A Conservative council joins the secret war against England's schools

SUSAN HILL

This absolutely defies belief. How can they possibly not want the best for the local children - ESPECIALLY those the others don`t want.It is what one would expect from some loony left council but not from Bromley. Sack that councillor who is trying to deny children a good education, write directly to Michael Gove, get him to visit, and PARENTS, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. You can win now, there's a damn good chance. Stuff the local council.

Minnie Ovens

I think you will find that all Councils, be they Socialist or Comservative, will hang on like grim death to any assaults on their power base.
I think the one thing upon which most concur is that Councils are the problem, not only with Schools but anything else in which they are involved.
It's all power and money and they have far too much of it.
Mind you,anyone with the resplendant appendage of "Councillor Ernest Noad" gets my vote for prat of the year.

Chuck Unsworth

Name this Governor - and does he/she speak on behalf of anyone at all, or is this mere opinion?

Will J

@Minnie Ovens: Why do all local authorities always have to be tarred by the poor decisions of a few? That kind of crude generalisation is precisely what leads to centralisation.

Clearly the fact that we are talking about the bad decision of Bromley council is because it is unusual. Local democracy will place pressure on them to change. And if they don't change then they will learn the hard way.

We do need to let people make mistakes, so they and we can learn from them. Much better that than a centralisation which universally enforces mistakes and leaves no room for innovation and the spread of best practice.

Osred

We recently received a letter from our local primary explaining why they wouldn't be applying for Academy status. It is a very good school and would succeed under any regime due to the local demographics, but it is interesting that the 2 reasons given were that information is hard to come by and, that there could be cost implications in being an Academy. part of the letter is below;

"At the moment, there is no clear indication that small amounts of additional funding would outweigh the additional costs that would be incurred if we took on extra responsibilities or services that are currently provided by the local authority. A stated benefit of Academies is freedom from local authority control. However, the Governing Body do not feel under control of the local authority under current arrangements. Although there are often inevitable tensions, we also benefit in many ways from some centralised services and local authority support. There was a strong sense that the cost implications of taking on additional responsibilities was insufficiently clear to warrant pursuing change.

It was felt that there is not a strong reason for the school to depart from a national curriculum. Key skills in literacy and maths must continue to be taught and teaching staff in particular felt that they were not unduly constrained and were able to be creative and flexible in teaching under current arrangements"

JohnPage

Independents there need to get organising now.

Steve Tierney

I don't know why anybody is surprised. The whole situation; council, schools, governors - is mirrored in many places. For every Conservative who thinks Michael Gove is onto something - there's another who likes Big State control in education. It's a massive battle.

BeckenhamTown.us

There is a full account of all the comings and goings over this debate at http://bit.ly/bzAQF7 on the BeckenhamTown.us website. Including input from councillors, governors, school heads, public etc

Nicholas

Councillor Noad's blurb suggests he has some personal interest in policy and scrutiny for children and young people. He may therefore be reluctant to let go of involvement in an area he has come to see as "his". Understandable, perhaps, but I'm surprised that one man can insist on such a condition. Councils of all persuasions seem to be full of these "decision makers" whose accountability does not seem to stretch as far as their powers. Bad for democracy, bad for the causes of democracy - like this one.

anne allan

Quelle surprise - Tory councillor goes native!
I remember Peter Simple's column had a dim couple called the Nodes who sported pointy heads and drove around deliberately joining traffic jams.

Peter From Maidstone

When is Councillor Noad's term of office due to expire?

Carrie Bateman

For anyone who is interested there is a Full Council Meeting tonight (25 Oct) at Bromley Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley BR1 3UH at 7.30pm. There is a Public Gallery.
The first item on the agenda is a 5 minute presentation to the Council from supporters of the 'Harris into Beckenham' Parents Group.
The Council will be required to vote on the proposal afterwards.

Cllr Nicholas Bennett

As a Bromley Councillor, a member of the Children and Young People's Policy and Scrutiny Committee and a firm supporter of Academies, free schools and parental choice I am sorry that you have published such a distorted version of events surrounding Bromley Council’s attitude towards the possibility of Kelsey Park School applying to become an academy..

