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!

Thanks for that. Yes, surprised he did. Did they say anything about that? I hope that they are able to a suitable individual to fill the vacant teaching post soon then.

Yes, I was checking all the options for secondary schools. I also was worried that there is no Art and Design teacher on the team. Are they going to be offering that subject at all? My son is very gifted in that area and it does concern me.

Do they have suitable facilities in the temporary site, for example Science laboratories for experiments like other schools have? What are the outdoor and indoor facilities for PE like?

What about French (and German for that matter)? They don´t have any French teacher at all either. Are the year 7s all going to be behind in that subject too? Most other year 7 students study French or at least have a choice of languages.

Not a very broad choice really is there?

I do agree that you don´t necessarily need a degree to teach a year 7 subject but at least some relevant experience if you are the only teacher in the school teaching that subject.

Also, very naïve to assume that teachers in other secondaries necessarily have degrees in the subjects they teach.

Depends on the school I think.

MrsSalvoMontalbano, please read the final paragraph of my post before your comment.

I am studying other options. I´m also particularly concerned of the rumour that the school will be based in Teddington for a couple of years and then will be in Whitton. I want a local school.

Zoe, do look at all the options and go to all the open evenings of the schools you're interested in. It really isn't possible to tell much about a school from its website. You will be able to come and see the school for yourself in the Autumn, and if you don't want to apply then fine - horses for courses.

Regarding specific questions about the school - do email if you can't find it on the website. Some of those questions were answered for Y6 parents at last night's Meet the Teachers event, and I expect many of the answers will be appearing on the website soon. You have plenty of time to watch things unfold.

p.s. Zoe, this link might help, as well as this one

I would like my specific questions answered. That would be a good idea. Thank you for your responses. Very useful.

"I would like my specific questions answered"

Then you need to ask them in the right place.

You are absolutely right. Opinions are not as useful as facts.

Turing House Staff Vacancies:

We are currently advertising for support staff to complete our founding staff. The roles we envisage appointing to are: Administration (Assistant or Manager); Caretaker Technician; Finance and Contracts Manager; and Pastoral Support (Assistant or Manager) . .

Closing date: May 11.

Just to say my dd is at Teddington School which you might be thinking of comparing TH to. They have 240 kids in 10 teaching groups of 24 in 2 "populations" with different timetables so they have to field 5 teachers at the same time to teach the same subject in year 7. Therefore not all have degrees in that subject. In lower years they seem to give them one teacher for all 3 humanities (geography, history, RE), all 3 sciences etc. which has advantage of making it easier to get to know students well and making change to secondary easier as not so many teachers to cope with. As they move up the school the subjects separate out and they get more specialist teachers - certainly by the time they start GCSE where less students are studying each subject, but seems to have happened by year 9 for different humanities. Of course there is at least one specialist in each subject in the school but hopefully the back up of being part of a chain with other specialist teachers to advise will help the TH teachers in the early years where they won't have a full complement of specialists.

Thanks LP. It might also be worth mentioning that all new schools start off in the same way - building up their staff gradually. Funding is on a per-pupil basis, and every penny counts - you certainly wouldn't want single-specialist teachers in subjects like PE twiddling their thumbs when nobody was doing PE! Year 7 is about engaging pupils and smoothing the secondary transfer process, and classroom skills are key to that. There is also the significant advantage that Y7 pupils are taught by members of the senior leadership team who would normally be focussing on KS3. It's the team as a whole that's important, and the back-up and training they are provided with by the Trust.

I'd also imagine that TH won't be having student/newly qualified teachers for the first year or two. Although some of these are great and the kids love them much much more than the older experienced teachers some of them turn out to be not best suited to the profession and their students learn more about psychology than the subject they are meant to be teaching.

You imagine correctly!

But you are employing a teacher without QTS?

It is of course legal for academies and free schools to employ teachers without QTS. But how would teachers employed without QTS status gain it if it becomes a legal requirement after the election? They'd also have to follow the NQT induction requirements, which would mean supervision by others and training time, etc. (I'm assuming most of the teachers with QTS also went through this - not sure about the GEMS primary where they have a head of early years with a Montessori qualification, which I don't think is the same.)

And just seen this new RTT story which adds to the primary places offer information:

www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/12908213.Top_three_school_spots_for_91_per_cent_of_children__but_for_some_the_wait_continues/

"Of those missing out, 34 children were from Barnes while 28 lived in St Margarets or the east Twickenham area. "

London House/RACC car park still isn't the right area then, is it?

Muminlondon, all RET schools to date have opened with one or more NQT. They have an excellent induction programme!

And before you pick me up on it - sorry I missed the NQT refernece in LP's post and was referring to students.

If an NQT is employed, you can be sure it was only because they outshone the competition. It was a very intensive, 2 day selection process.

Sorry, will just check one question you haven't answered: is Turing House employing a teacher without QTS?

No Muminlondon, see here.

Glad to hear it, but I'm confused about your Spanish and Drama teacher. The Royal Academy of Dance do [http://www.rad.org.uk/study/higher-education/higher-education-1/postgraduate-certificate-in-education-dance-teaching-1 PGCEs]] too - if she did this, why not mention it? Or is there another recognised equivalent to QTS?

Working link: PGCEs

Muminlondon, it's a pen-portrait not a CV. If there is scope for misinterpretation then someone can look at it and it can be changed. Give it time though.

Turing House should look at it, then. If she was employed at Orleans Park in the learning support department, that means she was a teaching assistant in that job, not a qualified teacher. If she has done a PGCE since, why not be consistent with the pen portraits and mention it? If she hasn't done a PGCE with secondary school dance teaching placements, then sounds like she hasn't got QTS and that section saying all RET teachers are qualified isn't correct and should be made clearer. She sounds great as a dance or drama teacher, or for after-school clubs, but I'd share ZoeTedders concern about language teaching without QTS.