Route 39 – Certainly Closer to Closure?

Having taken some time to reflect upon the the documentation submitted by Route 39 to the Planning Inspectorate which; without any shred of irony, they refer to as their ‘proof of evidence’, one could again be inclined to question and challenge some of the statements that have now been put forward as justification for overturning the majority decision made last September by our locally and democratically elected representatives on Torridge District Council’s planning committee.

Playing the blame game!

In statements submitted by Mr Richard Bence, Chairman of Route 39’s Board of Trustees, Route 39 is plainly seeking to place the blame for the schools woeful record of attracting and retaining students on the fact that they haven’t been able to spend upwards of £2 million building their ‘vision’, bang in the middle of our protected AONB countryside.

The document states “Significant concern and uncertainty on students and parents who had already chosen Route 39 Academy as their secondary school and were due to start in September 2013. This led to a reduction in the number of students attending in the first year by an estimated 5 students. Continued uncertainty regarding site has led to significant student instability. In Year 1 of operation, 25 students left during the year and to date, 21 have left this, our second year. This has been balanced in part by students joining, dissatisfied with other schools. In Year 1, 20 students joined the Academy in year and to date 15 have joined this year.”

As usual, this ‘evidence’ makes completely unsubstantiated claims about parents dissatisfaction at other local secondary schools (another example of the denigration of our local school provision that Route 39 openly say they never do!) yet makes no clear comment at all about the dissatisfaction of both parents and students that have left Route 39 for a myriad of reasons, choosing only to say this was because of ‘uncertainty’.

Of the parents who have pulled their children out of Route 39, while uncertainty may indeed have played a small role in their decision, in almost all cases it most certainly was not the primary driver. The quality of teaching, the behaviour of fellow students, odd-ball teaching methods, transport costs, lack of proper governance and the strong perception among some parents that Route 39 has become a school catering predominantly for SEN children from around the wider region (in order to keep the student numbers viable) are just some of the many examples cited by some of these parents that made this very difficult decision for their children.

It is very wrong to grossly generalise the deeply held feelings of these parents, who made their original choice with the very best intentions, but who quickly found that the reality of Route 39 was far, far removed from the image that they were ‘sold’. Rather than undermine these parents, Route 39 might consider acknowledging their failures and admit publicly that their experiment in education does not, in fact, have all the answers for all parents and students.

It’s not us, it’s them!

The documents go on to blame Route 39’s inadequacies on everyone else but themselves. “While the temporary accommodation provides sufficient resources to cover the 11 to 14 curriculum, the Academy is unable to implement significant aspects of the vision including land-based learning. In addition, options for GCSE are limited as there are few specialist facilities available. We have lost a couple students recently to other schools able to offer a broader curriculum. Continued uncertainty regarding a permanent site have had a negative impact on the recruitment and retention of both staff and students. This year alone we have had two candidates refused an interview and one refused a job offer due to uncertainty regarding the permanent site.”

So, according to Route 39, it’s not only the fault of all the other schools locally that have better facilities, better GCSE options and a broader curriculum, it is also the fault of those teachers that refused to join their school. Again, they put this down to that elusive condition of ‘uncertainty’. So did these professional teachers not buy in strongly enough to Route 39’s ‘vision’, were they not offered enough money (Route 39 is not restricted as to what they pay in salaries to staff) or did they perhaps see something in the way the school is actually operating that rang alarm bells? After all, Route 39 did promise its parents and students that their teachers and teaching would be ‘outstanding’, so it stands to reason that teachers would be throwing themselves at Route 39, wouldn’t they?

And while not content at simply blaming those teachers that didn’t want a job at this particular Free School, Route 39  goes on to pillory Torridge’s District Councillors on the Planning Committee. Not withstanding the fact that these people are democratically elected and that they are duty bound to exercise their duties under the Nolan Principals for Public Office, showing no fear or favour in their decision making, the statement castigates TDC Councillors by proxy because they didn’t deliver what Route 39’s board of Governors had promised to the parents, students and staff of the school. “Parents have experienced the outcome of two Torridge Planning Committee decisions and have no faith in the committee acting in the best interest of their children. It would be unreasonable to expect parents and students to have the will to endure another planning application that would require the approval of the Planning Committee once again…The delays caused by Torridge in planning applications for Route 39 Academy have had a significant impact on the short-term viability of the Academy.”

So what is the motivation?

“The progress of the Academy thus far has placed significant reliance on the team of volunteer Governors. Many have worked for four years on the Academy without pay and at significant cost personally and on their families. I am concerned that there is a point at which this volunteer goodwill becomes exhausted.” Route 39 seem, within this statement to perhaps hint that Route 39 Governors should, in fact, be paid for the work that they have done over the past four years!  This is incredible! Route 39 would do well to realise that school governors at all schools across the area and in fact across the nation, don’t do what they do for money, we all do it because it is precisely what needs to be done for the children. As Governors we volunteer to help our schools and we don’t expect to get paid for it! Why should Governors at Route 39 be any different?

