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.

Agree that Kneller Hall site would be ideal for a school but the Dfe seems to go for cheap unsuitable options. No one seems to know what is happening over Richmond Magistrates Court. Everything seems to be done in secret these days without local consultation.

Kneller Hall would have been an ideal site had the proposal for the College site to be used as a school not been approved. But now the financing of the RuT school is intertwined with rebuilding Clarendon and securing the viability of Richmond College - the admissions policy favouring Teddington pupils for a school 0.8 miles further on than the College school on the same 281 bus route would be as difficult to justify.

This BBC article talks about the air force pulling out of three of the 12 sites in 4-7 years. The School of Music will have to relocate in the meantime.

Shame for it not to be a school of some sort, though. Maybe GEMS will buy it up...

The Kneller Hall story has been covered here also:
www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/royal-military-school-music-among-10755307

If Kneller Hall is to be converted into flats it would be nice for those to be primarily for ex-servicemen and their partners/families. It would be sad to see it all go to private investors/buyers.

The site is more suitable for a school than the one in Heathfield but neither are the ideal location.

There is also a story on the Turing consultation this week:
www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/new-secondary-school-admissions-plans-10744312

Twickenham Academy in the news.

www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/14215090.Mother_threatens_legal_action_against_Twickenham_Academy_after_teacher_called_her_son_a__monkey_/?ref=twtrec

Kneller Hall dates mainly from 1848, when the house that Kneller built was altered and extended to its present neo-Jacobean form by George Mair. It is listed Grade II (rather than II*) so it can be altered internally. The Royal Military School of Music have had it since 1850.

A developer would be mainly interested in the rest of the site; Historic England’s map doesn’t show the boundaries of the site.

I've heard that the Cassel Hospital on a Ham Common is going to be converted. Was anyone else aware of this?

The Council have written to Turing House:

The school is currently based at a temporary site in Queens Road, Teddington. It is due, subject to planning permission, to move to a permanent location in Hospital Bridge Road, Heathfield in September 2018. They are currently carrying out a consultation on their proposed admission arrangements for the 2017/2018 school year.

The Council has replied, voicing its firm position that the admissions arrangements must be made far more balanced. Under the current 20:80 criteria, 80% of allocations are prioritised for ’distance’ applicants who live closest to their ‘admissions point’ in Fulwell. This is two miles from the new school location. Under current criteria, only 20% of places will therefore be for those who live closest to the site in Heathfield and Whitton.

In addition, the Council has commented on the school’s proposal to increase the number of places by an additional 50 children in 2018.The Council feels that, at this time, the proposal would lead to an over-supply of places in the western half of the borough. This is because another new secondary free school, The Richmond upon Thames School, which will provide 150 places per year, when it opens in Twickenham in September 2017.

Cllr Paul Hodgins, Richmond Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools, said:

“Since the Government gave permission to Turing House School to open, the Council has been very supportive and tried to assist them to find an appropriate site.

“The introduction of Turing House School should be an overwhelmingly positive addition to the borough. I have always said that if a balanced and fair admissions policy can be agreed, fully respecting the community in which it will be based, I am confident that it will be. Therefore, I urge the Governing Board of Turing House School to review their proposals and implement a policy that is fair to everyone. Ensuring that it is in line with the current and future demands of the Heathfield and Whitton communities and the western half of the borough as a whole.

“With respect to increasing the school numbers at this stage, in 2017 we have another secondary school opening in Twickenham. Together with the existing places available at Turing and other local schools, this will provide plenty of places in this part of the borough. I would worry about all schools managing with a short term oversupply. I think this could be reviewed in future years as the two new schools and improvements at our two sponsored academies take root.”

"Far more balanced" is less specific than the 50:50 being put forward by Whitton councillors and councillors in my neck of the woods are still very quiet on the matter. A move to 50% would lose 45-60 places for the centre of the borough per year so there would be a lot of disappointed people and I don' think they'll be impressed with having to cross their fingers for a RUTS place which Is even further away.
I hope the school does stay at 150 but I'm worried by the idea they might have to expand it a few years in instead because that will be another building project. It's better to build that capacity in from the start if they will need to do it soon enough anyway.

