Tory Councilers complain at Tory Education Policy!

[tmcd35]

BBC News - Tories' warning on 'free schools'

 

I find this funny, I posted something to the same effect on my blog yesterday and here it is on BBC News today with the Tory's own LA Councilers complaining of the exact same thing.

 

If you allow private companies, parents and charities to randomly set up their own state funded schools then you have to take money away from existing schools to pay for it!

 

Usual Tory privitisation by the back door. Get private companies to open new schools and run down the existing state schools - nice!

[ahuxham]

Who cares. If the Private companies that set these schools up and they do better from a tax paying perspective and a grading perspective, than existing state schools losing money is well worth it.

 

To be honest, what ever provides better value for money and a better education is win win.

[SpuffMonkey]

Who cares. If the Private companies that set these schools up and they do better from a tax paying perspective and a grading perspective, than existing state schools losing money is well worth it.

 

To be honest, what ever provides better value for money and a better education is win win.

 

With respect - thats a really short sighted attitude - change without funding and planning just leads to chaos & misery for the staff & students of anywhere that is affected

[ahuxham]

With respect - thats a really short sighted attitude - change without funding and planning just leads to chaos & misery for the staff & students of anywhere that is affected

 

With respect, that is your opinion, and not mine. If parents were going to start a school with backers, I hardly think they're going to be near-sighted and forget that their own children are going to be affected, added the point the second any of the above happens it all fails, thus, I'm pretty sure, people with half intelligence will think about all this before hand.

 

About time changed happened, scrap BSF, get some decent education, and get our children back up the league tables, from the UK in the TOP 10 for so long to have no dropped to 28 or whatever it is because of a negligent government, something needs to change.

 

It's alright saying those that get College, Uni placements won't be so hard hit, what about those that don't get those places and just want the opportunity to-do well

Edited April 26, 2010 by ahuxham

[srochford]

If the plan was to say "we have £x million pounds per school and the school can be run by anyone" then that might be reasonable. What they're actually saying is "we have y million pounds currently split n ways; we are now going to split it n+m ways" (where m is the number of "new" schools) and also not split it evenly. This means that perfectly reasonable schools will lose out just so we can make the "new" schools get more money.

 

You end up just making things worse - the parents who care about the education of their children will get better schools (they've been described as pushy, middle class but this is unfair - loads of people of every class care about education) but the parents who care less or are less able to do stuff will get worse schools and we all suffer if kids leave school having had a bad education.

[tmcd35]

I think Steve has summed up both mine and the tory parts own councilers view pretty well. If we take 10% of the pupils out of an existing school and place them in a new school then 10% of the existing schools funding gets taken away and given to the new school.

 

Working in a state mainted secondary school news like this concerns me. If we suddenly get a 10% budget cut then that would mean job losses, project cut backs, less to spend on ICT, etc, etc, etc.

 

EDIT:

If the Private companies that set these schools up and they do better from a tax paying perspective and a grading perspective, than existing state schools losing money is well worth it.

 

Also, that quiet a big 'IF'. I don't like the idea of gambling with future generations education in such an hap-hazard way. What 'IF' this new private schools don't deliver better results once set up?

Edited April 26, 2010 by tmcd35

[nicholab]

My local conservatives disagree with the three new Academies in Richmond upon Thames.

[ahuxham]

My local conservatives disagree with the three new Academies in Richmond upon Thames.

 

Why is that?

[nicholab]

They are old Conservatives not supporting Cameron vision!!!

[srochford]

They are old Conservatives not supporting Cameron vision!!!

 

The whole thing about Cameron's vision is weird - I always understand the word "conservative" (small c) to mean keeping things as they are, opposing change. The chants "What do we want?" "Gradual change!" "When do we want it?" "All in good time!" seem to sum up conservatism quite nicely.

 

We do need to do something to stop schools failing and to pull them back if they do fail but just spreading all the existing money around doesn't look like it would help.

