Suffolk #MobileHackDay

For once I’m not the Onlygeek today! The atrium of Suffolk County Counci’s Endeavour House in Ipswich is full of geeks for the first Mobile Hack Day. For much of the day these geeks have been tapping away at laptop’s trying to write mobile apps using the Weejot.com mobile apps platform from Jadu.

Suffolk County Council have bought into this platform and CIO Mark Adams-Wright has a vision of lots of apps being available really very soon to let people find out about Suffolk events and access services on the move.

Deputy County Council Leader Jane Storey was present for the first part of the day giving welcome top level support from the County Council to the event.


Following a keynote presentation from former BT CTO Peter Cochrane and an introduction to the platform we geeks got to work thinking of concepts for apps or developing some of the ideas that people had already thought of.

I spent the day designing a mobile app for Suffolk Libraries that lets users search Suffolk Libraries catalogue as well as finding out information about local libraries!

As well as having fun we were also competing for prizes!

Here are some photos the event organisers took. I really enjoyed the event and it was great to see Endeavour House open and being used.

An appeal to the Seckford Foundation

Dear Mr Watson,

Graham Watson
Seckford Director

A number of us have campaigned strongly to oppose your attempts to open a school in Beccles that it is clear the local community doesn’t want. Even the Seckford Foundation accept that this campaign has been successful.

Put simply we won the argument and parents have voted with their feet with only 37 choosing your school.

And remember it was Mark Bee, local Tory Councillor for Beccles and the Leader of Suffolk County Council that first suggested parents “vote with their feet” not me or Jeremy Rowe.

Mark Bee and Peter Aldous are local politicians that understand their communities. The Government were foolish to ignore them and to be honest so were you.

Mark Bee
Beccles County Cllr
Leader of Suffolk CC

As you saw at the Waveney Scrutiny Committee every single local elected representative in Beccles opposed the school. The MP Peter Aldous, the County Councillor Mark Bee, the District Councillors and all 17 of the Town Councillors.

Indeed in Waveney all four of the political parties - Conservative, Labour, UKIP and Green are opposed at least in the main. An amazing coalition.

Today there is an opportunity to end this whole sorry affair by listening to Mark Bee and Peter Aldous.

They have presented a solution that could allow everyone to move forward and begin to work for the people that really matter in all of this. Suffolk children.

Consolidating your schools at Saxmundham is a pragmatic solution. There is real parental demand there and I really feel that your engagement in Beccles has detracted from the Saxmundham School.

Peter Aldous MP
Waveney MP

You could put all your energies into making it a really great school rather than being heckled in the street when talking to TV journalists and feeling you need to speed away out the back entrance of a Town Hall.

I am sure that if you were to adopt a more collaborative and less aggressive approach that local schools in Suffolk would work with you. You could find out about the North Suffolk Skills Centre, perhaps support and fund it rather than being involved in its demise. It could provide a very useful solution to the issue of the curriculum at your school complementing your academic subjects with a vocational choice.

I don’t doubt there are things we could all learn from Woodbridge and from you but it has become increasingly apparent when you say things like you are introducing competition into a system that hasn’t had it before that you don’t really have much knowledge about state education.

We have had competition for years, sometime fierce. Money follows the child and many parents - like me for example - take our choices seriously. We went to appeal to get our child into the school we wanted for him.

By working together we can all learn from each other and put our energies into making all of Suffolk’s schools as brilliant as they can be.

So you have a choice to make and speaking personally I would certainly work with you and any enlarged school in Saxmundham.

Please listen - not to me - but to Mark Bee and Peter Aldous!

James Hargrave

Seckford Exit Strategy for Beccles Free School after only 37 children confirmed?

Last night in Lowestoft Town Hall Graham Watson the Director of the Seckford Foundation came before Waveney District Council’s Scrutiny Committee. My Live Blog covers what was said in a bit more detail.

It was a bit like watching the Murdochs before the Select Committee and Watson seemed to adopt the same “plausible deniability” strategy claiming to be unable to answer almost all of the difficult questions asked.