In 2008 the Mayor of London Boris Johnson indicated that he would be interested in sponsoring 10 academies across London through the London Development Agency (LDA). Bromley expressed an interest to the Mayor in sponsoring Kelsey Park School. The Council discussed with 7 potential sponsors (including the Harris Federation) a partnership with the LDA. The Council in partnership with the LDA decided that the Academies Enterprise Trust best met the specification of the Council and the school.

In November 2009 Kelsey Park was inspected by OfSTED and issued with a 'Notice to Improve'. In February 2010 the then DCDS issued new procedures for academy sponsorship, to take effect from 1st April 2010. These required an 'accredited provider' with the Local Authority. An 'in principle' proposal was made on this basis with in the time scale set by the DCSF but it was rejected by Ed Balls on the grounds that such an application had to be made under new guidance which had not been published. No further explanation was received from the DCSF as to why the application which adhered to their guidance and timetable could not be approved.

Under the new regulations schools which are outstanding are currently the only ones invited to apply for Academy status. Two Bromley schools have or will shortly become academies.

Because Kelsey Park remains at the moment in the ‘Notice to Improve’ category despite being a Foundation School the Council has a legal duty to work in partnership with the school to raise standards and secure satisfactory performance within 12 months of the November 2009 inspection. The summer GCSE results showed a 25% increase from 2009 in the number of pupils receiving 5 A*-C grades.

The Harris into Beckenham campaign which began in June 2010 is predicated upon a single solution to the exclusion of any other including other sponsors. Kelsey Park is a foundation school and it is therefore a matter for the Governing Body not the LA. The School is currently consulting parents and the wider community on a range of options including Academy, Trust or Federation status. Currently although the GCSE results have improved dramatically, the school does not qualify under the criteria set out by the DES. No doubt these will be widened in the future include any school which wishes to apply for academy status.

Bromley Conservative councillors have an excellent record of taking radical decisions. We transferred our 13000 properties to a Housing Association nearly 20 years ago, we established and transferred our leisure facilities to a charitable trust in 2004 and we have just signed a shared contract for our computer and telephone services with our neighbouring Labour controlled council. I have no doubt we will be equally radical in encouraging our schools to seek new ways of providing first class education to our children.

Sir Graphus

Osred; we received an similar letter. In the unlikely event that our children are at the same school (mine are at ECS), there seems to be some centrally coordinated opposition to govt policy from those whose jobs are to implement it.

It shows how powerless Councillors are; it's really the LEA managers and administrators who run the show, and don't want to stop running it. Tame Councillors are merely their conduit.

FF

Have you done a survey of what the parents of children that actually attend the school want? A quick look at the blogging site referred to above suggests their views aren't really being taken into account either by Fiona Murphy's pressure group or Bromley Council. It also seems the pressure group is made up principally of parents who have no intention of sending their children to Kelsey Park School in its current form.

David Lindsay

Well, of course. They run rather a lot of councils these days. Their Councillors will be, and are, as delighted with this policy as they are with the cuts. Since they are the same people who turn up on the party's internal committees, they might even grow a pair. "Deselections"? Did someone say "deselections"?

Chuck Unsworth

@ BeckenhamTown.us

Thanks for the link. Interesting.

SV

Here is a link to the current consultation on the school's future development
http://www.kelseypark.bromley.sch.uk/Resources/user/docs/HomePage/KPSC%20Consultation%20electronic2.pdf

George Mitchell

What an amazing comment by the Councillor from Bromley. In this particular case the council insisted on retaining control by wanting to co-sponsor. it was not a simple case of their saw some sponsors and then selected the best one . Academies are all about raising standards by using freedom. Bromley Conservatives I am afraid don't get it. By insisting on retaining control they ruled all of the big successful sponsors out. In fact the sponsor the parents want has two outstanding schools just a couple of miles away,

This school has been failing for years, in and out of special measures and now again has failed. Nearby modern Conservative authorities faced with Foundation schools with Governors opposed to change forced them to convert to Academy status. Bromley hides behind the Foundation status of this school -saying it can't do anything when the council knows full well other, dare i saw better and braver councils, have managed to act decisively in the same circumstances.

Yes we all know Councillor that Outstanding schools can apply to become Academies but we also know that the DFE are still continuing to allow failing schools to convert. Bromley could do so with this school but chooses to ignore parental wishes to protect the status quo.

