Richmond Borough Schools Chat 7

[muminlondon2]

Lots and lots of discussions on local schools and education issues preceded this thread, including Richmond Borough Schools Chat 6.

Anyone who wants to carry on that discussion, and offer information and opinions (without being moderated by any particular individual or interest group, bearing in mind all the usual mumsnet guidelines about respect and not getting personal, etc.) - feel free.

The RTT letter (p 23) from Jane Harrison re school site alternatives on sites in the Old Deer Park is particularly interesting.

The Richmond Society published a report The Old Deer Park, Richmond in June 2012:

. . In April, 2016, all but one of the existing leases granted by the Crown Estate for the land comprising the Old Deer Park are due to expire . .

The opportunity exists to rezone sites at the edge of the Park for a school or indeed schools.

The EFA apparently selected London House as being a suitable site. It really makes you wonder how many people from the EFA actually visited the site,on what day of the week, at what time of day the site visits were made and how many visits were made. If they and the Dept of Education are responsible for making such decisions(probably in league with local councils) for selecting such an unsuitable site then I pity parents being forced to educate their children in such places. This could happen all over the country and people should speak up NOW before it is too late. This particular decision does sound like a panic decision after the proposed Richmond Bridge School site was sold to Lidl

Notes on the initial change of use and planning application for GEMS Twickenham Primary Academy (withdrawn) say that there were over 80 letters of objection. The applicant ignored all technical and procedural advice, and made no reference to the cumulative impact on surrounding schools or concerns about noise, or any soil contamination report.

The site plans had no car park at all for 420 pupils (excluding nursery class) or staff - just two disabled bays. They envisaged all travel to be by existing public transport with on-street parking for cars.

Just checked the GEMS Learning Trust Facebook page - building work was set to begin on 8th June but a post on 9 June says 'we are just waiting for confirmation of our Building Funding Agreement from the Education Funding Agency. I am told that this will come through in the next few days'.

I wonder if it's bringing back bad memories of the last time they tried to open a free school in the UK? The timeline for GEMS Wokingham Primary went like this:

13 June 2013 - 'The school buildings are arriving on site.'
21 June 2013 - 'we are faced with a further wait ... This should be resolved next Monday'
25 June 2013 - 'apologies for a quiet few days'
28 June 2013 - 'we are disappointed to confirm that the Department of Education has chosen not to appoint the GEMS Learning Trust as the sponsor'

The opening of the school (under a different sponsor) was then delayed by a year.

Just looked at the census figures for primaries (excluding Catholic) on the Middlesex side.

With Orleans Primary (which I may have missed off last time - apologies ) and a bulge class at St Mary's, there are about 70 extra pupils for 2016 entry in St Margarets, although Vineyard doesn't have a bulge class then.

Updated figures below, according to when they leave Y6, including from last year.

Hampton North/South/Hill
(2014) - 303, (2015) - 304, (2016) - 307, (2017) - 383, (2018) - 362
Teddington/Hampton Wick
(2014) - 210, (2015) - 233, (2016) - 234, (2017) - 235, (2018) - 257
Twickenham South/West/Riverside & St Margarets
(2014) - 293, (2015) - 282, (2016) - 351, (2017) - 316, (2018)- 343
Whitton/Heathfield (inc. Chase Bridge which used to link to Orleans Park)
(2014) - 235, (2015) - 231, (2016) - 257, (2017) - 269, (2018) - 287

muminlondon2 my printed copy of this week's RTT has just come. I see there is a further letter with the heading "improving congestion" which also highlights the traffic problems around Manor Circus right by where Deer Park School plans to open. Perhaps the EFA should be reading these letters?

The page with the letter on is here.

It's just insane - no parking or playground?

The Lingston Guardian has: Kingston Council to fork out £600,000 for Kingston Academy's 'temporary learning village:

. . Last week the Surrey Comet revealed the new secondary school opening in September would put children up in a ‘temporary learning village’ made up of portable classrooms in the rear car park of the North Kingston Centre. The council will pay to do this out of its revenue budget . . It is believed some of the money from the council pot will come from Kingston and Richmond Council’s joint social enterprise for children’s services Achieving for Children - even though the service has been told to cut £7.5m in its first three years. . .

Some trenchant comments.

RTT Online has: Deer Park School officially names RACC as temporary site:

. . Bellevue Place Education Trust, which will run the school, announced this week the RACC governing body had approved the creation of a temporary classroom, cloakroom and outdoor play area on the Parkshot site. The school will take one reception class in September 2015 before taking a second intake in September 2016, with a view of both classes moving to the permanent side in spring 2017 . .

The three Old Deer Park sites listed by Jane Harrison in her letter to the RTT are: the area behind the RACC and the car park, now used by the Sea Scouts; the area behind the swimming pool, leased to the Council; and the area behind the athletic ground, leased to them but now derelict.

The Richmond Society report The Old Deer Park, says:

6.6-8 . . Consideration should be given to: the potential conversion and extension or reconstruction of the unused or little used, Council-owned ancillary building located to the immediate north-west of the landscaped grounds of The Pools on the Park complex . . the very poor state of the area within the north-eastern part of the Richmond Athletic Association’s ground adjacent to the Kew Foot Road, once the home of Richmond Town Bowling Club, including the once immaculately tended bowling-green, the now derelict club-house . . (and) the adverse effects of the enlarged surfaced areas devoted to car-parking within the Athletic Association’s ground and of the significant number of unattractive ancillary buildings, structures and fences within the ground . .

