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.

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!

Route 39: Engagement, but not as we know it!

Route 39 had previously requested to give a presentation of their plans and progress at last nights meeting of Woolsery Parish Council. That was of course until they learned that the Parish Council had invited the ‘No to Route 39‘ group to also meet with the local councillors to present their view of the situation.

Route 39 – disappearing faster than a rat up a drainpipe!

Route 39 did a prompt ‘volte face’ and disappeared faster than the proverbial rat up a drainpipe, leaving the Chairman of the Parish Council to read a less than engaging statement to the 75 gathered residents eager to hear both sides and to express their own views, incidentally none of whom had required the inducement of a free ticket to a theme park in order to turn up!

What was quite obvious from this charade was that Route 39 have absolutely no intention of entering into any serious public debate, consultation or examination of their proposals, with either affected local residents, secondary school educationalists or concerned parents.

Following the public meeting, the Woolsery Parish Council moved onto its normal business, which included voting on the application by Route 39 for the provision of planning permission for its 3 year temporary accommodation at (yes, you’ve guessed it) the Milky Way theme park!

Needless to say, with only one abstention for a declared interest, the Parish Council voted unanimously to object to the Route 39 proposal – it’s heartening to see common sense prevail at grass roots political level!

You can read the full details of the meeting and see the statements made by both sides at the excellent Bude and Beyond website: http://budeandbeyond.co.uk/free-school-the-public-meeting/