Richmond Borough Schools Chat 6

[BayJay2]

Hello! This is the latest thread in a series originally triggered by Richmond Council's Education White Paper in Feb 2011. We chat about local education policy, the local impact of national policy, local school performance, and admissions-related issues.

Please do join in. 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.

If you have a few hours to spare and want to catch up on 4 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 run in parallel, as one was started on the national Mumsnet site, and the other locally:

1a) New Secondaries for Richmond Borough? (Feb 11 - Nov 11)
1b) New Secondary schools for Richmond! (Feb 11-Nov 11)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 2 (Nov 11-May 12)
2. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 3 (May 12-Nov 12)
3. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 4 (Nov 12-Oct 13)

1. Richmond Borough Schools Chat 5 (Oct 13-Nov 14)
2. Richmond Borough Schools Chat 6 (Nov 14 - ????) : This thread!

Love the ferry route! That would make for an interesting commute!

I can see the funding agreement has been agreed for Turing House. Are there published details of number of applications/offers this year and the site yet?

A news announcement is (still) imminent Muminlondon, and has been for several days pending the completion of bureaucratic and legal processes. Frustrating, but we're on the homeward stretch now.

We certainly need a mainstream secondary and a better standard than KS is providing.

Well, you know my view is that all the places are needed, and that everyone should have the chance to go to a good local school. I know so many people who have moved house or jumped ship to the private sector or out-borough faith schools because they haven't been confident of getting that locally - hopefully, with TH, the new REEC secondary and further evolution at TA/HA the numbers doing that will be fewer in the future, and communities will be more stable as a result.

Interesting to see TH as a supporter of this campaign:

www.teddingtonsportsground.com/#!about-spacetoplay/cmv
www.teddingtonsportsground.com/#!our-goal/c1l0t

Don't forget schools use playing fields too foursquare!

There's a little more information about it on the TH website here.

The RTT has: Sports clubs bid to keep Imperial College London playing fields development-free:

. . A group of sports clubs and schools will table a bid for a Teddington sports ground that Harlequins RFC are also believed to be interested in . . [it] includes . . Stanley Primary School, Teddington School and Turing House School, which could be based nearby on a temporary basis . . More information about the bid at teddingtonsportsground.com . .

LizzyJ says... There are rumours of interest from the private school sector. Newland House has been mentioned a lot and I expect Radnor House would jump at the chance too . .
...............................
History: . . In 1933 the playing fields became the property of Lord Beaverbrook, who gifted them to St Mary’s Hospital Medical School on the basis that use of the fields would continue to be restricted to amateur sports. There were legal covenants to that effect.

The playing fields became the property of Imperial College through its merger with St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1988. To date, Imperial has continued to use the site as a sports facility, with limited access by non-university members.

We know, however, that Imperial is now looking to maximise its profit from the sale of this valuable asset and that this does not include a commitment to honouring its original use as a dedicated sports ground . .

Bayjay- the SRR OFSTEd you mentioned is out- outstanding. Brilliant result for all the hard work the staff, governors and parents have put in. I had wondered if osted would give an outstanding when the school only has year 7and 8, but seems so!

Yes Qbean, I'd heard it went well. Good for them ... and I'm not surprised because new schools with strong backing are exciting places to be, and attract enthusiastic energetic staff. (Even schools with controversial admissions policies ).

I remember in the early years of free schools, which coincided with the new Ofsted regime, some question marks being raised over whether it was technically possible for a school that was less than 2 years old to be rated outstanding, as they wouldn't be able to demonstrate the sustained pupil progress needed. But several free schools have managed it, so there's plenty of precedent.

Ofsted reports here. Some media coverage already - Catholic Herald has the headline 'Catholic schools targeted by secularists rated as outstanding'.

My take on this is: all new LA-maintained schools opened in this borough have been rated outstanding at their first inspection. It's an absurd policy that prevents the LA from opening new schools.

Judging by the number of parentview responses for Thomson House it looks like they've been inspected recently, so it'll be interesting to see how they get on. They're reporting some high attainment stats on their website, but of course that's not all that's needed for a good inspection outcome.

Thomson House has had a lot of support recently from the local authority in the form of a school improvement partner, and the governing body now includes an experienced officer from the LA (Matthew Paul). I wonder if they also advised on the recruitment of the current head, after a bit of a shaky start? So another plus for the local authority if it is good or better, which it might not have achieved with only the input of local private schools with no understanding of how the state sector works.

