Bye bye BSF??

[SpuffMonkey]

see today's Guardian

 

Ministers shelve £45bn plan to rebuild every state school by 2020 | Schools special reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk

 

Light at the end of the tunnel?

[plexer]

Wohoo!!!

[russdev]

Not quite gone at moment reading into that article

 

Future waves will have plan to rebuild every school but for key 2020 date they have to nominate 4 schools per lea.

 

Certainly looks like start of the end maybe but this is politics so we will see..

 

 

Russell

Edited April 10, 2008 by russdev

[CyberNerd]

Good News,

This could badly screw up plans for ICT outsourcing. It will be far less attractive for an ICT firm to run a couple of schools in one area, they would prefer to run a bunch of schools from a central location. This will put the cost of ICT outsourcing up even further.

[Geoff]

Not suprising really. The current government is rather skint. I full expect BSF will be dead an buried by the next election.

[localzuk]

If this were a car going along a road, bits would be falling off at an alarming rate.

[Geoff]

So a Ford then?

[localzuk]

So a Ford then?

 

I was thinking something more quinticentially American, such as a Chevvy or a Dodge.

[ICT_GUY]

So a Ford then?

 

 

I got hit by a Skoda the other day, hell of a mess, Jam and Icing all over the place, tasted nice though.

[contink]

Hold on a second folks... This isn't all good news.

 

Ok, for our little corner of the world it looks great but from the point of view of a lot of schools this is going to be very, very bad news. Dilapidated buildings not being replaced, fewer and fewer resources, etc...

 

So, yeah, great news on the IT side of things for those who were going to lose out when their IT infrastructure and support was downgraded but ruddy awful for those who desperately needed the investment..

[Gatt]

So what happens to schools where the LEA is still in the bidding stage (Salford are down to 2 bidders)

[nebapneb]

I got hit by a Skoda the other day, hell of a mess, Jam and Icing all over the place, tasted nice though.

 

groooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooan!

 

[GrumbleDook]

This also does not affect the academies program as yet, so we still have a number of those 'worse off schools' that are included in the BSF stats already being targetted for rebuilds under a different scheme.

 

It means that successful schools and failing schools that are partnering up to form academies are fine, but thos middle of the road schools that do ok, don't fail but don't hit the high performing criteria, are going to be dumped on yet again.

 

Dilapidated buildings, poor facilities, no room for expansion (the only way a school can actually get more money is by getting more student through the doors!) ...

 

Yes ... forget the fact that this scraps managed services for IT ... face up to the fact that the money to support education in general is just not there anymore!

[Diello]

It's like Christmas!! About ruddy time too!

 

Yes - school are run down... but maybe now the Gov will come up with a program to fix what needs to be fixed in schools, e.g. buildings, funding etc., and not lump in things like ICT into the equation just to keep the bidders sweet...

[Lee_K_81]

I got hit by a Skoda the other day, hell of a mess, Jam and Icing all over the place, tasted nice though.

 

ROTFL!

[conehead]

A shame it's just a Government reaction to cost issues and not a realisation there are inherent problem with the one size fits all approach.

[broc]

Don't believe everything you read in newspapers!

 

If you read the 'official' announcement, it has a slightly different flavour to the story........

 

 

BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE TO BE ACCELERATED AND STREAMLINED UNDER NEW PROPOSALS

 

 

News Centre : Department for Children, Schools and Families

 

There is nothing to suggest that waves 1-6 will be doing anything different, & local authorities could collaborate with others to form LEPs & managed services.

Edited April 10, 2008 by broc

[localzuk]

Don't believe everything you read in newspapers!

 

If you read the 'official' announcement, it has a slightly different flavour to the story........

 

 

BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE TO BE ACCELERATED AND STREAMLINED UNDER NEW PROPOSALS

 

 

News Centre : Department for Children, Schools and Families

 

There is nothing to suggest that waves 1-6 will be doing anything different, & local authorities could collaborate with others to form LEPs & managed services.

 

Heh. You just have to turn on your bulls**t decoder to see that it means they wish to rush through some building in all areas before the next election, so it looks like the process wasn't a disaster from start to err... random middle bit.

[CyberNerd]

Dilapidated buildings, poor facilities, no room for expansion (the only way a school can actually get more money is by getting more student through the doors!) ...

 

I don't think anyone was complaining about dilapidated buildings being replaced, of course they need to get rebuilt. In any case, the government now target the ones that don't get good GCSE's, not necessarily the ones that need a physical rebuild.

 

Yes ... forget the fact that this scraps managed services for IT ... face up to the fact that the money to support education in general is just not there anymore!

 

The money isn't there because it is being topsliced for projects like BSF, and centralised VLE's. The VLE's are case in point because many schools have had VLE's in place for many years and are widely used. The local authorities then spend money to replace these systems with approved systems that do not meet the functionality that the school has become accustomed to.

[Oops_my_bad]

Despite this news, it does mean that for some, BSF will now come round a lot quicker

[GrumbleDook]

I could honestly rant all day about how this will screw up more schools than having IT Managed services ... schools that need the rebuild above all else ...

 

But what's the point. I would only be accused of wanting BSF at the expense if IT in schools.

 

@Cybernerd

When you say many schools, try not to forget all those primaries out there with little or no support. Don't forget that LAs have to look after them too.

[localzuk]

GumbleDook - the thing is, BSF is not a magic wand. It will not suddenly improve schools just by giving them new buildings. What needed to happen was a general increase in funding. Stopping BSF is a start to the government changing their policies.

[CyberNerd]

When you say many schools, try not to forget all those primaries out there with little or no support. Don't forget that LAs have to look after them too.

 

Yeah, we've been given a primary school VLE. Uniservity - it sucks so much our LEA advisers (who bought it) told us to continue with moodle.

Schools that have provided a decent level of ICT are having funding topsliced. Over time all schools get an equally poor service to the extent that BSF ICT outsourcing actually looks good.

[tech_guy]

I got hit by a Skoda the other day, hell of a mess, Jam and Icing all over the place, tasted nice though.

 

I'm sorry, I'm either being totally thick or my aspergers is stopping me from getting this joke. Is a Skoda a cake?

 

I thought it was just a p@nts car?!

[GrumbleDook]

@tech_guy