Last night I went to the first of the public debates on the future of secondary schools in Southampton.
It was an extremely interesting evening and I would strongly recommend people go along to one of the other debates that are happening over the next few weeks.
My general impression was that there was, to quote one resident, too much style over substance.
There was a very long presentation by the Council but it didn't really add much more to the rather thin document that was circulated to residents on 25th January.
The lack of detailed information I think really makes it very hard to form a strong view on the proposals.
The timetable for the whole thing is also very tight. The consultation ends on 17th March and the whole thing is going to be decided in September (apparently).
What is essentially being proposed is that a number of schools are merged, due to falling pupil numbers. The Council has come up with a range of options but favours a strategic approach to reorganising schools across the City as a whole.
All this is against the backdrop of the education white paper currently being worked up by Government. What will be in it is not clear but it may well suggest going in a quite different direction to the one proposed by the Council. What is clear is that the Government's education proposals will be extremely political. Indeed it may mean the end of Blair as Prime Minister...
The latest talk is that that Government are backing away from radical reform. The original White Paper proposed that all new schools should be independent trust schools or city academies. To quote today's Telegraph, "The effect would have been a flowering of private initiative, as Churches, businesses, and parent groups competed for the funding to set up schools. But yesterday it was announced that councils would, as of old, be allowed to establish more "community schools", otherwise known as bog standard comps, ensuring the crowding out of independent operators."
There is a meeting of the Conservative Way Forward Group in London on 16th March on the subject of education which I am hoping to be able to go to.
Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools and hate figure for the lefties will be there and I will be extremely interested to hear his take on things.
What is clear is that massive change is on the cards and in Southampton we may see quite a shake up. We need to make sure we get it right.
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2 comments:
Having been to the meeting, met Chris Woodhead and had time to study the proposals, what do you think should happen to Southampton's schools?
Unfortunately I was unable to make the Chris Woodhead meeting. I am pretty certain it clashed with something else.
Do you mean education generally or in Southampton?
In Southampton the proposals for changes to Secondary education are very thin. Most people I have spoken to feel that they were lectured to and not consulted properly. Also it is impossible to make a decision when there is next to no information. The propsals for the Shirley area don't seem to be very popular.
I personally wouldn't feel comfortable making a decision in the timescales that have been set out for Learning Futures. Supposedly a decsision will be made in June. If the Conservatives are running the City Council after May I would be very suprised if a decision was taken then. I think the Council really needs to go back to the drawing board. That said indecision cannot be an option as parents need to know the choices that they face.
Generally on education I am instinctively in favour of schools having much more freedom and I think the Government's education bill is going in the right direction.
I am also very keen to get a good share of Government funding for secondary education in 2009/10.
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