The future is certainly uncertain!

Like a soothsayer reading the runes, Route 39 finally launch themselves into predictions for the future. “The viability of the Academy going forward is reliant on the number of students attending. The impact of continued uncertainty regarding the site has a high likelihood of dissuading future applicants.” they appealingly state.  “As funding is based on the number of students attending the Academy there will be a number of students below which the Academy is no longer viable. It is not possible to give an accurate figure for this as it is dependent on the needs of the students, the breadth of years and the number of students in each year.”

It might be suggested by some that this prediction is already false – the Education Funding Agency (EFA) set a minimum intake of 50 students per year into Route 39 and the academy has consistently failed to attract and, crucially, retain these numbers of students. Indeed, with only 139 students signed to attend the school from September 2015 (Update October 2015 – only 130 actually turned up in September!), the school has only 35% of the total number is stated it would have in its EFA funding application.

It is not unknown for the EFA to withdraw its (our) funding from unviable free schools and academies and with the current situation continuing, it can perhaps be said with a greater degree of certainty than ever that Route 39 is now certainly closer to closure.

Quit your moaning and get on with it!

Secondary school league tables have received a mixed press this week following the release of the final results from the 2014 examinations, with Head Teachers from various schools lining up to either applaud or denounce the league tables, perhaps depending in some cases upon how their individual schools have fared.

I have found this whole debate this week quite interesting – league tables are a rather crude way of providing parents with a comparative idea of just how well their local schools are performing, and perhaps it is no wonder, given the arcane complexity of this country’s educational statistics, performance measurements and acronyms, that parents look for a simplistic way of judging whether a school is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

In the same way that Ofsted inspections are subject to the ‘human’ variable, so too is the league table system. Ever since league tables were brought in, schools have been looking for ways to manipulate the system or ‘play the game’. This is not surprising considering the impact that a poor showing in the table will have, both in terms of parents choosing to take their children elsewhere (with its consequential effect on the school budget) and the Armageddon that then comes raining down on to the schools from the Local Education Authority, Ofsted, Regional Commissioners and Her Majesties Inspectorate of Schools.

Playing the system

In previous years, many schools, both local authority and private, have attempted to ‘play’ the examination system, looking to enter their students into examinations with what they consider to be perhaps less ‘rigorous’ exam boards and to offer other vocational qualifications that carried ‘equivalent’ GCSE grades and which were counted in the league tables. The iGCSE was a prime example of this behaviour. The effect of this was to boost their league table standings, enabling these schools to crow triumphantly about how well they were performing and what a great job they were doing.

Now I have nothing at all against vocational qualifications, I believe these are a valuable addition to the traditional curriculum which by definition cannot always cater to the abilities of every individual student. However, I believe that these qualifications should be offered as the exception, rather than as a quick and easy way to boost the schools performance in league tables, which is what has appeared to have happened over the past few years in some schools.

Understandably this was all rather irksome to those schools that chose to play the league table game with a ‘straight bat’. By offering their students what was generally perceived to be the harder, more traditional GCSE curriculum, inevitably these schools appeared to perform less well, as fewer students delivered pass grades compared to those in other schools following an ‘equivalent’ curriculum.

Now the Government has removed these ‘equivalents’ from the league table measures, which in my view does help to bring greater transparency and clarity to annual performance measurement. This has meant that many schools have now found themselves plummeting earthwards in the table rankings and crying ‘foul’ to anyone that will listen. Well, I am sorry that your schools have been knocked off your pedestal, but hey; it wasn’t as if you were not told well in advance that this change was going to happen!

Holsworthy Community College flying high!

At my school, Holsworthy Community College, we have always tried to offer a mixed and balanced curriculum in order that every child was able to achieve the best outcome that was possible for them individually, regardless of their ability or aptitude. In other words, playing the ‘straight bat’ mentioned earlier. Over the years this has meant that perhaps we have not shone as brightly in the league table standings in comparison to some of our peer schools in Devon and we have had to deal with that situation, from the local authority, from parents and from others with perhaps a more vested interest in rubbishing our school – you know who you are!

With the 2014 league tables now published, we can see the effect of the changes that the Governments ‘level playing field’ has achieved. Out of 76 schools across Devon, Holsworthy Community College was ranked joint 16th, with 57% of students achieving 5+ A*-C grades including English and Maths at GCSE level.

In terms of Total Average Point Score per pupil, Holsworthy Community College was ranked 17th in the county, with 392.1 APS per pupil. Coupled with the ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted that was achieved last year, I think we can be justifiably proud of all the staff and students at our school, who are continually improving their performance and are really going places.

Credit where it’s due…

I am not generally a fan of Government meddling in education, however on this particular issue, I am prepared to give credit where it is due. I hope that the changes to performance measurement through these league tables will bed down and that a degree of continuity can be achieved, as these tables only work for parents and educational professionals alike when the measurements are applied fairly and consistently over time.

