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.

That is the old petition. The new one has attracted 1025 signatures.

cabnet.richmond.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?id=91

The Deer Park School petition could have got many more names. In fact, there were more names than the 1025 mentioned but they were not accepted by the Council as those people although they know the London House site well, they live or work outside the borough. The name for the school is misleading as it is not by the Deer Park. Perhaps they plan a playground with some deer on the Manor Circus roundabout. It would be interesting to know how many children are attending this school at the temporary location and if they are from the TW9 area or from other parts of the borough. Does anyone know?

1025 should be 125. Sorry.

It would be interesting to know how many children are attending this school at the temporary location and if they are from the TW9 area or from other parts of the borough.

Three classes or 90 places available at the two new free schools.

By 8 June: 21 offers/acceptances at Deer Park School but only 6 from TW9/10, 11 from TW1 and four with no address.
By 30 June: 34 vacancies in the borough 'including at the two new free schools'.
By 4 September: 46 reception pupils reported to be expected at GEMS Twickenham.

So 21 + 46 = 67 places known to have been offered and accepted between the two schools. We don't know whether all those pupils turned up, or stayed there, but school census figures are published next July.

Perhaps a current parent from these Free Schools has up to date figures for GEMS and Deer Park??

tw2dad I can't say I really know much about the reputation of Richmond College locally.

I do know that Esher College has a good reputation, rated outstanding and demands higher entry grades so is bound to get better results. RuTC was rated satisfactory, down from Good, a couple of years ago - as was Strode's College this year, a popular choice for Orleans Park pupils. Times have been tough for sixth form colleges which lost a lot of funding under the coalition government. RuTC was always one of the largest sixth form colleges - nearly 3,000 16-18 year olds, of whom over 500 took A-levels in 2014. But the new school sixth forms in this LA (and also Merton) will have had a big impact.

Anyone know where the Waldergrave waiting list extended to this year (by end of summer holidays)? We're interested in the central Twickenham direction.

The Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign (RISC) have published a newsletter.

I just heard some Teddington mums say Teddington and Waldegrave are taking over HA and TA. Anyone heard something moré formal? I think they'd had a letter. #intriguing.

There's a letter on the Waldegrave website. The schools have been approached by the DfE and the local authority 'at LST's request' - they are undertaking a review.

If Kunskappsskolan remains involved as a sponsor Waldegrave/Teddimgton shouldn't touch with a barge pole. I'd be concerned about them taking over schools with declining pupil numbers if there is a deficit. If Richmond LA couldn't make them work before, how should two schools on their own, with similar governance, do it now? How stretched will the head teachers be?

But maybe this would be a good opportunity to consolidate the schools on one site.

Someone posted something about a reshuffle at LST a few weeks back and if I remember right the Kunskapskollan members were heading for the door. Pushed out maybe?

LST board minutes 4 September say two KS appointed directors and a parent governor were replaced but there are still four Kunskapsskolan appointed directors left. Hampton Academy Council minutes say there are two big governance milestones in mid-November and mid-January leading up to a board strategy meeting in mid-April 2016.

The anouncement says there would be a rapid move to a new arrangement once the review is completed. There is another school in the trust - the Elizabeth Woodville school in Northamptonshire. What Is happening with that one? This can't all be driven by Richmond LA - the DfE are also involved.

I cant see anything about it on Waldegrave website now. Havent heard anything about Teddington being involved either. Teddington still has quite a few of its own issues to sort out in my view and its Head and several senior staff are pretty new.

I can see it on the desktop site, not the mobile site, LProsser. Does <a class="break-all" href="http://www.waldegrave.richmond.sch.uk/download?file=upload.reactcdn.co.uk/waldegrave/uploads/asset_file/3_0_kjbpn-potential-development-for-waldegrave_v1.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this link work?

There's no further news of an MAT in Sheen/Barnes with Richmond Park Academy, despite that being announced by the council, so I guess it's not a done deal, it's just a review.