Parents will breath a sigh of relief to know that the council can successfully install new phones . Thank goodness for that -the children are unable to behave well and quality of teaching is not great -but it is a real consolation to know that if they ever are able to get a job working for Bromley that the phones will work.

This kind of response by the Councillor shows the appalling vision and quality of leadership in this conservative council.

Foundation status is nothing to do with it, its just a smokescreen to allow the council to say the school Governors have chosen a solution when in fact its the council's decision.

Vettekulla

Take heart from the Swedish experience where all parties and the unions, bar the communist led "Left Party", not only support free schools but agree they may make a profit. Look at the figures at the end of this article.
http://www.thelocal.se/29746/20101021/

Fiona Murphy

To FF: We did listen to parent's of children at Kelsey; at the full council meeting tonight a Kelsey Mother spoke alongside me to put her view that Harris would improve Kelsey for the children already there.

You are correct lots of us would not send our children to Kelsey at the moment, we are trying to change that and want to use our local school, Harris have turned around failing schools in all boroughs around Bromley.

Moving house when your child is in year 5 is a religion in Beckenham; every second shop in Beckenham is an estate agent. This mass migration would stop overnight if we had an Outstanding school. Over 1000 local parents think Harris can give us that.

Fiona Murphy

TGF UKIP

What all this demonstrates is what a political and bureaucratic game playing mess education is with so many competing interests with widely differing agendas.

The "free schools" idea is as good as dead and the sooner Fraser Nelson accepts that the more sane and less crazily evangelical a place the Coffee House will be.

It might just, just, have flown if it was being introduced by a powerful Secretary of State in a purposeful government with a large majority. As it is education is increasingly being regularly used by Dave as a sop and sweetener to appease LibDems and although it would be far too unplatable for Fraser to face up to, his mate Gove is now a busted flush.

Unfortunately, for Fraser and his mates they have so publicly tied their colours to this Swedish kite with lead weights that its failure to fly is going to produce massive political humiliation. Serve them right it was a most foolish political miscalculation right from the start especially when there were many more attainable and important reforms they could have embarked on. Perhaps they're finding our young journos aren't quite ready to rule the world after all.

Minnie Ovens

Will J
October 25th, 2010 12:35pm

Sorry, Will lad, you've lost me completely.
Who wants Centralization? Not me.
And your last two paragraphs are so naive as to defy belief.

Janee

For those who think to model themselves on Sweden, please note that Gove has stopped talking about the Swedish model. This is not because the free school model has fallen out of favour with some extreme left government but because Sweden has dropped in the international league tables. The UK had improved in Maths and Science. It has also been shown that the "free" school model has damaged social cohesion. Is this really what Bromley wants? Can we afford an educational and social underclass?

Che

Janee

What we have in Bromley in that particular school is already an educational underclass with lots of disadvantaged kids getting a raw deal and conservative Councillors in Bromley apparently happy to keep them there. There is nothing inherently better or fair about the status quo. The schoo lfirst failed in 1994 and has been in and out of special measures and failure categories for 16 years.

"there is nothing worse than the "concerned middle classes" wishing for others what they would not put up with for their own kids.

lee quinn

@Fiona Murphy.

I have a child currently in Kelsey Park, and I have a child who went through Harris (crystal Palace.) I can comprehensively say that all that glitters is not Harris, and that we ignore the fact that Kelsey park deals with an entirely different demographic of students at our peril. The most recent OFSTED report makes clear that that no one in the big houses on Manor Way send their boys to Kelsey; and it is scandalous that pushy parents who are concerned their little darlings may not be cherry picked for Harris or Langley are determined to 'organise' and generally tell people who have first hand experience of the both schools what they should be doing. Is my youngest going to Kelsey? no, I have prepared and he’s won a scholarship to a private school, probably based on the fact that I relentlessly drilled him in the 11 plus (Kent has a number of very good grammar schools.) Have I done the same for my middle child about to enter sixth form? no way, He wants to go to Kelsey and he has convinced me he is right!

With the geratest of respect, perhaps you should take some responsibility and prepare your children to make the most of education, don’t try and bend a system that works for a lot of children to act as a fall back for what your limited experience says is right for your child.