• He didn’t know how much it was costing to convert Carlton Coalville Primary School because the DfE dealt with that but it was just new toilets and “knocking a few walls down”.
• He didn’t know how many teachers they had appointed despite the fact that down the road in Beccles 14 of them were being paraded in front of a parents meeting literally as he spoke.
• The Finances of the Seckford Foundation were “complicated” and they had made a “book loss”. Woodbridge School was “thriving" (despite the “complicated” accounts revealing that numbers had dropped year on year and staff were made redundant to balance the books).
• He did not have the impact assessment on other schools because the DfE did that.
• He did however confirm the earlier news that only 37 children had accepted places at the school. 37 across Years 7, 8 and 9
• When questioned on the “inducements” he claimed the free uniforms, iPod and lunches were not inducements as you did not get them before agreement to send your children there. This definition of inducement seems to be unique to Seckford.

After Watson left (he had apparently a prior engagement and left before the meeting ended) members of the Committee were all thoroughly unimpressed. Half thought Watson did not know how brief well enough and half that he wasn’t being entirely straight with them.

The manner of Watson’s departure says it all though. Leaving by a back exit to the Town Hall he was whisked into a waiting Mercedes that then sped off.

Cllr Goldson

Clearly he had his exit strategy worked out. Cllr Goldson, Tory Councillor for Halesworth had his own exit strategy for Seckfrord. Speaking passionately about the need to keep the North Suffolk Skills Centre and support local schools he suggested to Watson they they bus the 37 to the new Saxmundham Free School which would help make that more viable.

They could even try again for a free school once the Middle School site was free in 2014.

Wise words from Goldson who later said free schools did not work in rural areas and that Seckford were clearly in this to make money.

Watson should take his advice. A High School with 37 children is not viable and the whole project is going to collapse at some point. After betting the Seckford farm on the project  the next thing Watson would be planning is his own exit strategy. Out of the Seckford Foundation.

LIVE BLOG: Scrutiny of Beccles Free School by Waveney Council

Agenda and Papers for the Meeting (from Waveney DC Website)

Our coverage begins at 6pm, the meeting starts at 6.30pm

 

Seckford's Graham Watson claims "no inducements" for Beccles Free School

Watson: No inducements

Graham Watson, Director of the Seckford Foundation who have fronted the controversial Beccles Free School bid claimed on BBC Radio Suffolk this morning that “no inducements” were being offered to Beccles Free School pupils.

Yesterday this Blog reported that parents were offered free uniform items, free lunches for half a term and possibly a free iPod Touch (or even an iPad according to some who attended the meetings).

Cawley: Free uniform, lunches
and iPod

This information was given in an email published by Wikisuffolk and repeated by Rob Cawley, Seckford Principal at two public meetings.

Asked to clarify the position the Seckford Foundation claimed all staff were “in a meeting” and then put the phone down and ignored all subsequent calls.

So which is right? Watson’s claim of no inducements or Cawley’s offer of free uniform, lunches and a mobile device?

Suffolk County Council hold "mobile hackday"

Mark Bee has successfully pushed the importance of technology since he took over as Leader of Suffolk County Council. The campaign for faster broadband saw not only County Council support but also significant funding.

Suffolk County Council are now building on this and holding a “mobile hackday” at Endeavour House on Saturday in partnership with Weejot which is a mobile apps platform from Jadu that the County Council have subscribed to.

The event - which is free - looks really interesting including a keynote by former BT CIO and technologist Peter Cochrane. You can see more information below or sign up at Eventbrite if you would like to attend.

There is also an interesting post about the event on the Suffolk Digital blog:

We had some interesting queries arise from our previous email and blog regarding the upcoming “Hack Day” at SCC which were brought up in discussion with the team from Council.. The most interesting take aways from this were a) that this is really an exciting experiment and a well intentioned initiative for a local council to be doing b) moving forward there is an opportunity for developers (pref. local!) to create commercial apps for the Council – a ready waiting customer..and c) we see the day as the beginning of a discussion involving the local community and the tech minded amongst them to create useful future products for local people .. and it should be fun!

