Lord Hill and the DfE show they have no clue about education in Suffolk

As the backlash against the decision to approve Beccles Free School gains momentum the DfE have attempted to “defend” their decision. Quoted in an article in the Beccles and Bungay journal the “defence” just goes to show how little the Department know about education in Suffolk. Their spokesperson says:

Along with providing more choice, the department believes that this school will offer a strong and inclusive secondary education – in a county where education standards have generally been below the national average for a number of years.

Whilst this statement about educational attainment is “true” there are two significant issues with this. Firstly a County average is completely irrelevant in a decision about a local school. What matters is the local situation. These aren’t London Boroughs. Suffolk is a large county where it can take an hour and a half to get from one place to another! So the performance of a school in say Felixstowe is meaningless to Beccles.

This graph shows the results of Sir John Leman:

As you can see the school is broadly inline with the national average and this is despite the fact that it is in a three tier area with Middle Schools where result is Suffolk are generally worse.

Which brings us to the second major issue. The School reorganisation review in Sufffolk is designed to improve attainment and is taking place in Beccles this year. This is not mentioned and it does not appear the DfE considered this. I actually wonder if they even know...

Bob Blizzard, prospective Labour Waveney candidate and former Waveney MP has spoken out against the free school saying it was:

a scandalous waste of public money

In 20 years of public life I have never seen millions spent on such a fragile and feeble project.They had only 21 parents express an interest, but there was a petition with thousands of names presented by the head of Sir John Leman that did not figure at all.

If the DfE and Seckford Foundation thought that this issue was now going to quietly go away they could not be more wrong. Local campaigners have vowed to continue the fight and there is increasing national interest in the decision since the publication of the consultation report that showed feeble demand for the school.

It’s clear to me this was a decision made for national political reasons rather than to meet any kind of local demand or need.

The Seckford Foundation has NOT run Woodbridge School for 400 years

Thomas Seckford who founded an
Almshouse charity, not a school

A big part of the selling point of the Seckford Foundation is that they have run Woodbridge School for over 400 years. They include this on the front page of their free school websites:

Beccles Free School will be a Seckford Foundation school, and as such will benefit from the Foundation's 400 years of expertise in education.

I have heard and read this many times and not given it much thought always thinking it was a bit of a silly thing to say given that nobody has lived for 400 years!

However it also turns out not really to be true. According to the Woodbridge School website the Seckford Foundation’s involvement in Woodbridge School actually began in 1861. Just over 150 years ago.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the cramped School building was proving inadequate and in 1861 the School integrated with the Seckford Trust, an almshouse charity, becoming a part beneficiary of an endowment left to the town of Woodbridge in 1587 by Thomas Seckford, Master of the Court of Requests to Queen Elizabeth I. 

It is interesting to read a bit of the history of the school which in fact opened its doors as The Free School, Woodbridge in 1577

At the end of the eighteenth century the school is described as:

Sir John Leman who actually did found
a school

Sounds very much like the “vision” for their new free schools….And if you hanker back to 1796 remember slavery had not been abolished then, hardly anyone had the vote and most children worked rather than went to school!

The Governors of the present Sir John Leman Academy School have a better claim to be the successors of the original Free School in Beccles founded with a legacy in Sir John Leman's will and opened in 1631. At least Sir John Leman actually did found a school!

Does any of this really matter? Not really but if you are going to start bragging that you have done something for hundreds of years it makes a start to get your facts right!