The long-awaited consultation

A letter, with some odd uses of English, and the salutation ‘Dear Stakeholder’ came yesterday. I’m a parent, not a stakeholder. The salient points are:

• The consultation runs from Tuesday 25 March 2008 to Friday 2 May. It seems to be run by a Post 16 working party, whose membership has not been made public. The letter is signed by Carolyn Lambert, who, at the council meeting last autumn, was a strong opponent of the closure. Parents will hope she has not been suborned.
• There’s a public meeting on Wednesday 23 April at 7pm.
• The governors will make a decision at a meeting on 14 July. History students will remember that this date marked the end of feudal autocracy in France; it might do so once more.

The consultation come much too late to be of any use to the students in Year 11 who have lost the chance to stay at the school. If consultation were to be meaningful, it should have happened before the governors took their decision. I’ll scan the letter as soon as I can.

School libraries summit

CILIP, the professional association for library and information professionals, held a summit yesterday, to discuss the crisis in school libraries and agree an action plan. There is a trend around the country to cut professional library posts in schools. Seaford Head, partly no doubt as a result of the closure of the sixth form, is no exception, and will lose its professional manager.

Still waiting for Ofsted

To pass the time while we wait for Ofsted to report, have a look at this study:
‘Schools are manipulating a new system of Ofsted inspections to exaggerate success’
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2267697,00.html and this one from the Times on how ineffective school governing bodies are: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3613917.ece

Waiting for Ofsted

While waiting for Ofsted to publish their results, which the school already know but will not divulge, I sent the following letter to Robert Brandley, the Chair of the Governors, today:

Dear Mr Brandley,I was interested to read in the press that a consultation on the future of the sixth form is to take place by the end of March. Many parents believe this is far too late, and that the school should have consulted parents, staff and students before the decision to suspend the sixth form was taken last autumn.Nevertheless, we and others will want to contribute to the consultation. There is no mention of it on the school’s website, in the Link nor have parents had a letter from the school. I would be grateful if you would let me know when and how the consultation will take place. The end of March, the date quoted in the press, is not far off.Yours sincerely,
Background: Lynton Golds is quoted in the Argus as saying, “A formal consultation regarding the closure of the sixth form will take place at the end of March and is being managed by a representative group of key stakeholders who will guarantee that the process is both transparent and fair.

“All staff, students, parents and community stakeholders will be invited to respond. The governing body will reflect upon the responses and will announce a decision by the end of this academic year.”

The inspection

There’s been some good press coverage of the inspection, in the Argus (except for a misleading headline) and the Seaford Gazette.

The school has been turned into a Potemkin village, according to students.

It looks as if the school will be given an indication of the outcome tomorrow, but on the Ofsted website publication of reports runs about a fortnight after inspection dates. Given the school’s clandestine way of conducting its business, it is unlikley they will let students or parents know the outcome until they have to.

Ofsted inspection: 12-13 March

The Ofsted inspection of Seaford Head will take place on 12 and 13 March, next Wednesday and Thursday, says a letter to parents that arrived this morning.

This is a chance to hold the school’s management to account for the closure of the sixth form without consultation. Question 5, which asks parents whether they agree that the school is “well led and managed’, and questions 6 and 7, about how far the school takes account of students’ and parents’ views, are clearly relevant. I shall certainly take advantage of the ability to add additional comments.

Teacher’s jobs to go: announcement this afternoon

Students are being sent home early today, so a staff meeting can take place, widely believed to be to announce the job cuts resulting from the closure of the sixth form. I’ll post details here as soon as I know them.

There is also still no news on the Osted inspection, due this term. I have written again to Ofsted to ask for the opportunity for parents to talk to them about the sixth form, and the way the school is managed.

Sad news

There’s sad news in yesterday’s Argus of the death of a former pupil and supporter of the campaign, Rachael Veal, killed in a car crash in Devon, where she attended Peninsula Medical School:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/generalnews/display.var.1982147.0.medical_student_killed_in_horror_crash.php
Our deepest sympathy goes to her family and friends.

New Year

I think too much is made of New Year messages. The superstitious are welcome to the pronouncements of archbishops, popes, chief rabbis and grand muftis. As for politicians…
There are delusions of grandeur in Seaford, where, to the gratitude of local newspapers with pages to fill and not very much happening, every local dignitary has something to say. If one takes the messages in the Seaford Express, not available online, it is disappointing is that none of them, even those who have supported the campaign, such as Norman Baker and John Freeman, have anything to say about the sixth form closure. The Deputy Mayor Carolyn Lambert calls for young people to get involved in the town; yet the best example I can think of of young people taking an interest in town affairs is the huge support and involvement by students in the campaign to keep the sixth form. Incidentally, the school website makes much of Sonar, ‘a new newsletter that has been developed by the college to inform the local community about our specialist status activities and achievements’. How much did that cost , one wonders? The governors can’t organise a consultation on the sixth form, but they have money to burn for PR consultants. Sonar includes a lot about last term’s fun run, but fails to mention that the fun run was turned into a demonstration against the closure. The picture above is from the Seaford Gazette’s report.

For 2008, we will continue the campaign for the sixth form. It is too late now for current Year 11 pupils; the suspension for them means a closure and they have been forced elsewhere. There is still the possibility of a judicial review of the governors’ decision. We also want an enquiry into the way in which the school has been managed. There are opportunities to raise these issues at the consultation evenings next term, as a part of the forthcoming Ofsted inspection and with local politicians.
Thanks for your support in 2007: on to 2008.

Governors have a chance to reverse the decision

The governors meet this afternoon, Monday 17 December, once more in camera, our request to have an observer at a meeting of this public body having been refused.

Nevertheless, they have a chance to redeem themselves this afternoon. Let’s hope they have the courage to act in the interests of students, staff, the school and the town, rather than acting as the chair of governors’ and principal’s lap dogs. We call on them to:

• withdraw the decision to suspend the sixth form, pending consultation
•  publicise and promote the sixth form vigorously to potential students in Seaford and elsewhere
• stop the job cuts
• hold an enquiry into the management of the school in recent years