 

I don't work in a school but my experience of schools and the people I know who work in schools suggests that 2 key factors in the success of a school are a head who really makes things work and parents who expect the school to work well (with the head perhaps being the most important factor)

 

I live close to Phoenix School in White City; it was a disaster 15 years ago and a new head was appointed. You've almost certainly seen William Atkinson on TV - partly because he is extremely good and partly because his school is very close to TV Centre. I think the school did get some extra money but the key thing seems to have been a head teacher who knew what made a good school and made sure that his school became a good school. I think we need to learn from this and improve other schools by learning from the schools that have improved.

[tmcd35]

I don't work in a school but my experience of schools and the people I know who work in schools suggests that 2 key factors in the success of a school are a head who really makes things work and parents who expect the school to work well (with the head perhaps being the most important factor)

 

Failing Teacher(s)

Failing Head

Failing Governor(s)

NOT Failing Schools

 

Replace the head, replace the governors, sack the poor teachers - find the root causes as to why a school is not performing and fix them. Closing a school and renaming it an Academy or taking money out of an existing schools so Tesco's PLC can open an rival 500yards down the road is not the solution to the problem IMHO.

 

And I agree, a good strong head makes a very, very large percentage of the difference.

 

I read somewhere that they are stuggling to recruit new heads has existing deputy's who may be good candidates are seeing the amount of hassle and red tape current heads have to deal with and are being turned off of the career move. That alone say's alot about what should change to improve schools.

[SpuffMonkey]

The whole thing about Cameron's vision is weird - I always understand the word "conservative" (small c) to mean keeping things as they are, opposing change. The chants "What do we want?" "Gradual change!" "When do we want it?" "All in good time!" seem to sum up conservatism quite nicely.

 

 

Personally, I thought that Cameron's performance on the debates was quite "interesting", there was a lot of repetition of soundbite type phrases in quite a petulant manner, but very little discussion of any policies. I know this is borrowed from Blair - but I thought the debate format made it very apparent.

 

Also - the "Big Society" thing is laughable - governments of both persuasions love local democracy until people choose not to agree with central government - then it is stamped out ruthlessly.

[Theblacksheep]

The McSchool is a go-go. New educational targets and books (online resources) with your corperate sponsors!

[Rydra]

1st Period you have Mc-Maths, followed by a double whopper science, and a Dunkin'-Drama lesson. After lunch (referred to as "HappyMeal-Time") is Quarter-pounder PE.

 

I have thought for a while that private sponsorship of schools would not be a bad thing entirely for the education system, but private schools publically funded is just asking for trouble.

Edited April 27, 2010 by Rydra

[somabc]

I like the Lib Dems policy of giving money to schools but letting the Head Teacher decide how it is spent. Smaller Class sizes, new facilities, even better IT.

[triggmiester]

Whatever you do on May 6th - VOTE LABOUR

 

Remember the conservatives are the cream of the country - Rich, Thick & Full of Clots

[tmcd35]

Whatever you do on May 6th - VOTE LABOUR

 

Nope, sorry - won't be doing that this time

[Theblacksheep]

Whatever you do on May 6th - VOTE LABOUR

 

Remember the conservatives are the cream of the country - Rich, Thick & Full of Clots

 

No chance. Two sides of the same coin.

 

Although I agree with the latter statement about the Con party.

Edited April 27, 2010 by Theblacksheep

[Rydra]

I don't like labour a whole lot, but I definately don't like Conservative, too many hair-brained ideas that will see me living in a cardboard box (instead of a disused toilet!)

 

I'd love to vote lib dem, but also know it's rather pointless, as my local lib dem rep is unlikely to win anytime soon. My local mp is not lib dem, and has been in power for years, and unlikely to lose. I also have the problem that my local MP has little/no power over the area, since MP's from the bigger nearby town overrule pretty much anything that would benefit us, in favour of benefitting them instead.

[tmcd35]

I'd love to vote lib dem, but also know it's rather pointless, as my local lib dem rep is unlikely to win anytime soon.

 

Why because everyone else in your constituancy will genuinly vote for incumbant - or because everyone else in your area who might be interested in the LD vote thinks the same way as you and doesn't bother? Vote the for what you believe in on the day - if thats LD then vote LD, regardless of what you think others may do. Whats the worse that can happen? The incumbent gets in anyway? Whats the best that can happen? You're a part of real change?

 

There's only one way change can happen - and it's not by voting like sheep because 'that's what eveyone else is doing'.