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!

Well it's interesting that you should implicate Microsoft as a baddie of the corporate world, because Bill Gates has been in the news a lot this week talking about his philanthropic work, following publication of the annual report of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

A lot of high profile medical research in the UK is dependent on Microsoft.

I did listen to something earlier in the week, probably Radio 4 but I can't find it now, discussing philanthropy. They were picking up on the Bill Gates story and this week's Rich v Poor story and asking whether it's a good thing for Governments to be dependent on powerful individuals for solving social problems. I think most people's instincts are to cautiously welcome it, so long as the money comes without strings attached and the work is open to scrutiny.

BTW, one of our local schools also has a relationship with Microsoft.

I don't imply Microsoft is a baddie, just that GEMS may be treating philanthropy and associations with higher profile companies as another business opportunity. I'd like to see a link to show that Sunny Varkey has donated a similar proportion of his personal wealth as Bill Gates and then might be less cynical. In fact, if Bill Gates is exhorting companies to pay their taxes and not register their companies in tax havens such as the Cayman or British Cayman Islands, then I applaud him.

Cayman and British Virgin Islands, that is.

I read somewhere that Sunny Varkey has now stood down from GEMS Education (leaving it to his sons to run presumably) and is devoting all his time to the not-for-profit, philanthropic Varkey Foundation (which used to be called the Varkey-GEMS Foundation but seems to have changed its name).

It may be a bit of a stretch from Richmond Schools but Philanthropy is very much a part of American Capitalism, just as much as the avoidance of taxes www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/big_philanthropys_threat_to_the_american_way so you can't assume that Coroprate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy go hand in hand with integrity.

Sunny Varkey did step down as director of Global Education Management Systems Ltd in April 2013. According to this link it is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands but the ultimate parent company is The Varkey Group. Which may be the same Varkey International Ltd registered in Mauritus and owned by GEMS Menasa (Cayman) Ltd but I'm afraid it's a bit too complicated for me to understand.

Anyway, that was just before a significant stake was acquired by Blackstone/Fajr Capital/Kingdom of Bahrain etc. so it's possible that had something to do with it and/or it's even more complex now.

He still seemed to be in charge of global operations in May 2013 according to this New York Times profile. But then he was talking of expanding in the US and UK when in fact they sold off more of their UK schools, closed down US charter schools and were hit with law suits in New York. That was with a background of negotiations on selling a stake to new investors and perhaps settling up with the old one.

GEMS is still very much a family business with the "ultimate parent" being the Varkey Settlement (see page 8). It's just that Sunny is concentrating on the philanthropic side of things and seems to have handed the business reigns over to his sons - Dino being the director of the umbrella company GEMS Menasa, and Jay having directorships of some of the constituent companies.

However, this interview hints at a possible floatation in future.

According to Reuters the 2013 IPO idea was superseded by the 2014 sale of a stake to the Fajr Capital led group: 'The move reverses the merging of the two businesses, which took place at the start of last year and was part of a move to prepare Gems for an initial public offering, sources said at the time.'

In the lead-up to that sale there was contradictory info - they were going to sell a 20-33% stake – perhaps to finance loans from the Abraaj group (see also comments below that piece).

Then it announced it was seeking to raise $500 million in Islamic bonds but it
actually only raised $200 million: ‘investors needed some convincing to put money into a subordinated bond from an unrated company, and GEMS Education had to compromise on size and price.’

But you're right the GEMS trust and free school is meant to be sponsored by GEMS Education Solutions Ltd which has two directors - Jay and Dino Varkey.

RTT Online has Primary school place scramble in Twickenham "black hole":

. . But Liz Maund, who had planned to send her three-year-old daughter to Richmond Park Primary in September, described east Twickenham as a “black hole” for primary school places.

“I don’t understand how there are these black holes - it is getting ridiculous now, when you think how much they were looking to spend on the Gloriana boathouse and there are kids without schools.”

She said some children were being forced to repeat nursery or home school.

. . Opposition spokesman for education Cllr Gareth Roberts said: . . “What (parents) may not know is that late last year Ryde House was back on the table as an option as Lidl had expressed an interest in finding a way to provide a home for the school. Indeed I understand that a deal was close to being reached - the question which demands an answer is why this deal fell through.”

Correction - the GEMS Learning Trust website now says it is sponsored by GEMS Education proper not GEMS Solutions. The other board members Cate Noble and Tim Emmett are still listed as part of the Solutions team but not sure how many still work there or their relationship with the Trust. It keeps changing!

