Woolston to close

[mummy]

Report is a sham the whole consultation was a joke and to close a high school in the heart of a huge community is unthinkable. Lets hope the council has more sense than the LEA

[vic]

Er, the Council is the LEA

[observer]

These decisions are a lose -lose situation for the Council. Presumably, the disgruntled parents will now be voting against the incumbent majority Party on the Council, and the game of political musical chairs will continue? :confused:

[mummy]

Lea is part of the council, yes I do know that. I also know it goes beyond the LEA now to be approved.

Yes Observer as a parent of a pupil at Woolston I know I will be fighting to the very end. Plenty of 6th form provisions in warrington so the option of 4small schools should have been the one they stuck with.

[mummy]

Just one other thing what about the parents who live at the top end of Manchester Road are they to make their kids walk to Padgate now!!!

[mummy]

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveWoolstonHigh/

 

 

Please help

[Legion]

yet another blow, for warrington schools.

 

[ 09.09.2007, 08:20: Message edited by: legion ]

[Paul Kennedy]

The solution is of course for those Warringtonians of child producing age, to have...or to have had, more children.

[mummy]

No the simple answer would be to let the local schools concentrate on 11-16 and the rest go to the 6th form colleges. Instead they decide to get rid of a school in the middle of a community then they will build new houses and the kids will have no where to go to school.

[Paul Kennedy]

Observer, I sense the incumbent majority party will shift the "blame" to the portfolio holder....who just happens to be of a different party and who ended up with the poison challice. If that proves to be the case, it is a great pity as she is very dedicated to her role and is, I would suggest, only doing what has to be done and indeed what maybe should have been done sometime ago by the previous administration. I might be wrong, but that is my contribution to the debate....for what it is worth.

 

On a related topic, parents are now being asked to complete the form for their children's transfer to secondary schools. Procedure has now changed in light of changes to the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and the Schools Admissions Code of Practice 2007.

[Paul Kennedy]

Originally posted by legion:

yet another blow, for warrington schools.

My understanding is that relative to other similar areas, Warrington does have good schools and a better than average LEA. Although I do accept that living in Appleton, maybe my judgement is subjective.

[Agamemnon1]

Mummy,

 

I was a former pupil at Woolston Secondary Modern School, Many of the kids who walked or cycled to school came from as far afield as Penketh and Cadishead and the farms off the moss. Those of my mates who went to grammer school had to travel to Widnes so im not impressed by a stroll from the upper reaches of Manchester Rd.

[observer]

As I've suggested many times; (with competant political management that can achieve value for money), you could have "rolls royce" systems of service provision. EG; Education:- smaller schools, with smaller catchments = smaller class sizes, less distance to travel etc.

 

[ 09.09.2007, 15:16: Message edited by: observer ]

[mummy]

Originally posted by Agamemnon:

Mummy,

 

I was a former pupil at Woolston Secondary Modern School, Many of the kids who walked or cycled to school came from as far afield as Penketh and Cadishead and the farms off the moss. Those of my mates who went to grammer school had to travel to Widnes so im not impressed by a stroll from the upper reaches of Manchester Rd.

Im guessing that in those days it was safe to walk and cycle to school, unfortunatly its a different matter today.

[Legion]

I don't think its a question of paying higher taxes, its spending the taxes we already pay on things we "the public" want.

 

How can it require higher taxes, when thanks to the current government we pay more taxes now than EVER before (by percentage of earnings), fair enough tony did well to hide these taxes under other names, but if 40 years ago the NHS was the envy of the world, we had local schools everywhere, somehow the lower taxes then seemd to manage very well.

 

then again we wasnt fighting an unwanted war and ministers expense accounts didnt include lovers train journeys, and we wasnt trying to house the rest of the world etc..