And for those schools that are moaning about the new league tables, think about this – You can’t take the plaudits when you’ve been milking the system, then scream blue murder when you’ve been found out. We can see what you are doing and it isn’t very edifying.

I suggest you get over it, pick yourselves up and start giving your students the consistent and high standard of education that we all; as taxpayers, are paying for and that we all, as parents; expect for our kids!

The Telegraph has a great interactive Schools League Table on its website – click here:

 

 

And the prize for fiction goes to…”Route 39″

Earlier this week, following the successful campaign by Laura McInerney through the Freedom of Information Act to get public access to the application forms submitted for Free Schools, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) application from Route 39 Academy Trust was published by the Government, and what delightful reading it makes.

The application from Route 39 seeks to present and describe to the EFA the lofty ideals and aspirations for this proposed free school in such a halcyon manner that it was hardly surprising that the EFA swallowed it ‘hook, line and sinker’. One does wonder though, had Captain Edmund Blackadder read it, he might have described the epic tome as “… the greatest work of fiction since vows of fidelity were included in the French marriage service.”

As soon as one begins reading the diatribe of misinformation, half-truths, spin and disingenuity contained within the document, it quickly becomes apparent why the Department for Education (DfE) were so very reluctant to reveal the contents of these applications to concerned local communities.

For example; within the document, Route 39 have deliberately misquoted or omitted comments made by local Head Teachers that were met in the preliminary stages of the application process, meetings that Route 39 sought in order to be able to claim that they had ‘consulted’ with local Secondary School principals.

Local school heads and teachers have been portrayed as supportive of the application when in fact they were not, while at the same time, the Route 39 application implies that our local schools are worthless and under-performing. Small wonder the strength of feeling towards this arguably divisive and disrespectful organisation from our local education professionals and the wider community alike.

What we can now see of course  is exactly what we have long suspected – that the Route 39 application made what could be described as wildly inaccurate, completely unsubstantiated and factually flawed statements about the demand for the school from the local area, the performance of other local secondary schools in the same and adjoining catchments and the suitability of their proposed site for a ‘safe, secure and environmentally sensitive’ school.

The Route 39 application states quite clearly that from the ‘massive’ demand they perceived from the local community for their proposed school (you will remember herds of people flocking to the Milky Way when Route 39 offered them free entry tickets – that was the ‘demand’ that they presented to the EFA), that they would subsequently get 100 Year 7 students attending the school in September 2013/14 and further 100 Year 7 students attending in September 2014/15 and each year thereafter (see the table from the application below).

In fact, the numbers that actually started in September 2013 amounted to no more than 58, of which only 33 were Year 7 students, the remainder being made up of children from Years 8 and 9 that were attending other local secondary schools.

Route 39 had to draft in these other children to make up the numbers as crucially, the EFA had set a minimum target of 50 children starting in September 2013 in order to qualify for funding.

Obviously one would have thought that in return for the £millions of educational funding being requested by Route 39, the EFA would have demanded that this minimum number of students should be from the Year 7 cohort, but that would assume a logic that appears to be sadly missing from the EFA, no doubt because logic would run counter to the current educational ideology of their masters; the DfE. At that time, the Governments headlong rush to open as many grammar school ‘look-alikes’ funded from the public purse as possible before the next general election, would make Usain Bolt look like he was running backwards!

Even Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York has today described the governments free schools policy as a “failed attempt” to create grammar schools benefiting those with “means and ability”.

You could be forgiven for thinking that last years intake failure was simply just ‘opening day blues’, but one year on and September 2014’s figures were no better, in fact they were even worse, with only 49 students making up the new intake and the current total standing at a paltry 107! (Ed. May 7th 2015 – We now know the September 2015 intake numbers, 38 from Devon and 9 from Cornwall, a total of just 47 children. This number is below the 50 children required by the EFA and massively below the 100 the trustees of Route 39 have always claimed, from their application and ‘demand analysis’ would want to attend the school. Isn’t it obvious now that there simply is not the demand for this school that the EFA were led to believe existed and shouldn’t this hugely expensive ‘white elephant’ be closed and its allocated funding (£2 million) used to help the thousands of local secondary school children in the area?)

Students (and their parents) arriving at the school full of joy and hope soon appear to discover that Route 39 cannot deliver as bucolic an educational vista as they so evocatively and eloquently describe in their EFA application and the raft of glossy marketing materials subsequently produced by the school (with tax payers cash that should be spent on childrens education).

Even in this past couple of weeks, a local secondary school has welcomed yet another ex-Route 39 student to join its classes, obviously from parents disillusioned by the reality of the Route 39 experiment.

