Jomi

James Barber wrote; "Even if schools convert I'd be amazed if they survive ANY change of national government. Its not as if any parents are going to vehemently defend schools they have less to zero influence over and that Ofsted aren't reporting on". In my opinion this school does not deserve defending neither does the Head. This is one school that the parents do not seem to have any influence over at all when it comes to issues or changes, and where Ofsted seem to have been blinded by a great performance and not the realities of the school. I hope that when Ofsted do their next inspection that the flaws in the Head's ambitions are identified and that she is held to account for the current failings in her agenda...the school does not practise a philosophy of "Every Child Matters', so why does anyone believe that it would think for one second that parents, other schools or the local community matter?

I believe that the additional costs currently covered by the borough would also include the school insurances, including public liability, long term sick pay, maternity pay, and the benefits of centralised purchasing for most of the sundries etc that a school uses, I can only hopefully assume a school would calculate the impact of this in calculating whether it is a benefit to come out of the Borough's umbrella or not........I have not been able to attend the school academy meetings to know whether these things have been considered but it has all moved ahead very quickly so it was a little difficult to comment following one letter and one parents meeting. It seems rash to me to be part of the first of anything like this and I suspect that 'tiddles' is right and that they will be seeking private investment or sponsorship in the future....lets face it - it is a convenient time for the government to be moving themselves neatly away from accountability for children's education...how nice to be able to say that a school had responsibility for its own budget and that the failures in our children's education (because of lack of funding) is nothing to do with them........ Perhaps I am even more cynical.......!

I hope when they become an academy that the poor social and psychological welfare support of children improves in line with the extra money....and yes I have complained to the Head many times and am now escalating my complaints to the Governors....