Richmond Borough Schools Chat 8

[muminlondon2]

This thread follows on from Richmond Borough Schools Chat 7.

News and opinions on all the changes to schools in Richmond borough.

mum one swallow does not a summer make. And all this , two schools that did not enjoy parent confidence, happened on the LA watch.You have to wonder what suddenly changed to make them focus on the Schools management instead of hoping that with no other option they cold somehow force the parents to put their children into the schools, and if Turing coming along and giving parents what they want, focused minds.

I am sure all of us want three thriving schools giving parents real choice apart from moving or going private.

happened on the LA watch

As you know, the LA was powerless to intervene or make any changes between 2010 and 2015, until the LST agreed to hand them back, because they were under the governance of an academy chain over which the LA had no control and little influence. But the chain was underperforming.

Until 2010 the schools were under LA control but they were in suspended animation for two years leading up to academisation. The schools were always at a disadvantage since the link system worked against them, drawing pupils from the more middle class side of their catchment areas. Despite this, they maintained a fairly constant pattern of applications, stable leadership (especially Hampton) and local loyalty.

Who knows how quickly they might have improved had the link system been abolished earlier, and accessed rebuilding funds like Teddington, without having to turn into academies.

Once again we cannot truly know what went on but Nick Whitfield was on the board of LST, but for whatever reason rarely turned up for meetings. The LA proactively handed the schools to the LST, perhaps a pragmatic step to access funds, but I think it is unlikely that if the will was there they couldn't have mobilised influence, expertise and resources earlier. However now that they have got on their white steed let's agree it is a good thing for pupils and parents, and possibly Paul Hodgins and the Conservatives at the upcoming local elections......

Having an employee of the local authority as one of 8 directors on the board of a trust is not the same as having the LA as a member of that trust, with the ability to appoint directors and influence the direction of travel. It was not a trust like Kingston Academy in that respect. As incorporated, Kunskapsskolan was the sole sponsor, member and ultimate controller of the trust and the LA was not represented among its founding directors.. He may have been able to raise questions and may well have offered advice, but he would have been easily outvoted, since the majority of directors represented the interests of this profit-making Swedish chain which imposed its own teaching model and curriculum. It is not a model of governance that in any way gives representation to the LA. Check out the Companies House documents to find out exactly who was in charge.

Companies House entry for Learning Schools Trust. Look at all the Swedish names. Note that Nick Whitfield actually ceased being director last October and the credit I was giving to the LA was for its direct intervention in school improvement. It's possible that it relied on consultants but Education London (behind RET) would have had a mix of employees and contractors and still took credit for its support during the City Chalkenge and indeed would have supplied strategic oversight. Kunskapsskolan being itself a large edubusiness was intended to provide this support from the beginning but Ofsted noted its ineffectiveness but highlighted the LA's support.

Compare the structure of directors and members with Kingston Education Trust. Look at the documents of incorporation and members lists.

Last Friday’s print RTT has ’Gesture branded a ’grubby little deal’ (p 1, re Udney Park) and ‘Borough faces a primary school places shortfall’ (p 7).

FrustratedofTW1: Whitfield and his employers probably appointed him to ensure they received the board papers, minutes, etc. and therefore knew what was being decided and done and had access at that level, but considered that his very scarce time was better spent where he was the boss. A watching brief - a common tactic in public life.

Nearly 40% of England’s 2,900 academy schools have made payments to organisations with family ties to their directors or trustees, Labour found.

In this article

Bellevue Place Education Trust features in the Guardian, not this time because of its links to one its sponsor companies to 'oil tycoons' or tax avoidance schemes

It seems that it did not properly spell out in its financial statements the money two its directors will gain due to shares in related businesses paid for consultancy and procurement services.

For anyone interested, Sacred Heart has some places available in Reception for September.

www.sacredheartteddington.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Newsletter-31-Friday-22nd-April-20162.doc

Chris you are brilliant at bringing over RTT quotes, but would you mind C&P if at all possible?
Despite having registered with RTT, their new edition will never open for me as I am unregistered , pfft, & trying to read on mobile or ipad results in an annoying 'download Flash now' response.
It was ok whilst they delivered but that's all stopped and now I don't have a clue what's in the paper.
Thank you

Chris, though you can't view RTT on an iPad in Safari and you need a login anyway, if you go to 'download selected pages' you can create a PDF and copy the link which then can be opened in any browser. Since I'm on my phone at the mo I can't demonstrate but it does work for individual pages.

I love Sacred Heart's list of reasons why they haven't managed to fill one form of entry! No mention of the 90% of children that arent remotely Catholic or dwindling number of those parents who identify as Catholic able to meet those ferocious early baptism and church attendance requirements - just the generally low birthrate which everyone else says is a high and the illness of their priest!