Local educationalists were more than bemused by the claims made by Route 39 within their application document prior to their approval to proceed. Among these were the lauded claims that they would not permanently exclude any student, which was a key example of Route 39’s ‘Definitions of Success’.  They also proclaimed that their absence target (5%) would be “significantly below the national and local values due to initial start up status of the school and implementation of engage, respect and aspire.”

Well, reality tells a different story. Although crowing to the EFA that “Our clear aspiration is that there will (be) zero permanent exclusions and temporary exclusions will be less than 2%”, within the first year, Route 39 had permanently excluded its first pupil.

Attendance rates do not appear to be faring much better, with Route 39’s principal reporting to the academy trust governors in October 2014 that absences were running at 5.9%, going on to inform them that one pupil on the roll had not bothered turning up at all! By way of comparison, the % total absence for Secondary Schools (excluding free schools) across the whole of Devon is 4.9%.

While it is far too soon to begin to assess the actual impact of the educational provision achieved at Route 39 against the almost messianic claims touted within their application manifesto, the word on the street is that once again, the cold reality of delivery is somewhat different to the ‘fairytale fantasy’ contained within the 241 pages of the Route 39 application.

Only time will tell, of course, but whatever the outcome of the appeal made to the Planning Inspectorate over the planning application for the school, in the interests of transparency and accountability we shall continue to scrutinise Route 39’s performance and to hold them to account for the huge amounts of public money that they are spending. This is the very least that we can do for all the thousands of other children in the Torridge area that are being disproportionately denied access to this vital educational funding.

Blowing our trumpet for local secondary schools

Having recently visited Holsworthy Community College for the day as part of my Governing Body duties, I came away uplifted by the variety and diversity of activities undertaken and enjoyed by the students at our college. This also left me wondering if people in our part of North West Devon actually appreciate how good our local secondary schools really are?

With other places constantly bigging themselves up in the local media and online to justify their existence, seemingly for even the most prosaic activities (pickle making being a recent example!), it would not be surprising that some may be led to believe that the children in our existing secondary schools don’t get involved in their own projects or participate in extra-curricular activities, sports and cultural events.

That misconception, of course, could not be further from the truth.

So, by way of ‘blowing our own trumpet’ for once, I have taken a quick trawl through the websites and parents newsletters from our local secondary schools and colleges, just to see what our kids are actually getting up to, apart from all the studying that they do!

What I discovered was awesome! Unsurprisingly, our children actually do LOADS of GREAT STUFF!

From raising money for leukemia research to participation in county sports events, winning business innovation awards to international exchange visits, children within our local, existing secondary schools are every bit, if not even more; engaged, inspired, motivated, competitive and concerned as those from any other place.

Just take a quick look at the Enrichment and Intervention video on the Great Torrington School website to see how their children get involved in everything from Science Club to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. GCSE Geography students took part in an Urban Fieldwork trip to Plymouth, while other pupils enjoyed a night away, staying at the Met Office in Exeter!

At Holsworthy Community College, Year 9 students recently participated in and won the Devon and Cornwall Business Council Enterprise Day Challenge – Their rewards for winning the event were fantastic. Co-sponsors of the event, Hillside Foods (http://www.devonhampers.com/hillside-foods) offered the students the opportunity to visit the marketing department and see how they had developed into a local success story. The other prize was a full day down at the Virtual Jet Centre in Exeter where they get to fly a Boeing 747 simulator, as if they were doing pilot training. (www.virtualjetcentre.co.uk). Other students at the college have raised over £1260.00 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and Bristol Royal Childrens Hospital. Amazing stuff!

Meanwhile, over at Bideford College, students have enjoyed success in sports competitions, with a particularly successful Netball season – the Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 teams all winning their age groups in the North Devon Netball League. And Expressive Arts is also an area where Bideford College shines – two of their pupils, Amelia Dennis (Year 7) and Charlotte McLean (Year 12) were Music winners at the North Devon Arts Festival. Amelia, who plays the euphonium and violin, competed in a number of events and received some wonderful comments by the adjudicator. As well as winning her brass section, she was also the recipient of the Natwest Shield for Performance. Charlotte, who plays the violin and the flute, completed in two separate events and was awarded the Gunderson Whitehead Cup for outstanding Woodwind Solo. Perhaps glittering muscial careers beckon for both these talented young ladies.

And finally, at Budehaven, catering students from the school participated in the opening ceremony in the Bude for Food Festival. The students assisted chef Fran Parody-Candea in the first cookery demonstration preparing and cooking paella in front of a large audience. 70 Budehaven students took part alongside well over 100 students from local primary schools – Bude Juniors, Stratton, Whitstone, Jacobstow and Marhamchurch in the schools Annual Dance Performance. Entitled ‘Metamorphosis’,  the 20 dances explored aspects of change and evolution. Ranging from a kaleidoscope of butterflies, to a moving piece on World War 1, from the solar system with sparkling hoops to Thriller, to name but a few, the programme presented a varied and diverse interpretation of the theme.

