Suffolk Cabinet approve Thurston proposal and other school news

Not so long ago blogging about schools in Suffolk would have been a bit boring. Nothing much changed. Maybe a new Head arrived or a school got an outstanding Ofsted or another went into Special Measures but by and large things stayed the same. A bit boring perhaps but it was at least stable. Now there is so much news I could actually write about four blog posts just with news form the last day or so.

Thurston Partnership
Yesterday Suffolk County Council's cabinet unanimously backed a resolution to press ahead with the Thurston partnership proposals. Graham Newman, Cabinet member for Education asked his fellow Cabinet members to put their trust in a proposal backed by 18 Headteachers and his colleagues backed him by deciding to publish the relevant statutory notices and continue the process to move to two tier in Thurston area.

Local Councillor Joanna Spicer was not so keen claiming news about the proposed Ixworth Free School would be more "exciting". Well maybe for her. But the local Primary Schools in the area can now all get on with planning to take an extra two years worth of children. This is maybe not very exciting or headline grabbing but for the schools involved, the children and local communities this is an important decision.

The Thurston proposal also showed what can be achieved by local schools working together in partnership.

Stowmarket
The Cabinet then went to to approve £5.5million in funding to develop plans for the transition to two tier in the Stowmarket area. This follows the last  minute change of heart by the Department for Education on bids for academy status from the Middle Schools in that area.

This is another welcome move by Suffolk County Council who deserve credit for trying to see through the move to two tier despite the difficult circumstances caused in no small part by Government policy. The Council have engaged with the Government and persuaded them to change their minds and then gone on to back transition plans.

Ixworth Free School
This all seems to have gone very quiet but there were suggestions at Cabinet that there would be some "exciting" news soon. There had been some speculation about who would actually run the school with the proposers appearing to effectively rule out bringing in a private company as has happened at Brandon. However it has now emerged that the proposers have been in discussion with the Seckford Foundation who run the fee paying Woodbridge School.

If indeed Seckford are drafted in to run the school this will be the fourth free school bid they will be making in Suffolk. And none of these schools are actually open yet. I am a little surprised that the Seckford Foundation have not opened one school and then gained some more experience before bidding for at least two others.

Brandon Free School
Before Christmas SABRES (Save Beckland School) Education announced the award of a contract to Profit making Swedish firm IES. It has now emerged that the school is going to be called "IES Breckland". I must say I find this a little strange as IES have not sponsored this school but they have been awarded a contract to run it for a period of time. If another company wins the contract when it ends presumably the school would be re-named and a bit ilke the trains I commute to work in they would be re-branded. I am not sure this is a healthy thing for a school.

It is not helpful that the SABRES website also contains some inaccurate information when answering questions from parents about the costs of running the school. They state:

Keep in mind that, when money comes from Government per head of child, county councils keep approx 15% before it is passed onto schools - this will no longer be the case. The management fee will certainly be much less than 10%.

Now the problem with keeping this in mind is that it isn't accurate. Suffolk County Council keep 8% which is hardly approx 15%. By their own admission it looks like they are actually paying IES more to run the School than the supposedly high overheads of the County Council. Now it is true that Suffolk has a particularly low top slice but that is hardly the point as Breckland school is in Suffolk! So much for saving money. It does not surprise me that this is costing more as IES needs to return a profit for its Swedish owners.

Beccles Free School
Last night the Seckford Foundation who propose opening a free school in Beccles held an open meeting. There is an interesting report of the meeting in the EDP. Interestingly the meeting was Chaired by independent adjudicator Rob Cawley from Cambridge Education, who have been employed by the Department for Education to see if the bid is viable.

At the end of the meeting it was noted that:

There were 36 people in support, 26 against and 16 undecided on the free school.

This hardly seems evidence of overwhelming demand.

Seckford have already had to back down from their plans to open on the former Middle School site in 2012 as the building had already been promised to (and is needed by) Sir John Leman High. I hope that the DfE will look again at this proposal and seriously reflect on the viability of two schools in Beccles.

The Foundation themselves don't appear to be too sure that there are enough children to support two schools. They have identical template websites for their free school bids but it is notable that the Stoke by Nayland school site goes into considerable detail to answer the question Are there enough children in the area to support Stoke by Nayland Free School? But on a pretty much identical page on the Beccles Free School Site  the question is missing altogether. Clearly this isn't because nobody has asked it.

