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.

This is how those figures are calculated. The exact formula to be used is not yet known, but schools in the local area are all expecting drops in funding.

You can see how the figures are calculated here:

www.schoolcuts.org.uk/#/data

The assumptions used don't seem wildly unreasonable to me. The figures will be updated as more is known.

They thought that there was a substantial self interest on behalf of Achieving for Children behind the lobbying rather than wanting the best for the schools.

This is how many parents at Darell feel. We have had several big (some rather ill-advised, IMO) changes over the last five years and a very unsettled time with our leadership recently. Many of us would like to look at federation rather than academisation (or at least explore what benefits it might offer) but it seems that there is a really big push towards the MAT model coming from AfC and our governors. Not to mention that they have already (pre-consultation) made an application to convert, which seems disingenuous at best to me.

Barnes parents! I would love to know how your schools are tackling this issue! Anyone who feels able to speak about it, please post here or PM me if you'd rather do it privately.

First para of recent letter from Headteacher of Teddington asking for parental donations:

"In line with schools across the country, Teddington School is facing unprecedented pressure on its finances and has found balancing its budget this year a significant challenge. In real terms, we have received £250,000 less in Government funding than last year for the same number of students. We have managed to find cost savings that don’t have a negative impact on the services we provide, but the challenge will become tougher in the future."

Teddington became an academy when ordered to do so by the local authority/Government as there was (then) more money on offer and has done what was asked of it by helping set up a MAT and assist Hampton and Twickenham Academies but it appears that even schools that comply get financially penalised so I would consider all the options. A federation of local primaries seems the best idea to me.

That is interesting (and worrying). Thank you, LProsser.

I too would like to see a federation model explored more fully before we get ourselves into something that we cannot get out of. However we are really being funnelled down a very narrow channel that leads inexorably to academisation by the head and governors who seem to me to fundamentally misunderstand the character of Darell as it has been in the past.

Teddington sounds like a fantastic school and it's worrying that they too are facing such challenges. One of our teachers at Darell has a child there and speaks very highly of the school.

Just to clarify, I did say I did not know chapter and verse, the Barnes Primaries are not in a formal Federation but they are working together to move slowly towards what will work best for them.

Slowly sounds good to me! One of the problems with the decision that Darell has to take is that I feel that we are being rushed into it without knowing all the potential ramifications.

RTT Online has Council urges borough’s schools to sexpertise and ‘best practice’:

Richmond Council has urged the borough's state schools to come together in academy trusts to pool expertise and "best practice". The governing body of Darell School Primary and Nursery School is currently carrying out a consultation about whether the school should become an academy, by joining the Every Child, Every Day Academy Trust, with Grey Court and Hollyfield schools.

. . The trust is not an academy chain, but a local collective of two Kingston and Richmond schools which have come together to share best practice, economies of scale, joint systems and approaches. Darell would benefit from this formalised arrangement whilst continuing its work with local primary schools and focusing on learning and teaching, the council claimed . .

Cllr Paul Hodgins, Richmond Council cabinet member for schools (said): “ . . I am a firm believer in local cooperation between all our schools . . I hope that parents will review the proposals and see the great opportunities that can come when working with an exceptional school such as Grey Court.”

'Sexpertise' should be 'share expertise'!

I wonder why no comments are allowed on this RTT article? I would have thought that concerned parents should write to the RTT and Cllr. Hodgins asking why sharing expertise with 2 secondary schools one of which is in Surbiton is on the table rather than sharing with other local primaries and generally try to get a more open debate on a variety of options including "stay as we are" going.

I wonder why no comments are allowed on this RTT article?

Yes indeed. It's almost as though they don't think the merits of the proposal should be debated!

Teddington's experience of limited funds post academisation ought to be an awful warning to primary schools that the supposed benefits of going down that path are simply illusory.

Copy of statement sent to Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education by Head of Richard Challoner, a Catholic secondary school in New Malden, about the funding and recruitment crisis schools are facing:
www.richardchalloner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Statement-of-Concern-8-12-16.pdf

It says it is on behalf of secondary schools in LB Richmond and Kingston.

Also a blogpost by Head of Richard Challoner:

www.richardchalloner.com/headmastersblog/tipping-point/#

National Audit Office says schools face an 8% cut to budgets in real terms by 2019-20:
www.theguardian.com/education/2016/dec/14/ministers-have-failed-to-explain-where-schools-will-find-savings-watchdog-says

Wow. Those are pretty depressing articles. Good on that head teacher for speaking out.

Wow. That head teacher is brave but 100% correct. What a mess. The only way to balance budgets is to lay off staff or decrease wages and increase class sizes. Back to the 1980s - my memory of state education, when we finished at 1.30pm because teachers worked to rule over break time cover, had no school trips or after school activities, and and text books we had were 15 yeas old. Wow.

No, they can use staff more efficiently.
There are many people locally who are very well qualified but do not work because of the difficult of school hours/child care. Those people can be employed in school hours part time at NLW rates to do non teaching (form time/playground duties/admin), freeing up teacher time for teaching instead.
Two schools I know near each other in another borough do precisely that. Teachers are freed to do what they are qualified to do, and the children get more focussed attention pastorally.