And Teddington has news on its website, with a link to FAQs. This is a quote:

'The key work for Teddington School and Waldegrave School will be governance and implementing standards at the schools. The DfE and the LA are providing significant funding to cover (i) the cost of time spent by our schools in providing this support (ii) the cost of educational consultants to help implement these changes at the other schools. Both Teddington School and Waldegrave School wish to retain their complete independence at this stage'

Hi, thanks mum. Have now had an email about it from Teddington Chair of Governors and they are holding a meeting about it for Teddington parents next Tuesday night. Seem to think the main advantages are having control of own destiny (which Teddington and Waldegrave already have in theory within cash constraints but maybe single school trusts are soon going to be a thing of the past) and the possibility of cost savings by 4 schools working together. I would have expected Orleans to be included in the group as well sooner or later especially if the schools on the Surrey side are going to all chum up aswell.

They need someone to run the new school they want on the Stag Brewery site, maybe Orleans is being lined up for that? Pure speculation.
It’s getting harder and harder make the finances work for a single school trust so there's a strong incentive there. Waldegrave is still involved in RUTS though isn’t it? I would have thought they’d be pretty busy with that, surprised they have the capacity to take on a struggling secondary as well.

The Teddington FAQs say the headteacher may be involved one or two days a week. Maggie Bailey from Grey Court still seems also to be headteacher of Hollyfield in Kingston. A monitoring inspection said that she was there two days per week, and that by April 2015 they were expected to form an MAT between the two schools, although I can't see anything that confirms that happened.

During the election I happened to see Vince Cable canvassing. I asked him what he thought about free schools, and he claimed to know nothing about the free school sponsors BPET or GEMS. He also suggested he did not know Kunskapsskolan operated on a for-profit basis in Sweden. I was surprised. Here's a link to a news article on Kunskapsskolan from March 2015 which suggested that fears Sweden will backtrack on allowing profits has prompted companies like Kunskapsskolan to look overseas, e.g. India and South Korea.

muminlondon - there is reference to the trust in the Hollyfield Headteacher update in March 2015:
"Hollyfield and Grey Court Working Together. We will be discussing next steps regarding Hollyfield and Grey Court being joined within a multi-academy trust. Over the coming weeks we will outline a timeline. This will enable parents, staff and the whole community to look at the potential advantages and any disadvantages for this partnership. "
I can't find any mention of it since then.

And the RPA Head is moving on .... wonder if that has implications for the local trust takeover plans on that side of the river.

Wonder if it related to results? After 8 yrs hard to blame the previous regime.

It would make more sense for Orleans to join forces with RUTS if multi academy trusts are the way forward, and for the Brewery School to join with RPA. I guess the faith schools will stick together.
The RTT website has the Tedd/Waldegrave story now.

Here it is: Struggling Hampton and Twickenham Academies seek help from flourishing Teddington and Waldegrave schools:

. . after achieving poor exam results and scathing Ofsted reports the organisation announced yesterday it is seeking “alternative governance arrangements”. LST has approached Teddington School and Waldegrave School in the hope of setting up a multi-academy trust.

A teacher at one of the academies, who did not want to be named, said staff were informed LST were looking to step away from the schools at a meeting earlier this week. He called the review of management a “panic measure” that had not been fully thought out . .

As a previous poster said - not sure Teddington is in a position to support them - T is really struggling, treading water. Artificially buoyed up by an affluent middle-class catchment, but not actually adding any value, with a demoralised workforce.

This is a good idea in theory. But Just because Teddington and Waldegrave work very well for an established, predominantly middle class intake, doesn't mean they have the capacity to support two less successful schools. The heads have already got dual roles as head teachers and trust 'directors' and this will mean a third of their time spent in another school. Local authority directors never had to divide their time like this (although renting out Matthew Paul as a free school governor when he's not commissioning places comes close). Teddington is 'good' but Waldegrave hasn't been inspected for nearly nine years. Their results are fine - great, even - but they aren't school improvement specialists. Maggie Bailey certainly had those credentials taking Grey Court from Satisfactory to Outstanding, and that was a recent Ofsted, but I would really like to know why that trust hadn't been established yet, and whether she's dog tired as a result.

Plus, HA/TA do not have stable intakes as they used to. It's going to be an even tougher environment. The Turing House founders have worked hard to get their school off the ground, but they have a turf to protect now.