Yes, Governor Support and School Improvement Consultancy are two of the packaged services that any academy/free school can buy in from the LA's social enterprise Achieving for Children. (I.e It's not a freebie).

I'm relieved it isn't a freebie as Matthew Paul already has a lot on his plate with LA schools! And it is to the credit of Thomson House that they recognised the areas in which they needed support and are working collaboratively with the LA, with fair admissions and in an area of need. As a single academy trust the governing body may have greater decision-making autonomy than the 'local governing body' that would be appointed by a chain, but doesn't have the centralised resources of such a chain. It's a good arrangement.

Interesting also that one of the most popular new private schools (Kew House) has a head from the state sector. The private sector has a lot to learn!

Well one feature of the AfC approach is that schools get a Service Level Agreement. Academies and Free Schools will continue to use those services so long as they know quality is going to be high.

Speculation in the RTT that the TH site may be in Whitton ...

They did mention in the council call-in sub-committee meeting that speculation last year actually scuppered the Imperial College deal, at least temporarily. That's what I picked up on, anyway - unless I'm imagining it? I've no idea who these mysterious 'sources' are but there's still some sort of political game playing going on and it's really unsettling.

Yes, and it's a big part of why the EFA have learnt from experience to be extremely guarded about confidentiality - they're operating in a political and commercial minefield, never mind an educational one.

From the RTT story: A source . . revealed the EFA and RET have identified two possible sites: The first . . is a large field between Sempervirens Nursery and Heathfield recreation ground . . It is also believed the EFA has lodged a formal declaration of interest in relation to the Imperial College Playing Fields . .

A comment asserts that the Heathfield site is MOL and gives a link to the Local Plan Proposals Map adopted July 2013 which shows this. If so it is protected by Policy DM OS 2:

The borough’s Metropolitan Open Land will be protected and retained in predominately open use. Appropriate uses include public and private open spaces and playing fields, open recreation and sport, biodiversity including rivers and bodies of water and open community uses including allotments and cemeteries.

I have been really interested to follow the part of the discussion relating to Deer Park School, to which I was referred by google. You see I, and my neighbours have some experience of the ways of Bellevue Ltd regarding Whitehall Park School in Islington.

If you would like to know more

You could, if you have the stamina, look at this thread on Mumsnet:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2055379-Been-offered-brand-new-free-school-or-last-choice

If you read through from the start - over three hundred messages now - you will see that it is essentially about Whitehall Park School, and, a lot it is really about the Bellevue "modus operandi"

I have to say that the thread would, in my view benefit by being broadened out a bit, and it seems to me that some comments about Deer Park School could be relevant.

Part of the issue is that participation in the thread has been hampered by a small number of frequent posters who have in common:

1. They are all strongly "pro" Whitehall Park School

1. They share, a certain, "illimitable" style in their posting. A tendency towards the personal, which tends to put people off.

1. At least some of them appear very well informed regarding issues one might have thought internal to WPS -like knowing what FOI requests the school is getting - almost as if they had some special connection with the management...

4.They do not post anywhere else on Mumsnet.

I believe that you might find reading the thread instructive.

For info, some news from Orleans Park ....

"In consultation with the Local Authority and Achieving for Children, the Governors of Orleans Park have agreed to admit an additional 16 students to the Year 7 intake for September 2015. This arrangement will continue each September, resulting in the Planned Admission Number rising to 216 students for each cohort for September 2015, 2016 and 2017. The school has been able to accommodate these students due to a small increase in space and capacity enabled by recent building works. The reason for this change is to assist with the provision of additional secondary education places in our local area."

Worth adding that my understanding from chatting to an OP parent is that average class size will increase from 25 to 27 as a result of the PAN increase, but that's not officially confirmed in the newsletter.

As we've discussed previously, Waldegrave also announced a PAN increase of 16 earlier in the year.

It's not just about providing places in response to growing demand. Richmond is the lowest funded LA in London - and there are other funding formula changes, with sixth forms and SEN funding being hard hit.

The funding crisis was reported by the BBC:

Funding crisis will damage education, say head teachers

Larger class sizes may be a result of this.

and what happens after 2017 - do they just go back down to 200 or is this a permanent fixture? 2018 entry to OP is another bulge year at the vineyard