?? Richmond Park Primary??

"the question which demands an answer is why this deal fell through"

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's probably something to do what I said on Tue 13-Jan-15 10:50:02.

I expect you mean Lidl demanded a unjustifiably massive amount of money from the Department of Education! Would have thought Gareth Roberts would be able to work that one out. The Council can't do anything about that particular site. It should have done something at the time of the sale of the Brunel University campus for housing if it was to get a primary in East Twickenham, or built a proper primary school at Clifden. I can't think of any other sites in St Margarets or East Twickenham but might there be a big house or two somewhere that D of E could buy for a few million each and make a little school?

If the Deer Park Primary got a site and went ahead in this unfeasibly short amount of time, could it have an admissions point in East Twickenham equidistant from Orleans Primary, St Mary's and St Stephen's (wherever in fact that would be)? As discussed, 'Deer Park' could mean near green spaces and shops but not too many families, or it could be very near Kew and not helpful.

A link here to one of the directors of the company sponsoring the trust that is proposing Richmond Bridge/Deer Park Primary, and (like GEMS) a reported Saudi/Cayman/Tony Blair connection.

And a new select committee report identifying flaws in the academies programme including conflicts of interest and how sponsors are chosen.

A local paper story about a Kingston C of E school considering dropping the religious requirements from its admissions policy:
www.kingstonguardian.co.uk/news/11753108.Kingston_Church_of_England_school_considers_dropping_church_attendance_from_admissions_policy/ supported by www.kingstonfairadmissions.org.uk/

Turing sent an email update - but the sites are still not named. I do understand why the permanent one is not named yet, but since the temporary one was secured, why the lack of transparency on that one?

--
Dear Applicants,

The results of the consultation about our funding agreement and future admissions policy are published here www.turinghouseschool.org.uk/consultation.php. Thank you to all of you who took the time to respond.
The overwhelming support for the establishment of the school was great to see: the results have been passed to the RET Board and also, for information, to the DfE. As a result we are now seeking a Funding Agreement from the DfE as soon as possible before national offer day at the start of March.
A temporary site has been secured and a permanent site identified. When the funding agreement has been agreed and offers of places are made we will be able to give details of the temporary site. Details about the permanent site will follow soon after that and parents who have been offered a place will not need to choose between Turing House and their other offer until after then.
Updates will be published on our website and directly to applicants and our contact list in the coming weeks. Watch out for the adverts for our founding teachers in February!
Best wishes,

Turing House School

Foursquare, there's some info on this page of the website about that, in the paragraph about temporary accommodation.

Thanks, so they'll probably try to announce both sites before 16 March to allow parents to make an informed choice, unless I'm misreading things.

Hopefully foursquare. If not, then the information [[http://www.turinghouseschool.org.uk/questions1.php#certainty2015 here]] explains the process for accepting offers.

Deer Park School statement: The London House site, at 243-253 Lower Mortlake Road, Richmond, TW9 2LL, has been secured by the Education Funding Agency on behalf of Deer Park School and will be redeveloped, subject to planning permission, to offer a high quality, safe learning environment with state-of-the-art facilities for our pupils.

The school plans to open in temporary accommodation, as close as possible to London House in September 2015. A temporary site is currently being explored by the Education Funding Agency on our behalf. We look forward to updating you as soon as we have further news . .

Streetmap puts London House on the north side of Lower Mortlake road next to the petrol station and the junction with Sandycombe Road.

It's this building (from Streetview, so there are a few cars in the way)

So basically North Sheen, not "Old Deer Park" at all, and a significant schlep for East Twickenham parents, a further 1.3 miles away, two buses? and only 0.9 miles from Darrell. Spectacular lack of joined up thinking.

Interestingly Darrells issues with popularity have always partly reflected it's mixed catchment, rather than the actual quality of the school which has at times been better than any of the schools it neighbours, Queen's, Sheen Mount, who can rely, some would say do complacently rely on pupils from reasonably affluent backgrounds. It has always struggled to unlock that pent up demand on the Old Deer Park side of it's catchment with parents there opting for private if they don't make it into Queen's, Vineyard etc. Obviously Bellevue were after that East Twickenham affluent catchment and are trying to brand themselves consistently with the more affluent area of the likely catchment but it will be interesting to see how this develops. I bet they are not pleased........