Useful stuff about Bellevue muminlondon will refer to these service providing linked companies in my reply to Tania Mathias if I ever get round to writing it!

Lottie Nor any mention of the 20 exclusive places that everyone agreed were neither wanted or needed at St Richard Reynolds. Catholic children from Central Twickenham who could not get into St James's used to go to Sacred Heart which, to be fair, in the past at least, used to have less demanding admissions criteria. Presumably in Teddington as well as Twickenham non Catholic parents who do not want a Catholic education for their children are being offered places in a Catholic School they didn't apply for and would not have chosen.

There seems to be a lot of Catholics in Whitton. I know parents who didn't get several different Catholic preferences who are being offered CofE schools instead. Maybe they should have considered Sacred Heart.

I know 2 Teddington Catholic Mums who have opted for StRR over SH to secure the secondary school place. SH would have been their first choice otherwise.
Newland House has expanded their pre-prep (as has Jack and Jill’s?), I wouldn’t be surprised if this has had an impact as well.

St Richard Reynolds Secondary doesn't give priority to children who have attended the primary school unless they are one of the 10 community places. So it doesn't ensure they will get their children in and it's a lottery allocation too.

Yes, I know, but it’s not clear to many. Also, the priority for the 10 open places is below Category 3 so pretty meaningless really. I wonder if there will be pressure for the to change the admissions as we get closer to 2019.

I think the 10 community places are secure as this is the admissions:

"Admission of open place children in St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary School in 2019
The governing body may only determine the admissions arrangements on a year by year basis but it is the expectation that children attending St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary School and holding an open place at that school will have top priority after looked after children and children who have been adopted (or made subject to residence or special guardianship orders) immediately following being looked after. This criterion is expected to apply to the first cohort of primary school children applying in Year 6 for places in Year 7 for September 2019 and to each subsequent cohort thereafter."

It's not clear though and I know a few St RR primary parents who are disgruntled that they won't be guaranteed a secondary place. If that changed, it would go down like a lead balloon wth the other Richmond catholic schools. It's a shame the 2 mum's you mentioned picked St RR over SH because they thought they would get a secondary place. I'm bias though as my children go to SH

bluestars If the only reason the two Teddington mums picked SRR rather than SH was because they thought that would guarantee them a place at the secondary school, then I would urge them to think again. They will be given no priority over any other Catholic child in the borough applying to SRRCC, unless they already have a sibling at the secondary school.
SH offers full wraparound care (breakfast club and after-school club), free Nursery provision in a brand-new Early Years setting (mornings only), and stacks of after-school clubs (currently tag rugby, netball, cricket, art, computing, recorders, cookery, Italian, classics, multi-sports, tennis and home-learning). It has a dynamic new leadership team and a great set of parents ;)

Although I have spent 15 years chuckling richly about the ups and downs of Sacred Heart's admissions - one set of next door neighbours couldn't get their child in as the priest didn't believe Americans could be Catholic even though the child's uncle was a Catholic missionary in Africa whereas another set of neighbours were offered a place there although they hadn't applied and weren't Catholic (different years!) - I do think once you get there it's nice if you are OK with Catholicism. I think it would be very popular if it had open admissions as lots of people would like their children to go to a small school. I know SH used to attract lots of very aspirational parents - I was told by one Teddington mum that they liked the tie and "treated it as a pre-prep" - but not sure how much it is competing with Newland House and Jack & Jill these days.

I'm not keen on an overly religious atmosphere but given the choice between paying a grand a month, a free school backed by offshore trustafarians or a small friendly local LA maintained school ...

Doubledecker, those 10 places are after Category 3, that means that they come after Catholic looked after children, then baptised Catholics, and then other looked after children. I strongly suspect that the school will fill on Category 1 and 2 children by 2019.
Riverreacher, I understand there is no guarantee of a place but I don't think that is widely well understood and I suspect that there will be pressure to change the policy.

Once again in the Guardian - PetroSaudi, whose chief executive is a key investor in the sponsor of Deer Park School via a British Virgin Islands Trust. This story about brokering deals between Tony Blair, China and Saudi Arabia did appear in the Times and other newspapers about 18 months ago.

I think I've already pointed out that Tony Blair also did some sort of partnership with GEMS Education. It also has Cayman Islands and/or British Virgin Islands offshore trust links, and it brokered an education partnership between Saudi Arabia and the UK Trade and Investment department. The deal appeared to be made in the months between GEMS being rejected as a sponsor of an academy in Woking in July 2013 and being approved as the sponsor of Twickenham Primary Academy in April 2014.

When I was looking for links on the GEMS/Saudi venture I found this FE Week update suggesting that the scheme might lead to bankruptcy. Gosh, who could have predicted it?