondary.

Another local-ish secondary school proposal here:
m.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/11516239.East_Molesey_secondary_school_plan__receives_460_responses_in_a_day_/

Unfortunately VC, along with many other politicians of his generation, is simply out of touch with the experience of modern parents.

Very true. And while I disagree with grammar schools on principle because they create an unbalanced intake in neighbouring schools, especially with a defined catchment area, you can't 'choose' a grammar school anyway because the school does the selecting. And try 'choosing' Waldegrave if you have boys or St Richard Reynolds if you aren't Catholic.

Talking of new schools, parents applying to secondary school this year should remember Kingston Academy. It is included briefly in the new Kingston admissions to secondary school booklet but no telephone number yet. There is an open evening on 14 October.

Kingston pupils aren't getting into Teddington or Grey Court as easily - compare Teddington 2011 admissions with 2014 - so it should fill up from there. But there's more chance of getting a place from further afield in the first couple of years and it may be a useful back-up for some.

Also hoping that Turing House gets a site confirmed this year. Its open evening was last night - any more news?

Yes, I thought VC was beginning to get it when he talked about 5 out of the 8 primary schools in a swathe from Twickenham Green down through Teddington to Kingston Bridge being religious, but clearly he has forgotten again. If it's really a basic human right to choose a school with an ethos you are comfortable with that right is being exercised at the expense of a lot of children who haven't been able to get into a local school they can walk to.

More Kingston pupils used to get into Teddington School as it had a link with a school called St Pauls under the linked schools system until 2013 intake, but now they only get in on distance (which is not impossible if they live near central Kingston as that is nearer Teddington school than quite a lot of Teddington!).

This is what VC was referring to: European Convention on Human Rights:

ARTICLE 2 Right to education (Protocol, p 18): No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.

What this means in practice is a matter of politics, national and local, and case law. It certainly doesn’t amount to ‘a basic human right to choose a school with an ethos you are comfortable with’ free of charge. In France, for example, state education is entirely secular.

There’s nothing, I’m afraid, in the Convention about dcs having a right to a school they can walk to.

VC and his first wife Olympia decided that their local school (Whitton S) was not good enough for their 3 children and sent them to Hampton School. This would have been in the late 70s/early ‘80s, before he resumed his political career by standing for the SDP in the 1983 election - the second of four unsuccessful attempts before his election in 1997.

The most basic right should be to a good, mainstream, community place within a reasonable commute. Until everyone has that option, anything else will be controversial.

I've heard prominent local politicians go further and say they think everyone should have the right to an Outstanding education. That's a noble aim, but its a mistake to prioritise delivery of that through niche provision rather than mainstream provision.

Absolutely. Giving some people choices in a situation when there is a limited supply of places and very little land to expand results in other people being left in a very difficult situation.

Completely agree BayJay2. I prefer to see consistent standards and consensus on good practice to diversity of provision that inevitably leads to inequality of opportunity.

Wandsworth council is consulting on partially dropping the sibling rules for school admissions. They're proposing sibling priority up to 800m from the school, any further than that and distance takes over. It will be interesting to see what happens. As pressure increases in Richmond will the sibling rule be questioned here too?
www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/article/12540/consultation_starts_on_proposals_to_change_sibling_priority_rule

RTT Online has Neighbours look to protect Udney Park playing fields:

Residents fearful of a major development in Teddington’s Udney Park playing fields have applied for them to be registered as an asset of community value [they have] been linked with Turing House free school, (which is) due to open in September 2015 but is yet to name a location, but neighbours want the site to remain for for recreational purposes . .

I think sibling priority is important for primary school but less important for secondary. There would be still strong resistance to taking it away - I think there were objections to removing that criterion when there was a consultation a few years back.

Where it puts pressure on places is where families move into an area temporarily with older children who get a place let's say in year 5, then immediately get priority for reception. But the flip side to that are unfilled places in KS2 which drain budgets.

Consultation at Waldegrave I meant to say!

Last Tuesday’s Education Guardian has School places: a guide through the minefield of admissions: About 75% of schools may now set their own rules about which children they accept. Here are the 10 most common criteria and how they are used … and abused by Fiona Millar:
1 Distance
2 Selection by ability
3 Partial academic selection
4 Aptitude selection
5 Catchment areas
6 Lotteries
7 Banding
8 Faith
9 Founders’ or teachers’ children
10 Feeder schools
11 Any of the above used together

Campaign to save Under Park playing fields seems to be about fear of housing development as well as other uses such as a school. Not metropolitan open land so doesn't have the highest level of protection.

Lots of lively exchanges in the comments section of the RTT article about Udney Park Playing fields on the website. I won't include a link as they never seem to work when I link to RTT.

Also some debate on Twickerati about Sir Richard Reynolds and shortage of local places: twickerati.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/twickenham-school-egerton-road-reec-consultation/#comments

Neighbours look to protect Udney Park playing fields (RTT Oct 11)

20 comments so far . .

LBRuT press release today: Further education for young people with autism available for first time:

Further education for young people with special needs will be available in Richmond for the first time after the Council’s cabinet approved the expansion of Clarendon School on Thursday night (October 9).

Thanks Chris. 32 comments on the Udney Park playing fields story now. It would be a good site for a school in my view but there is opposition to building one there. The previous school proposal put people's backs up across a wider area than just the immediate neighbours as it was rumoured that there would be a very high fence all round the site and no public access. As one of the posters says there isn't much public access at present but it is used for various community activities and access happens informally as there is not much security!

LProsser: "The previous school proposal ..."

Which do you mean?

BayJay2 I mean the previous school proposal round of rumours! A nice mixed hedgerow for the birdies and more rather than less access for the community would probably win more supporters, although not those on the doorstep of the building!

Hmm, sounds like scaremongering to me Lottie.

No matter which site is used, there'll be conditions imposed during the planning process, and in any case Turing House has always stated strong community values.

For info - Twickenham Primary Academy (due to open 2015) now has a website and is starting to advertise admissions, open day etc. No site announced yet.