So you see, it’s not just small numbers of children in extra-generously funded academies and free schools that get to do news-worthy activities! Through our existing local secondary schools, our children are actively involved in these sorts of ventures every single day and they enjoy it immensely!

Route 39: DfE threatens closure of two North Devon secondary schools

In view of the Torridge District Council Planning Committee discussions being held today pertaining to the planning application for the Route 39 Free School, you may be interested to see the Impact Assessment for the Route 39 Academy Free School, recently released by the Department for Education.

The Department for Education report has only recently been made public, at a time when Route 39 Academy had already expected to have been granted permission to proceed with the construction of its 700 place school at Steart Farm, Bucks Cross. Route 39 would prefer not to have had this information made public, given their repeated claims to support sustainability of rural communities and the catastrophic effect that this report will have on our local secondary school provision and the pupils, teachers and parents that rely on these schools.

This report clearly shows that both Holsworthy Community College and Great Torrington School are at risk of closure due to a reduction in financial viability in the event that the Route 39 Academy Free School is granted permission to open.

Under Threat of Closure Due to Route 39!

Supporters of both Holsworthy and Great Torrington secondary schools, along with the Principals of Bideford College, Braunton Academy, Budehaven School and other local LEA and independent schools have consistently argued that there is no sustainable demand for a fifth secondary school within the proposed Route 39 Academy catchment, a fact that has been borne out by the massive under-subscription of children to the proposed new free school.

Meanwhile, the DfE have finally confirmed that there is currently an excess capacity of over 1100 secondary school places within the TDC area, with more than 665 surplus places within the direct catchment of Route 39 and little, if any perceived future demand, as numbers of secondary school age children within the Torridge area continue to fall in future years. The report clearly states that all the existing local secondary schools were undersubscribed in 2011/12 when the impact assessment was conducted, a situation that has continued in 2012/13 and 2013/14 and a fact that the trustees of Route 39 have continually chosen to ignore.

The impact assessment is also fundamentally flawed as it seeks to downplay the real impact of this proposed new free school by drawing direct comparisons between Holsworthy Community College and Braunton Academy, based simply on a distance calculation ‘as the crow flies’!

The DfE also need a lesson in geography, as anyone living in North Devon will be aware that in order to reach Braunton from Bucks Cross, one needs to cross both the Rivers Torridge and Taw, via Barnstaple. This is certainly not a distance of 11.3 miles as the DfE state (the distance is in fact 21.2 miles), and quite obviously, as the report states, the consequential impact on Holsworthy Community College of opening another 700 space free school in its immediate vicinity will be significantly greater than any impact on Braunton Academy.

Parents opting to send their children to Route 39 will inevitably deplete the cohorts of students attending existing local secondary schools, As these school rolls decline and as this report implicitly suggests, our local secondary schools may be forced to make additional teachers and support staff redundant and ultimately to close.

Another local secondary school and 6th form college, Budehaven, has been completely omitted from the impact assessment, presumably because it is just across the county border, and yet Budehaven is only 17.5 miles from Bucks Cross and will also suffer significant financial impact from a reduction in pupils should Route 39 be allowed to proceed.

The DfE impact assessment concludes for both Great Torrington School and Holsworthy Community College that “The Free School may affect the long term financial viability of the school.”

As each existing local secondary school sits at the very heart of its community, they are particularly important in our small towns, where they act as a focal point for our rural sustainability.  We simply must not and cannot allow our communities to live under the threat of closure of our local secondary schools in this way.

Whatever happens today, I would strongly urge all parents, particularly those with children at Holsworthy and Great Torrington Schools, to read this report, consider the impact on your family and your children of your local secondary school closing and demand that your local Councillors protect our rural towns and our children’s’ education by immediately opposing this unwarranted, ill-conceived and expensive free school experiment.

DfE Impact Assessment – Route 39 Free School

Route 39 – It’s not too late to change your mind!

One day on from Route 39 Academy Trusts shambolic showing at the Torridge District Council Planning Committee meeting and now we begin to see how Route 39 and their supporters have chosen to react to the rejection of their ‘nonsense’ free school (as it was described in the meeting).

Which direction now for Route 39?

Some supporters of Route 39 are tossing around accusations and bad-mouthing not only those that opposed their plans but also the Head Teacher of Holsworthy Community College, whose statement to the Council contained more truths in 3 minutes than Route 39 have been able to deliver in over 18 months!

The official line stated by Route 39 in their presentation to the planners yesterday was that 777 responses had been received to their so-called community consultation, implying that these were all in support of their scheme, but it now transpires (see below) that this number included all those responses that OBJECTED to their proposal. Why didn’t they say that at the time?

