Well Done Southampton Schools!

Results from Southampton Schools have been superb this year.

At Key Stage One the city is now above the national average, shooting up the local authority league tables.

At GCSE we have had our largest increase in our history at 4.1%, closing the gap significantly with national average.

The improvements reflect the hard work put in by teachers and pupils across the city. In addition the city council has worked with struggling schools, partnering them with good schools and investing in teacher training programmes.

Schools in the west of the city have done particularly well with big improvements in GCSE results:

• Lord’s Hill Academy (+13%)
• Upper Shirley High School (+5%)
• Redbridge Community College (+17%)
• Regents Park Community College (+10%)

£35m Boost for Southampton's Academies

Fantastic news! We have heard this afternoon that the new Coalition government has signed off the £35m for the rebuild of Southampton's two city academies.

Funding for the schools had been on hold because of a government review being undertaken of capital funding for schools across the country.

Building work for the Oasis Academy Mayfield starts in October and Lord's Hill Academy construction starts in January 2011.

Fighting for our local Schools

How the new Lord's Hill Academy might look

Local Conservative Councillors yesterday announced that £13m of local council capital funding previously earmarked for Southampton's Building Schools for Future (BSF) programme would be protected.

This money will be combined with the new national national funding that we hope Southampton will receive when the government announces its replacement capital programme for schools.

The money will help to ensure that the city meets future demands for school places and that all Southampton's schools are brought up to a decent state of repair.

As well as lobbying for new government money and fighting to retain the £35m that local Conservatives secured for the city's two academies, we are pressing government to refund the £2.4m in aborted costs that the city council has incurred in preparing for the BSF scheme.

It is shameful that in these difficult economic times, when public sector funding is extremely tight, that local Labour Councillors are maintaining their opposition to the city's two academies and the additional funds to improve the schools, preferring for ideological reasons to see them split across two sites in out of date buildings.

Labour Should Stop Undermining the City's Schools and Colleges

Southampton's Labour Party seem determined to undermine the city's schools and colleges.

In direct oppostion to their national party position they are anti the city's two new academies. They would send back the £35m secured by Conservatives on the city council to rebuild these schools. They did everything they could to make life difficult for the two academies in their first year; yet despite all their negativity the academies have delivered improved GCSE results for local children.

Southampton MP John Denham is directly responsible for the colleges funding fiasco. Mr Denham pulled the plug on millions of pounds of funding to improve Taunton's, City College and Itchen College. The Government is still refusing to refund the money that the colleges spent on preparing for the promised rebuilds. This is money that should be returned to the colleges so that they can spend it on improving the education of local young people.

Now Labour Councillors are trying to block Bitterne Park School from developing a sixth form. This would provide extra choice for students in Southampton and would help cater for the increasing numbers staying on to study post sixteen. Bitterne Park has been awarded £6m for new sixth form facilities and has received the backing of Conservative Councillors. Yet Labour are doing all they can to put obstacles in the way of the school.

Letter to the Daily Echo: Get Behind the New Lord's Hill Academy

Dear Sir

Unlike Labour’s Don Thomas I see the rebuild of the Lord’s Hill Academy as a positive thing for the local community.

The decision to rebuild the school at 5 Acre Field was taken after a lengthy consultation several years ago and received support from all three political parties and the majority of parents. Parents told the city council that they wanted a third, neutral site, so that it was seen that neither Millbrook School nor Oaklands School was taking over the other.

The Conservatives have secured £17m for a rebuild of the Academy. This is money that Labour and the Lib Dems would have turned down.

At 5 Acre Field the school will be located next to a number of sports clubs, including a rugby club, football club and cricket club.

This will benefit the clubs as they will be able to attract new members, and will be good for the school as it will have more opportunities to promote sport amongst local children. The Academy is already working well in partnership with Solent University delivering after schools sports activities.

The Conservatives have allocated money to improve 5 Acre Field, including money to drain the pitches. The safety of children is paramount and so money has been set aside to provide to provide crossings or to improve the nearby underpasses. In total over a million pounds will be spent improving the area around the new school.

The Lord’s Hill Academy has been open less than a year. It has a great future and the new facilities will be a boost to the local community. The pupil numbers entering the Academy for the first time are healthy. The head teacher Ian Golding is doing a superb job.

I would urge Don Thomas to put aside his political prejudices and get behind the new school.

Yours faithfully

Cllr Jeremy Moulton

Lord's Hill Academy

At the launch of the Lord's Hill Academy

On Monday I went to the inaugural meeting of the council of the newly opened Lord's Hill Academy. I have just been appointed to the school council as the local authority's representative.

There have been some big improvements made to both the Oaklands and the Millbrook site, with the buildings freshly painted and with new signs. The new school has had to make huge changes in to prepare for the new term in a very short space of time and it is a tribute to the new headmaster and his team that everything has gone so smoothly.