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!

Castlesintheair, without knowing anything at this stage about the number of applications from each area I would say that Area A should logically be the best bet. It has the vast majority of the places so the chances of someone with an offer saying "no thanks I'm going private or moving house" are statistically higher.

However, a lot depends on how much they "over offer" by in March, in anticipation of the waiting-list movement they predict will happen, because that might cut down the movement and therefore disadvantage late applicants like yourself.

Thanks both. It's quite nerve wracking. I suppose the council may be able to give me some info after March? Someone said I need to bring my return home to March to stand a better chance but that means disrupting my DC's education here, and I have 3. Is it really that desperate? Will I probably get nothing if we don't return until say June?

By June the waiting lists move more slowly but places still come up. If offer day is 2 March, you have two weeks to accept the place. So mid March there is movement when those accepting private school places reject their state place. But it keeps moving for a few more weeks as private schools go down their waiting lists - they give multiple offers, not all get what they expected, and some continue to hold onto both private and state offers. If Turing House happens this year it does add a complication as it's outside the LA admissions round and some may have two state offers. If it doesn't open, waiting lists won't move much because demand will outstrip supply.

The logic of numbers does suggest you'd get a better chance from twickenham. However, a year or two ago about 10 Richmond-side places at Waldegrave - and quite a few at Orleans Park - got reoffered,because more in that tiny area are attending private schools in the first place and had chosen it as back-up, and there was no more link system. It depends where they live, too. You'd also have a chance of Grey Court, Christ's, RPA, the new Kingston Academy and (much less likely) Orleans Park. But it's more expensive to live on that side and patterns are unpredictable from year to year.

Thanks muminlondon2 that is very helpful.

Has anyone seen that the RUT College scheme in Egerton Rd, Twickenham, is going into yet another consultation?

That’s at least four consultations in little more than 6 months, on top of the earlier survey of parents’ support.

richmond.gov.uk/home/council/news/older_news/january_2015/education_and_enterprise_campus_takes_shape_-_have_your_say_on_latest_proposals.htm

And we haven’t got to the actual planning consultations yet. You do wonder who pays for all these consultations!

Has anyone heard a rumour about an imminent DfE inspection at RPA?

The RTT online has Collis Primary School sweeps the boards with "outstanding" Ofsted report:

tw2dad, I think REEC have two consultations running concurrently - the planning consultation and the Section 10 consultation (see here).

MrsSalvoMontalbano, I've heard it said that a sure-fire way of knowing whether a school has been notified of an imminent inspection is to watch its ParentView stats. The number of responses usually shoots up when parents get their letters inviting them to give their views in the run up to inspection. (There are only 8 responses for RPA at the moment though).

The RTT website is now featuring the story about the Schools Strategy:
www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/11737339.Richmond_to_get_630_more_primary_school_places_in_next_decade/

Out of those 630 new places a substantial chunk will have to be in new free schools and Cllr. Hodgins is said to be "on the hunt". Rather worrying he is standing in front of a map of the UK showing northern England, Scotland and Wales so perhaps families with 3-4 year olds will be offered relocation grants soon like tenants in social housing! His bookcase features some interesting volumes including Barrack Obama "The Audacity of Hope".

Here is the School Place Planning Strategy 2015-2024.

It's interesting the use of 'we' - 'We will need to find creative solutions and take some difficult decisions...' in the context of free schools. On the one hand they can blame central government for decisions regarding choice of sponsor, especially if it all goes wrong. On the other hand, they have a statutory duty to provide places so they know they have to be seen to be planning need. But also Lord True voted in the legislation for free schools (as did Vince Cable) - they are personally accountable for this policy, even if its implementation is proving difficult for councils. I hope they have a more pro-active plan for who will run the new free schools or academies they expect they will need. Perhaps this involves trying to induce the existing primaries to convert to academy status, then asking them to set up new satellites like the successful schools currently run by the LA. Hey ho, it may all change again in four months' time depending on the election.

However, reversing the free school policy wouldn't make the process of finding sites any easier. Difficult decisions and creative site solutions would still be needed for new maintained schools.

If that's the responsibility they are left with in this process, true. Although free schools currently have different requirements for building regulations - which may change, affecting capacity. They don't actually own either Heathgate House or Livingston House and may never have considered them suitable or big enough for the size of school proposed.

Mentioned in that document is expanding secondaries downwards in age - but not elaborated upon. If there was room and presumably if the trusts proposed it. Maybe that's something the bigger chains have their eye on?