“Route 39 Academy Dear XXXX  777 responses in total, for and against. The percentages given do not imply all parents or all teachers, but those who responded to our consultation. We know that local schools were encouraging their staff to respond and 100 did.“

They have also now claimed (unverified) that 72% of teachers in local area schools support their plans, from 100 responses. They don’t say who (primary or secondary teaching staff) was asked, when they were asked and what exactly they were asked. I guess from their results we can only assume that none of the teachers invited to respond were from any of the Secondary Schools that were likely to be affected (as I said before, ours weren’t approached), as of course, this might have skewed Route 39’s percentages in a rather different way.

Having been resoundingly humiliated in the council chamber, Route 39’s supporters are now calling ‘foul’ on just about everything they can, claiming that the opposition has lobbied councillors (like Route 39 hasn’t), that objectors have been rude to them (which is exactly how the opposition felt when Route 39 refused to discuss their valid concerns in public) and amazingly they are also complaining that teaching staff have been encouraged to oppose their plans! You really can’t have it both ways Route 39!

Hardly gracious in defeat, Route 39 is now littering their website with empty reassurances blatant misinformation, and a re-hash of all the old chestnuts around choice, population and unquantifiable future achievement in a frenzied attempt to prevent a mass migration of concerned parents back to the established local secondary schools.

They say they have the public’s support, but this is based on the already discredited consultation process that Route 39 continues to espouse like a drunkard on a street corner. They say they have the Planning Officer’s recommendation of approval, but he’s now left and they didn’t get the critical support of the Highways Department. They say they have the support of Devon County Council, but crucially not the District or Parish Councils, who know the local area intimately and represent the interests of its people.  They do have the full backing of the Department for Education, of course, because the DfE don’t care what happens to all the other children in the area, they just want as many free schools as they can get, regardless of the impact on other schools, the actual need or the final quality of education provided.

Route 39 are ultimately blaming their demise on ‘the verdict of a small number of councillors’ but actually 62.5% of the vote was against them! This is not small, it’s a landslide!

If I were a parent that had signed my child up to start at Route 39 in September, I would be seriously worried and reconsidering my options right now. The chances are that although Route 39 will attempt to appeal and overturn this decision, this may take months, by which time the new school year will have started and I’d then be desperately looking for somewhere for my child to begin school.

It’s still not too late to change your mind and to get your child into one of the outstanding (my definition, not Ofsteds or Route 39’s) established local secondary schools here in North West Devon – it might just be the best decision that you have ever taken for your child!

Hurrah for Common Sense!

Today, bravery, democracy and common sense truly prevailed and I would like to send a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ on behalf of myself, my school governing body and all the secondary school children of the area, to the members of Torridge District Councils Planning Committee, who this morning overwhelmingly rejected the application by Route 39 Academy Trust to temporarily site a completely unwarranted ‘free’ school at a theme park here in North Devon.

The good people objecting against this quite obscene waste of educational funds (tax payers money) are just local residents, concerned parents and a few dedicated educationalists, who have come together in a common cause to resist what has plainly been a less than subtle attempt by a very small group of clearly misguided, misinformed and ultimately self-serving individuals to subvert the democratic and socially responsible process of public consultation that we revere in this country.

Let’s not beat about the bush – Route 39 thought that they had this whole thing stitched up from the start! The have thrown thousands of pounds of taxpayers money at advisers, P.R. specialists and pseudo-political / commercial organisations, in a vain attempt to get what they want for their own needs – a new secondary school, right on their own doorstep for their own small clique of children, which they can then play at running, while thousands of local children lose their teachers, have to be taught in larger class groups and are restricted in the breadth of subjects that they can then study at GCSE level.

And Route 39’s arrogance doesn’t end there – in today’s planning meeting, a self-elected chair of governors, in trying to justify the schools viability, openly stated that they had ‘ran a community consultation and received 777 responses’. Route 39 didn’t tell the councillors how this so-called ‘consultation’ had been conducted, by offering free entry to the theme park to anyone that signed up ‘to find out more about Route 39’, or that the group had assiduously avoided any kind of public debate or independent consultation in order to present a false view of public demand and support. Furthermore, the speaker than went on to claim that ‘more staff at local schools supported Route 39 than opposed it’ – this is both disingenuous and rather rich considering that they have never even approached our secondary school teachers in order to ascertain whether the teaching staff support their concept or not!

According to reports, supporters of Route 39 in the public gallery, decked out in their lovely t-shirts emblazoned with the school motto ‘Engage-Respect-Aspire’ (again probably paid for with cash that should have been spent on educating children) were understandably shocked (after all it was a ‘done deal’, wasn’t it?) upset and quite hostile once the planning decision had been taken – not much respect on display then!

Conversely, and contrary to how the ‘Supporters of Route 39’ have painted them across the social media, the objectors behaved with quiet dignity, decorum and respect throughout the proceedings. Perhaps parents thinking of sending their impressionable little ones to Route 39 might like to ponder on this ‘life lesson’.

