The meeting was a load of rubbish. The sponsor was a chap with an MBE, orange skin and Simon Cowell's teeth. He also had the politicians gift for talking absolute twaddle without directly answering a single question effectively. I think he must have talked the council into submission.
Basically when I talked to the councillor with the power to veto this whole crock of nonsense at the end of the meeting I got to what I'd already guessed was the heart of the matter.
The other school is failing and has low numbers and needs to close.
The council has no money.
The children need to be accomodated and taught elsewhere.
The council has no money.
The council needs new school buildings.
The council has no money
Central Govt won't give the council money for new buildings.
The council has no money
Central govt will give money for new buildings if council have academy
It doesn't matter that the council would save money by closing the other school that could be diverted into acomodating the children and that as school rolls across the area are dropping it's not a big problem. It doesn't matter that academy's based on the govt's own research are not the success they thought they'd be and underperform ordinary schools. It doesn't matter that parents and students alike don't feel an academy is what's right for us.
The council wants the new shiny building promised by the sponsor.
Bah Humbug!
2 comments:
You nicked the name of my new wip!!
Speaking as someone who is working in Local Authority education I feel your pain. Has the authority had it's Buidling Schools for the Future investment? Or is this supposed to be part of it?
Hi Bids, sorry I nicked your wip title lol. Basically the council messed up big time on the building schools for the future thing - big scandal - hence the no money.
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