school failing its pupils

[fouragainstone]

Sorry its a long story but i will try to keep it brief.
Two years ago my sons school was taken over by another school to oversee its closure due to falling numbers and budget deficit. This was done on the basis that the pupils would be on the roll of the new school but continue to be taught on the original school site.

Now this year when the yr11 leave there will be about 90 pupils on this site 40 yr10, 30 yr9 and 20 yr8. No yr7 were taken on.

My son is in yr9 and a bright lad.
Options evening is fast approaching and i was informed at parents evening by a concerned teacher that my son will be seriously let down by the schools plans.

He will be offered maths at foundation level because there is not enough able pupils to take a higher level. Science he will only be able to do the btec, they will not be offering the gcse paper. Other options will be along the lines of hairdressing and moterbike repair and maybe another vocational subject. No MFL, history, geography or subjects like that.

Students on the main site will have a whole host of options and be able to take the science gcse and the maths higher paper.

Now i realise budgets are tight but how can the school allow its able pupils to be treated like this considering the school is a specialist science school and has just had an outstanding ofsted inspection. They are treating these pupils like unwanted tenants that are holding up the progress on the new 14-19 vocational centre they are building on the site.

I want to know if they are allowed to do this and who would i need to speak to to at least get them to let him sit the higher maths and science gcse. I know i could just throw in the towel and move him to a different school but my son does not want to move hes happy, settled and very stubborn and wants a shot a fighting for the education the school are providing at the other site.

Go to the press
Go to OFSTED
Go to the the specialist schools trust
Go to the Dfee
Shout, shout loud, shout louder
Every Child Matters. MAKE them teach him. Your taxes pay for it.

Why can't he move to the main site?

90 is far too small for a secondary school. IMO they should all be moved.

That is really awful. I think you need to go to the head of the school, and take it further. I know that your son wants to stay at his school, but I would be encouraging him to move now. Y9 is a good time to go. Would there be a place for him on the main site of his school?

I think that having 30 or 40 children per year in a secondary school is probably too small to offer a range of subjects. I'm surprised that the main school cannot offer all the pupils a place, it would only entail adding one class per year group.

I think I would take this to the head teacher, and escalate it to Ofsted if you do not the response you need.

Thanks for the replies. I did think of going to ofsted but was waiting to have the options list in my hand so they can't backtrack on what has been said the info i have been given comes from the deputy head and a form teacher. I will look up the others as well.

I have raised my concerns before with the head who said he can't tell me whats going on as no decisions had been made. This was before parents evening though and i would have brought it up with him that night but he did not attend. He visits the site so often that before the ofsted inspection he held an assembly and told the pupils that they where not allowed to ask who he was.

The main site is not big enough to take all the pupils but they do bus some of them up there for hairdressing.

There may be other students in your son's year who want to take more academic courses. See if you can group together with other parents to persuade the school to provide transport for them to attend the lessons that would be more suitable. If they can bus students to hairdressing lessons they may be willing to provide taxis for students who want to study GCSE science.

This is an issue to raise immediately in writing with the headteacher with a request for your son to move to the main site and be given the opportunity to do the subjects at levels that are appropriate for him. The bottom line is that the closing school site is just offering a very limited curriculum to meet the legal requirements. You need to do it now becuase if you leave it the excuse will be that everybody has chosen their options and there are no places.
See what response you get.
If it is in the negative then assuming it is a community school I would raise in writing the issue with the Director of Childrens Services, pointing out that the school is deliberately not offering an appropriate curriculum.
The honest truth is that for the numbers of pupils involved, the current school has no chance of offering an appropriate curriculum and the pupils should be moved to the new school. As the year 7 pupils have already migrated to the school there must be enough room to take all the pupils because that will have to happen progressively as the years move on.

Thanks for that i guess i better get started on a letter sooner rather than later.

Does anyone know what subjects they are legally required to offer?

I have been told that there are about 4 or 5 pupils in my sons year that are what they would call academic so i assume in theory they could bus them to the main site for some lessons but i am betting the old timetabling issue will arise.

To be honest i would not consider sending him to the main site full time. If that is the only option i will move him to a completely new school. Its an hour away on the bus from where we are as there is no direct route. He could just about manage the minibus from school to school but would need dosing up on the motion sickness tablets as he is very travel sick. That was the main reason i sent him to the school he is at now because it is in walking distance.

I'm not an LEA bod but one of them will surely be able to tell you whether:
I'd have thought that if the school they provide is not meeting regulations of a minimum curriculum, the LEA have to help you find one local that DOES.