How reassuring that LBRUTs school place strategy relies on a politician going "on the hunt" , as in "turning over rocks to see what else he can find under them"? Perhaps rather than going "on the hunt" for more untried providers in it for gain that many parents are going to struggle to trust, he could actually focus on providing a framework to encourage those within our community to come forward to propose schools that meet the needs of parents.

Yes, well put Heathclif. I am guessing that GEMS and Bellevue targeted Richmond borough rather than the other way round (though not sure if/which politicians were involved). But they like to claim credit without responsibility.

Interesting to see this note in the residents' survey. Trust in the council here is generally found to be higher than the national average, but:

‘the proportion of residents who state that they do not trust Richmond Council is highest in Twickenham at 33%. ... With this pattern consistent over two years further work may be needed to explore the root cause of this relatively high level of distrust within Twickenham village.’

Hounslow's proposed approach seems sensible, although I haven't yet seen any meeting agendas or minutes from the reference group that was formed. In Richmond, as in most areas, it seems more ad-hoc, with the council formally saying it welcomes high quality providers, but not having a formal system in place to take a view on who is "high quality" and who isn't.

Though having said that, it is of course now the responsibility of the Regional Schools Commissioners to do the quality control so an extra layer at LA level shouldn't be needed.

Interesting link on GEMS Bolitho and recent financial decisions (update here and company data) The UK business appears to have a lot of liabilities.

I think Cllr. Hodgins is "on the hunt" for sites rather than people to run free schools - as Bay Jay says same problem whoever the provider - all going back to foolish decision on Clifden and probably other sell-offs at earlier dates.

The East Twickenham Village blog is reporting that the Bellevue Richmond Bridge Primary School has given up on East Twickenham following the loss of Ryde House to Lidl and is now going to be the Deer Park Primary School of Richmond - East Twickenham parents have started a new campaign with website and petition:

easttwickenham.org/news/2015-news-stories-2/east-twick-primary-school-peti/

e-voice.org.uk/etwickschool/news/latest-news-the-new-primary-s/

That covers Kew - and the planning document reads: 'There is no short- to medium-term need for places within this area.'. That might disrupt support for existing schools. Still not clear for parents to know what/where they are applying for but Bellevue Place has a reputation for spin according to some commentators.

Also, no wonder there were representations at the Cabinet meeting from residents near the Russell school worried that it might have to be expanded to cope with unmet demand from Richmond.

Just googling Bellevue Place Education Trust, I see a dizzying number of approved proposals in middle class undersubscribed areas, all with no/uncertain site yet due to open in 2015 - Rugby, Barnet, Richmond ... with Balham, Islington, Maidenhead all in the bag (and in portakabins?). Identikit websites and children. Just the names and sites keep changing. No Ofsted yet approved en masse. A hedge-fund sponsored, Gove-favoured mega-chain in the making?

Seems to be backed by private investment rather than a hedge fund.

That's right - I googled the Swiss and Hong Kong property/finance connections on a previous thread although there was another finance company or hedge fund called Bellevue that might not have been connected. The finance director (according to LinkedIn) used to work for Cuckoo Hall, another favoured Gove trust whose head teacher has just been suspended for gross misconduct. To be clear, the allegations were about exam fixing not fraud. But there was a connection between her and another trust run by a right-wing think tank director/ ex-adviser to Cameron. All a bit incestuous, and I'm sure there are other intriguing connections with chains that appear to have political rather than parental support.

This week's RTT has "Free school plans crisis"and "Council sets strategy to accommodate pupils"' (p 4) and "DoE gives approval for free school progression" (p 18).

The Guardian reports (Jan 21) Spending watchdog issues rare criticism of DfE finances: (can’t) consolidate accounts of thousands of centrally run academies . . :

. . In an extremely rare move, the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, has issued an “adverse opinion” on the department’s financial statements, indicating that it does not trust the accuracy of the DfE’s figures and is unable to assess whether it is providing value for money.

. . According to the NAO, problems have arisen because the DfE has had to combine the accounts of more than 2,500 bodies, including academy trusts collectively running 3,905 individual academies, its own statements and those of its executive agencies.

As academies have a different reporting period from the department – the department produces statements by the end of March, the academy trusts at the end of August to fit the school year – it has been difficult to prepare and provide accounts that properly reflect the financial activity across all bodies and the financial position at the end of the year . .
………………

We can expect that if May brings a change of government the incoming education secretary will find a cupboard stuffed with skeletons - or unpaid bills!