tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8208852.post5356958225198118826..comments2023-10-22T16:55:39.016+01:00Comments on Maureen Rigg's Blog: Anonymous CommentsMaureen Rigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09668706709158698743noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8208852.post-84585217195732479202010-10-20T17:07:50.098+01:002010-10-20T17:07:50.098+01:00Apologies - I thought this had posted at the weeke...Apologies - I thought this had posted at the weekend but I see it hasn't. Better late than never I guess.<br />I wasn't getting at you particularly - I've had a number of anonymous posts some of which had to be removed. I'm sorry that I didn't make it clear to you.<br />The definition of Free Schools seems to be taxing some of the brains in the DfE at the moment judging by correspondence I'm having but I agree with you about what it's supposed to mean - I just dislike intensely the name which some people take to mean as free in the cash sense (not implying that you fall into that category). State schools are not under state control other than to have a prescribed curriculum - there are lots of freedoms round how that's taught, how the day is structured etc. I am an ardent supporter of good quality state funded education and I don't like the way that over recent years it's been fragmented. However, I fully respect the right of others to disagree with me and wouldn't want to try to impose my views on anyone else. I would like to hope that persuasion might work though!<br />No local authority has the capital to build schools sitting in their coffers, much as they might like it. It's always the case that such capital has to be applied for and successive governments have had different names for the funds and different criteria for awarding it. The last one, BSF, was stopped as you know. This government also has a pot of money which is finite to use on school building. In Stockton I believe we were badly served by the BSF fiasco which meant we had to spend a lot of money on preparing bids for schools on criteria which didn't help us to replace the most needed buildings nor to get the new building where we needed it in IB. I'd hoped that the stopping of BSF would mean we could have a proper priority list and apply for funding in that order. If it were done properly I would hope that most people would see the logic of the list and I would expect that a new school or an expansion of the present one on Ingleby would be pretty high up that list. If, however, the government is going to take applications from groups of people without reference to such a priority setting exercise it will make it more difficult to have a planned programme for the borough. It might also mean that money desperately needed to stop the roof falling in one school is actually spent on a new school elsewhere. This isn't, in my eyes, just an argument about Ingleby Barwick. I hope that is understandable, even if you don't agree with me on all of it.<br />The detail of the arguments for and against various ways of resolving the needs for schools in the Yarm-Ingleby-Eaglescliffe area is far too complex and lengthy to be laid out in emails. <br />I do know what it's like to travel out of one's area to school - I did it for 5 years of my secondary school career and I know I missed out on a great deal even though the extended school concept wasn't nearly as well developed then as it is now. My own children did it to primary school and I spent a long time ferrying them to friends and to after school activities. I want all our children, right across the borough, to have the opportunity to work and play in their own community and I'm happy to work with council officers and other councillors to achieve that. Despite what some councillors claim, caring about other parts of the borough doesn't mean that I don't care about Ingleby Barwick.Maureen Rigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09668706709158698743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8208852.post-53816940988654741372010-10-18T15:38:54.676+01:002010-10-18T15:38:54.676+01:00Thanks for your response Councillor - but I would ...Thanks for your response Councillor - but I would like to point out that I did sign my name at the bottom of my second post so I'm not trying to hide at all!<br /><br />Regarding the definition and funding of Free Schools... first of all, none of us think that a "Free School" costs nothing - we are all aware of the fact that "Free" means that its not under state control and is independent in the same way that Academies are. <br /><br />What is very clear though from the DfE website and other places, is that any capital requirement for a "Free School" does not come from the local borough, and therefore the borough doesn't need to have the capital to build it (see http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools/freeschoolsfaqs/a0063481/free-schools-faqs-funding-and-premises/ for the details on this). <br /><br />Surely if the "Free School" is funded out of a different pot of money (and we get some of that pot, rather than everywhere else in the country getting to spend it), it means that whatever money Stockton have or can apply for in future can be spent elsewhere, as the issue of schooling for children on IB will already have been addressed. Isn't that a win-win situation for everyone?<br /><br />As with Academies, the council can bid to provide back office services (giving economies of scale) or these can be purchased from external companies or charitable trusts who provide it to a number of schools (also giving economies of scale). As you would expect, the trustees of the "Free School" would be responsible for showing that they are using public funding wisely, and would go through a proper tendering process for procurement. <br /><br />With regard to Special Educational Needs within the Borough, the school would have to adhere to the governments admissions policy and therefore all of the relevant issues will be covered correctly. The process of getting a "Free School" requires significant commitment from the individuals involved as there are many areas that must be properly addressed and managed, not just the provision of Capital for the school. <br /><br />BO2SS who are behind the new school have already approached both Egglescliffe and Conyers and asked them to partner the new school. Unfortunately neither school is interested in this, so the DfE have given BO2SS a partner who already runs an Outstanding School nearby. <br /><br />It's worth remembering that 11 buses take children to Conyers and only 4 to Egglescliffe school from Ingleby Barwick. I'm also sure that once parents have a child settled in school they won't wish to distrupt their education by moving them (nor would this be feasible since the new school would start with just Year 7 and perhaps a small Year 8). <br /><br />There are, however, plenty of parents who wish their children to have access to the extended school day and can't do this when a bus journey is required. <br /><br />regards<br />Frannie RFrannieRnoreply@blogger.com