Conclusion
And that is about it! Well for today. I used to think education was a bit boring in Suffolk. Not these days. And however exciting any ideas may be I think schools need more stability and part of me longs for the more boring days to return!

The Beccles Free School Battle

Jeremy Rowe,
Head of Sir John Leman High Beccles

This blog has already reported the situation in Beccles, Suffolk a small market town of 9000 with a successful secondary school Sir John Leman High School. The Seckford Foundation that run the independent Woodbridge School are proposing to open a free school in the town somewhat unsurprisingly on the site of the Middle School that is due to close.

Now this is precisely the kind of thing that Gove is trying to encourage. Independent schools coming in to run either free schools or academies. The DfE seemed so keen to approve the school that made a massive logistical error. Sir John Leman had already been promised the Beccles Middle Site to house the expanded numbers it will have from September when it begins to take Year 7 and 8 children for the first time. Then the DfE promised the same building to the Free School.

This prompted Sir John Leman's Head Jeremy Rowe to say:

"So where do I put my new intake of students? I have nowhere to put them without that building, which was promised to me two years ago. I may as well drop them off at the Department for Education and let them deal with it."

Jeremy Rowe however did not give up. He began to fight the proposal on all fronts. Talking to the media, arguing with Gove's "special advisor" Sam Freedman on Twitter basically doing everything he could to highlight the ridiculous situation.

This week he achieved a victory of sorts. The Seckford Foundation announced that the Free School would open at first at the site of Carlton Colville Primary School (which is also closing as part of the school reorganisation). It would also be half the original planned size. In 2014 it would then move to the Middle School site.

But Jeremy Rowe is fighting on. Determined to see the free school off altogether. He has announced on his twitter feed:

And this Tuesday looks to be the next stage of the battle with an open public consultation meeting at 7pm in Hungate Church Hall, Beccles. The consultation document from the Seckford foundation is available on their website.

The document makes interesting reading not least in the way it completely understates the impact of the free school on Sir John Leman High School. In fact it only mentions Sir John Leman in the consultation document once and that is only mentioning it vacating the Middle School site. Under impact on other schools the document says:

Impact on Existing Secondary Schools

The proposed School is likely to result in fewer students for existing secondary schools in Suffolk, with consequential funding implications

Both the proposed School and other secondary schools will have the potential to mutually benefit from sharing resources.

In reality there are real concerns about the sustainability of two secondary schools in Beccles. It may be that the impact is that Sir John Leman becomes unviable in the longer term. Or that the Free School does. The real question is can the town support two secondary schools? This is not even mentioned in the consultation.

The consultation document then goes on to make two interesting claims:

In the ways described in this document, the School will provide a first class education for eleven to sixteen year olds whose parents want the choice of a school with a more traditional curriculum and higher GCSE outcomes than offered by current providers. 

Consistent dissatisfaction with existing provision, and a strong demand for choice of schooling emerged from the Trust’s engagement with parents. (my emphasis)

So the Seckford Foundation are claiming a school that isn't even open yet will have higher GCSE outcomes. Of course if this happens it might just be a reflection of its admissions. It also claims "consistent dissatisfaction with existing provision" although it produces no evidence whatsoever for this statement other than anecdotal.

In fact the available evidence presents a different picture. The latest Ofsted inspection in October 2011 grades the school as Good and says:

Views of parents and carers

The large majority of the parents who responded are highly supportive of the school and what it offers. A typical comment was, 

‘All credit to Sir John Leman High School. We as parents are thoroughly delighted with our daughter’s education and pastoral care.’ 

A small minority of parents raised concerns regarding a range of issues including the extent to which the school values their suggestions and concerns, the school’s dealing with behaviour, the preparation of students for future life, the development of healthy lifestyles, helping parents and carers to support their child’s learning. Inspectors explored each of these issues, but agreed with the large majority of parents who completed the questionnaires and who were highly supportive of the school.

I think it is a shame that the Seckford Foundation are making these kind of dubious and unsubstantiated claims about a school they do not even name. Jeremy Rowe is right to fight this. Having placed tanks on their lawn the Seckford Foundation cannot expect the school to stand back. This is a fight that Seckford started and it is a shame they see the way for their new school to succeed is to attack Sir John Leman.

