Thursday, 22 March 2012

Sorry, Clare, But ‘The Opinions Of The People Who Really Matter’ Are Being Considered…

…they just aren’t who you fondly assume them to be..
Southend Council is expected to rubber-stamp plans to make Porters Grange Primary School, in Lancaster Gardens, Southend, accept 90 pupils in September this year and next. Until last year, the school took just 60 per intake.

This is despite headteacher Ros Ferdinand and chair of governors Samantha Richardson claiming this continued raised level of intake would put pupils’ education “in jeopardy”.
…Parent Clare Humphreys, of Cheltenham Road, Southend, who has a daughter at the school, added: “The school has objected in the past and still objects for valid reasons, but the local authority doesn’t seem to listen.

“Surely the opinions of the people who really matter – the pupils, their parents and the dedicated school staff – should be heard and seriously considered?”
Gosh, you’d think so, wouldn’t you? But then, thanks to State education, you aren’t ‘a customer’, so you’ll just have to lump it.
Southend Council bosses say they are having to increase numbers because they are struggling to find enough new primary school places for children in the town following a baby boom over the past decade.
So we’ll just squeeze ‘em all into one school.
The council says the school can use a spare classroom and two teachers’ rooms.
No broom cupboards? Have they got a basement? Come on, think laterally!
Alastair Robertson, group manager for school access, said: “Porters Grange has admitted higher numbers in the past.

“Officers remain of the view the school has sufficient accommodation and the admission of additional numbers would be manageable.”
Because, after all, Alastair doesn’t have to manage it. So, that’s all right then.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous22 March 2012 at 12:21

    "they are struggling to find enough new primary school places for children in the town following a baby boom over the past decade"

    Hmm, I wonder just how many of these new children are not actually the result of a baby-boom but of immigration or is that 'the question that must not be asked'?

    Here's an idea. Close down the Local Education Authority, the Schools Access Department (since they're obviously incompetent), the Education this and Education that departments - and then re-open them as schools, staffed by all these supposed eduction experts (of which there appears to be a multitude, unlike teachers. Could it have been a bureaucratic-baby-boom?).

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  2. ivan22 March 2012 at 12:48

    "would put pupils’ education “in jeopardy”
    What education?

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  3. Captain Haddock22 March 2012 at 18:20

    "Hmm, I wonder just how many of these new children are not actually the result of a baby-boom but of immigration or is that 'the question that must not be asked'? " ..

    Oh, I don't for one minute doubt the core truth of that .. there has indeed been a "baby boom" in the last decade (or more) .. but not as the result of over-production by the indigenous people of these islands ..

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  4. JuliaM23 March 2012 at 05:43

    "Hmm, I wonder just how many of these new children are not actually the result of a baby-boom but of immigration or is that 'the question that must not be asked'?"

    In Southend, probably not many. Not yet, anyway.

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