RTT Online has Victory in battle to stop development of popular playing field as council gives it special 'green space' protection:

The battle to stop a popular playing field from being bulldozed (has) achieved a significant victory after Richmond Council designated Udney Park as ‘local green space’. It means the site now has the same protection as the Green Belt. The grounds were sold by Imperial College London to “retirement living specialist” Quantum Group in September 2015, which planned for “a portion” to be used for a care home.

The decision, made in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, December 13, means there will be an “extra layer of protection”, according to ward councillor Stephen Knight. Local green space classification provides special protection against development for green areas of “particular importance to local communities”, according to the national planning policy framework. It was already protected as “other open land of townscape importance”, whereby any development applications submitted to the council had a presumption against it . .

………….
This field was seen by some a good site for a new secondary school.

Well I'd say it still is a good site for a new secondary school chrissquire, if only Quantum would pull out rather than continuing to flog a dead horse. It's not more protected than the other two sites, although it does have a better organised lobby group protecting it.

Jellytoto: I agree that it’s the obvious best site for Turing College. As the land was given by Lord Beaverbrook as a sports ground for young people, to use it for a secondary school, which would keep part of it for sports, would respect his intention.

I visited the site during Quantum’s consultation last year and was told of the merits of their upmarket Platinum Skies retirement homes, intended to convince rich oldies to sell up their underused properties for the rising generation to live in. I assumed that the Council had given them the nod to pursue this, perhaps as the best way to preserving part of the site as open space, but evidently not.

The next move must come from Quantum. My guess is that they will sit on the site, perhaps for many years, hoping for a change in the planning climate.

I agree with Chris that Quantum will sit on this site for a long time and Turing House has little chance of getting it in the time it needs a site. I suspect that the sports clubs who have apparently agreed to sup with the devil and set up the CIC are also playing a long game! I agree that the opponents have been very well organised whereas in Whitton there doesn't appear to be any proper campaign.

I notice that the Council has again rejected the developers' argument against having a new secondary school on part of the Stag Brewery Site in Mortlake (Cabinet meeting discussing the local plan on 13th Dec.)

The Guardian has: Thousands of primary schools' rankings upended by new Sats: School leaders say volatile results have vindicated their concerns over rushed implementation of tough new exams:

Local authority 2016: pupils achieving the expected standard in RWM 2016 rank.. 2015: % pupils achieving level 4 or above in RWM 2015 rank

RWM = reading, writing and maths

City of London 89 1 96 1
Kensington 70 2 91 2
Bromley 67 3 86 9
Richmond 67 4 88 3
Trafford 66 5 86 12
Sutton 65 6 87 5
Greenwich 64 7 87 4
Hackney 64 8 84 17
Havering 63 9 86 10 . . .

RTT Online has New school finds permanent site in Whitton as it prepares to leave Teddington:

A controversial new school, temporarily located in Teddington, will permanently move to Whitton after a deal was struck to buy land from Hounslow Council. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has been looking for a permanent site for Turing House School over the last 18 months after the current site, in Queen’s Road, in Teddington, was deemed too small. The new site is an open space behind Hospital Bridge Road, in Whitton, and it will now go through planning permission and “full community consultation”, Richmond Council said.

The school will keep its policy of allowing 80 % of its intake to be from Teddington and just 20 % from the surrounding area, but it is currently consulting for the 2018 intake. The school was criticised by the leader of Richmond Council, Lord True, after the schools adjudicator decided in July to approve the admissions policy. A petition launched when the Heathfield site was first proposed in April 2015 gained almost 2,000 signatures; Whitton ward councillors and Twickenham MP Tania Mathias have raised concerns about residents having to put up with increased traffic without their own children being offered the opportunity to attend the school. The school responded by insisting it was not “cherry-picking” its students, saying it would serve both its original catchment area and the area around Whitton.

Cllr Paul Hodgins, the cabinet member for schools, said: We have long held the view that the borough will need additional secondary school places in a few years’ time. Once completed, this school will give certainty to parents. And done well, I'm confident it will be an excellent school that is a valuable asset not only to the borough, but its local community in Whitton and Heathfield. One issue that must now be corrected is the published admissions policy. The school has already committed to reviewing the policy for when they move to the permanent site. I will continue to represent residents on this issue.

Cllr Tom Bruce, Hounslow’s member for education and children’s services, said he was happy to help Richmond get the “best outcome” for Turing House’s permanent home.

I suppose it's good that there is now a definite answer as to where they will be, and they do need more room. Just a shame it needs to go quite so far away from the area it was set up to serve.

I do hope that the council now make a significant effort to establish decent public transport links to that site from the catchment area.

Some of the quotes in that RTT article sound like they have been recycled from old press releases and are maybe a bit out of date eg about the admission consultation? I suppose it must be difficult to get hold of people at this time of year! The latest school newsletter had something about it which said there would now be a feasibility study and plans drawn up.