Suffolk Council Tax set to rise to pay for Police

Suffolk Police Authority
Chair Cllr Joanna Spicer

This year the Government have effectively forced Council Tax to be frozen for a second year by offering a "one off payment" to local authorities who freeze their Council Tax of 2.5%. So clearly it would make no sense whatsoever to put up Council Tax unless it was to be a somewhat higher rise. Almost every Council in the country - including Suffolk County Council - has taken this money. The notable exception to date is the Green run Brighton and Hove Council who have proposed a 3.5% increase in Council Tax and will forgo the 2.5% "one off payment". As a consequence they have been attacked especially by Conservatives and the press. In addition 7 labour and 3 Tory Councils have proposed various rises.

Today Eric Pickes, Conservative Communities Secretary showed just how unimpressed he was by this saying:

Communities Secretary
Eric Pickles MP

"A vote against the council tax freeze is a vote for punishing tax rises. It's essential in February and March, as town hall budgets are set, that councils sign up to the council tax freeze. Local taxpayers will remember that decision next time they cast their vote at the ballot box. Councillors have a moral duty to sign up to keep down the cost of living."

Here in Suffolk the Police Authority who set a chunk of the Council Tax we pay are going even further than Brighton and Hove Greens and proposing a 3.75% rise in Council Tax. This would mean that this year's £160.74 precept for a band D household would increase by £6.03.

The proposed rise to Council Tax will raise £1.55m but the Government grant the Authority would get if it did not increase the Council Tax is £1.25m so the extra is actually only some £300 000.

But Chief Constable Simon Ash defended the plan:

Simon Ash, Suffolk Chief
Constable

It's essentially a choice between a short-term option [freezing council tax] that stores up some problems, which means more cuts the following year, and an option [increasing council tax] which makes the long-term prospects easier to handle. 

The police authority commissioned a survey that showed that 73% of people were prepared to pay a 3% increase in their council tax. 

At the moment we've got 1,200 officers in the force and I think dropping much below that starts to become more difficult to police the county.

All this leaves Tory County Councillor and Police Authority Chair Joanna Spicer in a messy position. She is quoted today as saying:

Our role as an authority is to secure an efficient and effective policing service for Suffolk, which already has one of the lowest cost forces in the country 

We have agreed a preference to increase the council tax, but we do want to hear people's views on that over the next two or three weeks.

David Cameron described the plans by Brighton and Hove Council as "a huge mistake" and Joanna Spicer is clearly somewhat out on a limb within the Tory party on this issue.

But she may be right as I think that Chief Constable Ash has a point that accepting the one off payment is storing up problems for the future. Either way the Government are certainly putting their own local councillors in a very awkward position. Despite this rise it looks likely that 100 of the 1200 police officer posts in the County will be cut as well as 200 civilian posts out of 1000. And this is a County as Spicer rightly points out that already has one of the lowest cost police forces in the country.

Alison Wheeler appointed General Manager of Suffolk Libraries IPS

Alison Wheeler
General Manager, Suffolk Libraries IPS

Yesterday the founding members of the Interim Board of Suffolk Libraries IPS appointed Alison Wheeler as their new General Manager following a selection process restricted to current Suffolk Libraries staff.

Alison is currently Head of Service Development for information, advice and library services in the Adult and Community Services directorate at Suffolk County Council.

A Chartered Librarian, she previously worked for Suffolk libraries for over 28 years in a variety of different roles. Alison ran the East Midlands Library System from 1997 to 2001, and also set up a regional agency for libraries in the East of England. 

The press release says of her that:

She has been a principal architect of this new approach to delivering public library services, working with politicians and professional colleagues over the past year to design the model for the future.

Chairman of the Suffolk Libraries IPS Clive Fox said:

"The founder members are delighted to welcome Alison to this new and challenging role. She will be able to start working with the Board on detailed start-up plans very soon, and her knowledge and skills are needed for the many key tasks we have to tackle. Those include establishing the future professional team, building the partnerships with local communities, and ensuring that libraries continue to provide their current first class service to the public."

Alison's appointment follows earlier news of the departure from Suffolk County Council of senior staff member Guenever Pachent Service Director for Culture Information Inclusion & Learning. Following this news Alison's appointment was widely expected.

Without commenting on Alison personally it does seem that so many of the decisions surrounding the IPS will have been made before it is up and running that it is unclear what scope the regular board members will have to shape the service. The IPS has been billed as a way to allow communities to take decisions about the library service but decisions all seem to be being made by and in the image of Suffolk County Council.

The IPS is now headed by a Chairman and General Manager that both played a leading role during the very difficult library consultation period and supported the County Council's position.  The IPS I believe needs to develop some real independence from the County Council and I hope that in selecting the next interim Directors there will be more diversity of opinion and independence of action from the IPS.