More details on the Barnes Primary head's part-time secondment to RPA's senior leadership team. He has delivered professional development training on writing to secondary schools including Christ's and Holland Park, has a diploma in SLDs and is an Ofsted inspector.

'My prime motivation in taking on this assignment is not personal. I will not, for example, be applying for the Headship vacancy.'

The school performance tables have now been updated with full 2015 information. On most measures, Waldegrave performed best by most measures including Ebacc, point score, progress/value added, followed by Grey Court.

Since last year Grey Court has had a similar intake in terms of prior attainment to Waldegrave, Teddington and Orleans Park (proportion of high attainers exeeding middle attainers). The other schools are closer to the national average with Christ's somewhere between the two.

MumInLondon Thanks - interesting reading.
I wonder if the uninspiring RPA results (mostly well below the national average) are related to the moving on of the Head.

Yes interesting. Why do private schools not give % of High, Medium and Low attainers? Is it because not all children starting at 11 have done SATS and this is only way of measuring this? Could help Radnor House GCSE results look better!

LProsser - is it a possibility that the Radnor House stats are distorted by their use of iGCSE, rather than the standard GCSE?

I am sure they are (or another similar issue). If you look at St Paul's, apparently nobody has passed a GCSE there since about 2012 which clearly can't be true!

Yes, I've checked on the spreadsheet that gives individual subject results and they've only got 1 person recorded as having sat a Maths GCSE! Similarly St Paul's have no one doing Maths either.

English Language is the straight GCSE. Radnor House results are:

56 pupils took English Language. 21% A/A, 93% A-C.

To compare that with A/A* passes in English Language in state secondaries:

Waldegrave: 34% A/A*
Grey Court: 28%
Teddington: 25% A/A*
Christ's: 20%

So it's around the borough average, probably.

To put that into context, national averages for subject passes are as follows:

English - 14.6% A/A*
Maths 16.5 A/A

Most of our comprehensives did well in Maths on those top grades, e.g.:

Waldegrave 40.5%
Teddington 38.2%
Orleans Park 35.7%

RPA have an ad in the TES for Principal. Hope all the parents of the kids photographed have given permission for their kids pics to be used to advertise.

It's no wonder there's a teacher recruitment crisis. This teaching assistant was assaulted for reprimanding a child.

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/636515/Marius-Feneck-dad-assaulted-teacher-revenge-attack-walks-free-court-Lesley-Ann-Noel

Mixed messages here. DfE insists talk of a crisis is just 'scaremongering'. What do you think?

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jan/19/teacher-recruitment-school-shortages

I wonder how much of this will apply to the schools and teachers asked to help our failing academies.

www.tes.com/news/blog/national-teaching-service-–-can-it-work

I don't think Mr Wilkinson will go into meltdown when faced with Twickenham Academy - he does live in Whitton! It's an interesting article that makes a lot of sense though. I don't think even young graduates want to go to teach in remote places far from their friends. Perhaps they need to think harder about recruiting locally for mature people settled in the area who want to retrain to be teachers. On the other hand I remember the headteacher from Educating Cardiff saying she'd never been to Wales before she applied for the job.

I happened to walk past Deer Park School today when they were playing outside their portacabin at lunchtime. There only seemed to be 7 children - 2 girls and 5 boys? Maybe the others were at chess club.

The Independent reports that the government is to clamp down on multiple objections against faith school admissions made by organisations such as the BHA. Nicky Morgan views these complaints as 'vexatious'.

This seems to be one aspect of a range of reforms to school admissions which include banning parents 'outside a local area' from complaining about admissions.

Wonder how that could be defined? It can't be by LA - the Greenwich ruling means a school can't define its catchment by LA boundaries. And few schools have a specified distance requirement.

L Prosser...We heard that only 12 or 13 children attend Deer Park School at the moment. Parents must be thinking about the future and do not want their children to attend a school which plans its permanent location at the dreadful London House site by the Manor Circus roundabout on the very busy A316.