Also – you don’t have to be an expert to get involved on the day – maybe you have an idea for a useful app which has been at the back of your mind for a while – or a local problem which the use of a well designed app could help resolve? If so, come along and share your ideas.. developers from Weejot & Jadu will be on hand to help anyone who feels they are lacking in developers skills.. or work in a team with a like minded group.  

Event details are below:

Desperate Seckford offer free uniforms, iPod Touch and even free lunches for Beccles Free School pupils

As has been well covered by this Blog the Seckford Foundation are having difficulty recruiting students to attend Beccles Free School.

Characteristically they try and lay the blame for this elsewhere. Emailing supporters today following the first in a series of recruitment meetings for parents in Beccles, Free School Principal Rob Cawley says:

I was dismayed to hear of the level of misinformation there is the community about the Free School. As a Trust, we have deliberately avoided getting involved in any direct discussions with those who are distributing this propaganda as we believe our educational message stands strongly on its own merits. Despite this approach I am concerned, as were the parents / carers, students, staff and supporters who attended the meeting yesterday, that we address this issue. 

Strangely for an organisation with such a “high minded” approach they seem to be offering a little bit of an inducement, Free school freebies you might call them to help parents with their decision. Cawley goes on:

In the meeting we were able to confirm with parents / carers and students that the Trust will provide, free of charge, branded items of school uniform and school meals for the first half term for every student. We were also able to explain to all attendees that we are currently exploring the possibility that every student be provided with an iPod Touch – in addition to all the other mobile technology we will be providing in the school – for use in lessons and for learning at home.

The provision of inducements at public expense - including an iPod that would have little if any educational value - shows the reality of the situation. Desperate.

Seckford did not engage in direct discussions with those opposed to them because they did not think they had to. They appeared to know already that the school would be approved by the DfE come what may and appeared to forget that a school however lavishly funded is not much use without staff and students.

Ultimately though they simply lost the argument.

Everybody knows there is no such thing as a free lunch. I am sure Beccles parents will see through this blatant attempt to buy them.

The Seckford Foundation have truly sunk to a new low today. Rob Cawley a Suffolk Headteacher that used to command some respect should hang his head in shame. Did he really become a Headteacher to hold meetings at the end of June to offer freebies to parents already committed to send their children elsewhere if they send them to his school?

Exclusive: Legal Challenge to Beccles Free School

This Blog can exclusively reveal that the Beccles Free School approval is being challenged legally. Lawyers acting on behalf of Sir John Leman High School have written to the DfE threatening a judicial review of the decision to sign the funding agreement for the Beccles Free School.

The challenge is on the grounds of the way the consultation and impact assessment were conducted. Readers of this Blog will remember that the consultation actually revealed more support against the school. The DfE managed to avoid releasing the consultation until after decision had been announced.

The DfE is supposed to carry out an impact assessment  of the effect on local schools prior to signing the funding agreement but Sir John Leman High School were apparently not even consulted a part of this process. The DfE have yet to release this impact assessment and have refused to release the assessments for previous free schools.

I wrote a post some time ago about possible legal challenges that explains the Academies Act and the scope for legal challenge.

Meanwhile at least one DfE civil servant has broken ranks and spoken out against the increasing politicisation of the Department. Opening a Twitter account called @DfEInsider one civil servant says:

The purpose of this account is to help DfE civil servants expose the terrible, unhappy state of our department. We are proud to serve any government, but not to be politicised, bullied or blamed for ministerial mistakes.

In the Beccles and Bungay Journal this week  Seckford’s Graham Watson admitted the campaign against the free school had reduced demand saying:

This campaign has caused the demand for places to reduce since the application was submitted. However demand remains strong for the places available. 

The experience of other free schools is that once the staff have been appointed, and the building confirmed, demand increases. It is expected that in year two demand will exceed the places available.

He seems to have forgotten his promise not to impose the school if the demand was not there….having admitted the reduction in demand it is now clear that Seckford broke their promise:

We have consistently made clear that if, contrary to our understanding, the desire is not there, then we will have no wish to impose a free school on the community.