Route 39 are now telling their supporters that ‘Plan B’ has gone into effect. They have not said what ‘Plan B’ is, but don’t worry, everything will be absolutely fine and, according to their expensive website, “Our school WILL OPEN in September 2013”, in fact they are EMPHATIC about this. Ahem, haven’t you forgotten that inconvenient little thing called planning consent?

Now far be it from me to burst anyone’s ‘free school balloon’, but isn’t it about time that Route 39, its eclectic band of supporters and those individuals in government responsible for education got ‘real’ and started to understand that this whole fantasy/pantomime of theirs is actually harming the education of school children in our area. For me, that is truly the worst sin of all!

It’s a tough job…but someone has to do it!

It has been fascinating to be involved in the work to help our local secondary schools in the North Devon area deal with the autocratic ideological diktats of our centralised government and it’s insidious undermining of local children’s education through funding cuts right here in our rural backyard.

Through its flawed policy of ‘parent driven’ free schools and academies, such as the proposed Route 39 school which is currently being foisted upon us all by a group of perhaps well meaning, but clearly misinformed, greedy, self-centred and generally naive people that appear to care more about their own children than they do about anybody else’s, the government has set local communities, teachers and parents all across the country against one another in a manner more akin to civil war!

What is so shocking is that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the people that support this proposed free school actually seem to believe all the propagandist nonsense that they and the government constantly spout and simply will not engage in any kind of public debate or discussion with anybody expressing a contrary view – from the beginning their attitude has been ‘we want this – it is for us and our children – the government are giving us all this money, which is great, so we can do what we want – we simply don’t care how it affects you or your children – you are ignorant for not seeing what we see – you should be with us, rather than with those other oiks sending their children to the local secondary schools – we are much better than they are!’.

What’s even worse is that as we come to learn more about how Route 39 and this government intend to drive this proposal through, despite the overwhelming number of objections lodged by local people opposed to this ridiculous scheme, we begin to see how the cards are stacked against anyone that dares to question, challenge or god forbid, oppose what these people are so selfishly trying to do.

Route 39 have received many hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Department of Education to spend on consultants, legal experts, PR managers and other lobbyists to guide and assist them along the way to ‘fulfilling their dream’. These organisations know the lay of the land; they have (for a nice fat fee) helped Route 39 and many other free school applicants write their prospectus’, they have guided the staff interview processes, they have set out the sale pitch for prospective parents, they have manipulated the ‘evidence gathering’ process (calling it consultation, when it quite obviously is nothing of the kind), they have coached Route 39 in dealing with ‘disruptive local elements that may object to the end-game’ (ignore them and they might go away seems to be the advice to heed) and they have shown them how to influence, persuade and otherwise lobby our locally employed planning officials and democratically elected district representatives. In short, they loaded the dice heavily in their favour and spun their stories faster than Alastair Campbell on Red Bull!

The ‘No to Route 39’ group, on the other hand, has no bucket-full of tax-payers cash to dip into, no steely eyed planning consultants to show them how to ‘present the right things to the planning committee’, no ‘Eli Gold‘ style campaign manager to get the story ‘on message’ or to tell them what to say to appeal to the ‘core demographic’ – they simply understand what the fundamental difference is between right and wrong and are not afraid of standing up in public and saying how they feel. They want what is best for ALL the children in North Devon, not just what is best for a small cadre of the privileged minority!

David Cameron came into this coalition government preaching the ideals of localism and the ‘big society’, stating, if I recall correctly, that people in local areas should be empowered to make the right decisions for their local communities ‘at large’ and that each of us, as individuals, should essentially ‘do our bit’ to support our local institutions at ‘grass roots’ level.

I thought when I became a parent governor at a rural North Devon secondary school that this was what I would be doing – giving freely of my time, interest and experience in order to ‘put something back’ into my local community. For me, helping to provide the school with essential support and oversight, assuming the role of a ‘critical friend’ and acting as a representative and voice of all the parents whose children attended the school seemed like the right thing to do. Little did I realise that I was about to be pitched into the front line of educational armageddon! It is certainly a tough job… but someone has to do it!

I truly hope that at the upcoming planning committee meeting, that our local district Councillors will do the right and just thing; taking account of the strong and sincerely held feelings of hundreds of local residents, educationalists and concerned parents that are rightfully fearful of the consequential impact that this free school proposal will have on the educational prospects of the 4500 children currently being taught in our local secondary schools. Our Councillors have a duty to do what is in the best interests of the MAJORITY of our young people, which is quite obviously not to approve a multi-million £, tax-payer funded educational experiment that will in the short to medium term only benefit the 55 children of the proposers and their like-minded friends!

Watch this space!

The Mysterious Case of the Surplus School Places!

Recent research conducted by the National Union of Teachers has examined the correlation between Free Schools in their local authority locations and the availability or otherwise of both primary and secondary school places in each of the Free Schools immediate catchment areas.