I haven’t been to inspect these sites to see how JH’s list relates to the report’s remarks.

The site in East Twickenham still has "offices to let" signs on it and no sign of Lidl moving in yet. It's also not ideal but it has a bigger car park.

Is the Twickenham Green Primary Heathgate House site going to be used for a year under the planning rule that says you don't need permission for the first year?

There is also a report in the RTT on the candidates for the bye election in Hampton Wick on 2 July (Tania Matthias' seat). The LD candidate is Chair of Collis Governors and says Turing House school on Imperial College playing fields may be the best solution but the Tory, a GLA transport advisor, is opposed. No news at all of the supposed bidding process. The Whitton campaign has gone quiet too.

There isn't a sign for GEMS Twickenham Primary on Heathgate House yet.

I doubt very much that the EFA are progressing without a lot of liaison with LBRUT. A lot of what they do is driven by being under the beady eye of the Audit Office and gaining Value For Money and they won't be covering their backs if they don't make sure the sites they choose are secure in terms of getting Planning permission etc. especially when it is a Conservative Council that they can relie on to support the policy. The opaqueness of the process may be good commercially but it is also convenient politically. The Council may play the innocent when it comes to the sites etc. but I am quite sure all sorts of politics is going on in the background in terms of both the desirability and political sensitivity of sites. They were being to say the least disingenuous in exploiting supporting Whitton residents in their opposition to Turing and their admissions criteria when they had gone against local feeling and plonked primary and secondary schools with even more exclusive admissions criteria on the Clifden site, alongside Strathmore. The site will without doubt generate far worse traffic problems as well. I am afraid Auntie that the feelings of local residents come a very poor second to the various political interests.

It's hard to believe they were happy about Heathgate House. Or else they envisaged something smaller and advised accordingly but GEMS and the EFA ignored the advice. They would know the limits of the travel plan for StRR, and how more traffic bottle necking in Lion Road would not be feasible.

Heathcliff. You are certainly right that the views of local residents are never taken into consideration. The "powers that be" just go ahead and do exactly what they want and unfortunately have plenty of money and connections to do this, unlike the residents. They " are all in it together"!

RTT Online has: St Mary's Hampton celebrating after 'Good' Ofsted rating:

. . Headteacher Catherine Davis said the report confirmed the school offered exciting teaching and the children were happy and successful. She said: "Being head of St Mary’s is the most rewarding and creative role I have ever had as a headteacher and I am immensely proud of all our children and staff.? After the inspection our aspirations are higher than ever for the future success of our school."

A piece in the TES:

Sixth-form closures 'inevitable' as funding cuts bite, experts warn

I think it was always likely that some Richmond 6th forms would struggle to get the numbers and some would be oversubscribed. the numbers this year have varied dramatically - hard to see how the smallest is sustainable, even with supplementing with funds allocated for KS3 and 4.

Interesting Guardian articles. Research from Barcelona on how school surroundings might affect children's learning:

Schools in greener areas have more attentive pupils, study suggests

And an innovative way of deterring parents from taking their children to school in cars. Although you'd need an area the size of a school to provide the car park that gets the congestion off the roads.

Stoke-on-Trent school to introduce parking charges for parents

School offer information for 2015 entry has been published. Compare secondary data with five years ago (2011 in brackets). The rise in numbers of applicants is slightly below the London average.

Richmond

1,726 (1,570) applicants [+10%]
67.4% (61.7%) first preference offer
15.5% (21.9%) of residents offered place in another LA
8.2% (10.3%) offered a non-preferred school

Note that 2014-15 census figures say that in Y11, 335 of 1,239 resident state pupils (27%) attend school in another LA, and in Y7 that figure is 246 of 1,426 resident pupils (17%).

Last year there were 1,728 home applicants for secondary schools in Richmond, so another 17% aren't included in the numbers at state schools in or out of borough, so perhaps went private.

Applicant numbers to secondary school

England +4%
London +13%

Wandsworth +12%
Kingston +13%
Hounslow +16%

Does anyone know where I can find the relevant figures for Richmond Primary Schools?

That's the first time we have seen application numbers for this year. They are very similar to last year. Those numbers compared:

2015 - 1,726
2014 - 1,728
2013 - 1,499
2012 - 1,537
2011 - 1,519

AuntieC75, it's Table 2 in the Main Tables but the only comparison is with 2014 statistics as they weren't collected nationally before then.

2015
2,471 home LA applications
81.1% first preference
2.4% non-preferred school
1.8% school offered in another LA
4.6% no offer

2014
2,509 home LA applications
79.6% first preference
2.8% non-preferred school
1.5% school offered in another LA
3.4% no offer

Lord True has spoken in the House of Lords about the new Childcare Bill which proposes to extend the number of hours of free childcare from 15 to 30 hours for 3 and 4 year-olds for 'working parents'. Aside from the usual etiquette of praising 'honourable friends' and 'praiseworthy ideals', he expresses concerns about how this should be funded, whether it might drive providers out of business, whether 'child care' and 'education' is getting mixed up since older school children actually spend fewer hours than that in classrooms, who might be eligible, the 'disturbingly ill-defined and draconian' regulation-making powers, etc.

Here’s the link to Lord True’s speech: My Lords, it is always a privilege to follow the informed and compassionate interventions of the noble Earl. I declare an interest as leader of a local authority whose duties and costs will be increased by prescription under the Bill . .