[observer]

Fair points Leg; we probably are paying more taxes now, especially the lower income groups, and there stealth nature means we probably don't realise it. But then you have to ask, how/on what is it all being spent, and is it being spent effectively/efficiently? Tinkering with Faith Accadamies? - no improvements. The list is endless - we've had 10 years of pouring money down the drain of Politically Correct theory.

[Gary]

Just to point out it is a recommendation at this stage - although if it is being recommended for closure it doesn't look too promising.

[mummy]

It aint over till that fat lady sings!!!!!!

[Paul Kennedy]

This day and age, shouldn't it be "obese lady"

 

But you are of course right, but the fact is one of the schools in question will be closed.

[vic]

Sorry to bring bad tidings to Mummy but the Council (i.e. the Executive) does have the final say. School Organisation Committees, which replaced appeals to the Secretary of State, were abolished in May, so the local authority is now judge and jury. If the Executive goes with the recommendation, it is unlikely that the statutory consultations would produce any different information to prompt a different conclusion.

 

Increased tax to pay for small schools is a nice idea, but would people other than in Woolston vote for paying more tax to keep open a school in Woolston? (Would people in Woolston pay? - seeing the problem is falling numbers because we have an ageing population.) In any case, the money to keep both schools open would come from other schools in Warrington (the education budget is now ring-fenced). That's why the Schools Forum voted 2 to 1 for closing one of the schools.

 

As the report says, "School Funding is determined in the main by pupil numbers and is spent mainly on staffing. In order to maintain two small schools a subsidy would be needed for both schools to be able to offer the full curriculum. This subsidy would be taken from the monies available to finance all Warrington secondary schools affecting all children and young people of secondary age. The Schools Forum is clear in its response to the consultation that it feels the subsidy required to retain four schools in Central and Eastern Warrington represents poor value for money. The analysis undertaken on finance and value for money leads the Authority to conclude that three schools would provide best value."

 

[ 10.09.2007, 23:09: Message edited by: Vic ]

[observer]

Meanwhile, this Government is pursuing a policy of increasing division within our society, by supporting Faith Schools.

[mummy]

Originally posted by Vic:

Sorry to bring bad tidings to Mummy but the Council (i.e. the Executive) does have the final say. School Organisation Committees, which replaced appeals to the Secretary of State, were abolished in May, so the local authority is now judge and jury. If the Executive goes with the recommendation, it is unlikely that the statutory consultations would produce any different information to prompt a different conclusion.

 

Increased tax to pay for small schools is a nice idea, but would people other than in Woolston vote for paying more tax to keep open a school in Woolston? (Would people in Woolston pay? - seeing the problem is falling numbers because we have an ageing population.) In any case, the money to keep both schools open would come from other schools in Warrington (the education budget is now ring-fenced). That's why the Schools Forum voted 2 to 1 for closing one of the schools.

 

As the report says, "School Funding is determined in the main by pupil numbers and is spent mainly on staffing. In order to maintain two small schools a subsidy would be needed for both schools to be able to offer the full curriculum. This subsidy would be taken from the monies available to finance all Warrington secondary schools affecting all children and young people of secondary age. The Schools Forum is clear in its response to the consultation that it feels the subsidy required to retain four schools in Central and Eastern Warrington represents poor value for money. The analysis undertaken on finance and value for money leads the Authority to conclude that three schools would provide best value."

Total and final decision will not be made till Feb 2008 downing street petetion is closing date August 2008 so No final decision will be made, this week Yr6 pupils are still viewing Woolston as their High school its carry on as normal.

[Gary]

Full story now on the news page

http://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/news/tuesday.html

[Gary]

115 signed the online petition - have you?

[Legion]

I've signed,

 

it seems pretty myopic to close a school due to falling numbers in pupils, seems to me at some point the figures will rise also, are they going to knock the "yet to come housing estate" down and rebuild a school when they do.

 

one of the reasons given for failing schools is increased class size, maybe this temporary reduction in pupils could be an opertunity for woolston to have a more intimate relationship with its pupils, which will obviously result in a better quality education.