The trustees for the proposed Route 39 Academy at Bucks Cross, North Devon have consistently justified their proposed existence based upon their view that there either is; or there shortly will be, a profound scarcity of secondary school places in the local catchment and thus they are really doing us all a favour by building a £4 million school for 700 children on our doorsteps! It is indeed a mystery as to why we haven’t reached the same conclusions ourselves!

Surprise, surprise – the latest research by the N.U.T reveals a rather different picture – within the Route 39 catchment, there will actually be an 11.5% surplus of secondary school places by 2016/17, and a 4.9% surplus of primary school places! We did tell them, but they didn’t want to listen!

My, oh my, how our friends at Route 39 must have chuckled when they submitted their proposals to the Secretary of State for Education.

So, what we discover here is yet another example of Route 39’s ‘factual inaccuracies’! They must think we were all born yesterday (though if we were, they’d probably be claiming we were already signed up as Year 7’s for September 2024!)

See the research at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/pr60a-2013_Table_for_Primary_School_Shortages.doc

It’s not just what is said, it’s what’s not said!

Browsing through the Route 39 website recently , I was interested to see the following ‘team member’ profile listed:

Gus Grimshaw
Lives in Hartland. He was head teacher at the Bridge Learning Campus, the first all-through school in Bristol. Gus has over forty years experience in education, including nearly thirty years as a head teacher. He has first-hand experience working with Partnerships for Schools in the re-building of a school in one of the most deprived areas of Bristol.

(http://www.route39.org.uk/about-route-39)

As a parent reading this, you might very reasonably jump to the conclusion (as the trustees obviously wish) that with a person of such esteemed experience guiding and directing the Route 39 Academy as a ‘team member’, the standards of education and academic achievement being promised by the proposed Free School would easily be attained, and that your child would most certainly be guaranteed a glittering and successful future.

With this in mind, I thought it might be useful to investigate a little further in order to see what sort of academic results Mr Grimshaw had actually managed to achieve during his tenure at the Bridge Learning Campus.

A quick review of the Department for Educations ‘Schools Performance’ data for the Bridge Learning Campus reveals the following achievements:

Year on year comparisons

Percentage achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs	2009	2010	2011	2012
School	37%	34%	40%	45%
LA	40.2%	46.2%	50.2%	51.6%
England – All Schools	49.8%	53.5%	59%	59.4%

http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=109286

Now to be fair, Mr. Grimshaw apparently left the school in 2011, so he probably was not responsible for the 2011 and 2012 results. Nonetheless, I don’t think Ofsted would describe 2009 and 2010’s results as exactly ‘outstanding’!

By way of comparison for parents, I also took a look at the same data covering the same period of time for some of the local secondary schools. This is Holsworthy Community Colleges results for the same period:

Year on year comparisons

Percentage achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs	2009	2010	2011	2012
School	50%	54%	59%	57%
LA	51.8%	54.7%	58.4%	58.5%
England – All Schools	49.8%	53.5%	59%	59.4%

http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=113511

And here are Budehavens results:

Year on year comparisons

Percentage achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs	2009	2010	2011	2012
School	50%	58%	59%	59%
LA	48.9%	53.8%	55%	55.4%
England – All Schools	49.8%	53.5%	59%	59.4%

http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=112045

And also Bideford Colleges:

Year on year comparisons

Percentage achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs	2009	2010	2011	2012
School	43%	36%	49%	52%
LA	51.8%	54.7%	58.4%	58.5%
England – All Schools	49.8%	53.5%	59%	59.4%

http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=113516

According to the Department for Education, all of the local secondary schools closest to where Route 39 propose to site their new school have achieved better results, more consistently, than the school that Mr. Grimshaw was previously directly responsible for.

Route 39 trustees have implicitly criticised the academic performance of local secondary schools and made some quite grandiose claims as to the levels of academic achievement that their school would deliver in the future, driven in large part by the vision and wealth of talent of their highly experienced ‘team’! They state on their website “We have set ourselves ambitious targets to exceed the current local, county and national average results of 5+ A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths by over 10% including children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This will make the school one of the top 25% performing schools in the country.” Laudable though arguably unrealistic claims, especially if it is the board of trustees providing the academic guidance and direction.

The above performance information may be an inconvenient truth for Route 39 as the facts do speak for themselves. As usual, it takes just a few minutes and a little web searching to verify what the Route 39 trustees have said, and perhaps more importantly, what they have NOT said!

I have no personal opinion at all on Mr. Grimshaw’s ability as a former Head Teacher, or what he may or may not be able to bring to Route 39 as a member of their ‘team’. I do feel however that if Route 39 wish to extol the virtues of their team members experience in such a blatant manner and in so doing, imply to prospective parents that such members advice and direction will ultimately benefit their children, parents also ought to be aware of what the team members actual achievements (according to the Department of Education), particularly in respect to teaching and learning such as at Bridge Learning Campus, were and how they compare with what is being delivered today within our local secondary schools.