Anyone else get harangued outside Northcote Library today?! Post Reply

[schoolgatesmum]

I'm not sure why this has become a Chestnut Grove debate. I could understand if there were surplus places and the school was struggling but from what everyone (mainly from the anti lobby) has said, it is a very successful school. And the figures on the WBC website show that the school is in fact oversubscribed. I think a lot of people at CG might be a bit offended by the suggestion that people from BTC would improve the school. Are you suggesting that the current students and parents aren't good enough and it would be better to give places to children BTC?

[foureyes]

It's not just about Chestnut Grove. There's also Battersea Park School if you want mixed.. that's a half hour walk away (at most). There's Burntwood for girls and Ernest Bevin for boys a bus ride away. There is plenty of choice in Wandsworth. But none of the people who are pro the new school will admit that they don't want their children to go to these schools, they just prefer to pretend that they wouldn't get in. They would.

[yummydaddy]

It is totally irrelevant whether or not my children would get into Battersea Park if they applied (they couldn't anyway as they are 5 and 6 year old).

It is also totally irrelevant whether or not I want them to go there (I have no problem to admit that I don't want my children to go to a poorly performing school, shame on me !)

In fact it's totally irrelevant what each of us in our own self-interest would want (and let's be really, really honest here: everybody on this thread, be it against the school or in favour is motivated by his own self interest, be it a school supporter, Tory-hater, CG parent, Union people, Anti-Academy, etc, etc)

All that counts for this council, and they can not simply think only half a year ahead, is, that there is a wave of children entering the system in a few year (they already start straining the Primary schools). Depending on different estimates, between 1,100 and 1,700 A YEAR more than 4-5 years ago. This compares with currently only about 175 spare place in non-VA secondary schools.

Simple Maths.

And that's why this school will happen, no matter how loud some people shout.

[localunionmember]

The nub of the issue is threefold.

A self selecting group has decided to exclude the Winstansley kids for no good reason that the rest of us can understand.

The same self selecting group have decided to take the bread of the mouths of the existing schools.

The leader of the self selecting group is telling lies about an agreement with the head of Battersea Park school about a north/south axis.

This is not a good basis to proceed. "selfish" should not be a motto for any new school.

[Thankyoutories]

Livegreen
Thank you for the reply.

I will ignore the condescending tone about "simple" maths.

You have no idea about who I am or what I do. So please do not make cheap shots.

Can we please be clear.

If a child who lived on Belleville Road applied to get into Chestnut Grove, would they get in?

Yes or no.

Its that simple.

If its a no, then I accept that there is a need for a £20M CapEx spend on a new school.

If they can get in, then there is NO need.

Or, let me rephrase

How many children between the commons applied for CG and didn't get in?

Please answer the question.

That is the logic that underpins your entire capital expenditure.

If those children have a school they can get into then we can spend our scare resource on other more pressing matters.

TYT

[yummydaddy]

Union member:

on your three points:

* Nobody has a policy to exclude Winstansley kids. In fact it's the opposite, the feeder school approach (not that I particularly like this approach) means that through High view feeder there might be well a number of Winstansley kids you get in. If the sole criteria was distance (which it is for many schools in this countries, and which in my opinion would be the fairest and clearest) and the school was oversubscribed (which it might well be, considering the exploding birth rates in this borough) then Winstansley kids would not get in.
So, "for no good reason" is plain wrong: if they don't get it is because of distance.

* "bread of the mouths of the existing schools". It's really Labour's, and not the local people's, fault to have raised expectations and have promised billions (that they didn't have) to update schools that are in working order. Of course, everybody would love to have shiny new annexes and art centres. But the priority, in the age of austerity and exploding local birth rates, is to get the most bang for bucks. If I can get 1,000 new school place for x £, it's pure luxury to spend these x £ on schools which could not get me those extra 1,000 school places.

* I'm not privy to what was said on a north/south axis. But again, irrelevant, if you would take distance (see point 1) than Winstansley kids might not get in .


BTW: what you call self selecting, I call self-initiative and energy. And that's what drives prosperous countries and economies; I know, this is not something Unions would want to hear.



TYT:

It is totally irrelevant whether or not my children would get into CG (and depending on ability band mine might get into GC). And it is clearly not as simple as you claim: When my kids will go to secondary school, there will be between 1,100 and 1,700 secondary school pupils MORE every year, this won't be solved by the 90 distance-base CG places. Is this really so difficult to understand ? Or am I missing something ?

[foureyes]

Thank you Tories. The answer to your question is yes the child would get in. It would also get into Battersea Park School, if male Ernest Bevin, if female a very good chance of Burntwood (I'm not quite so sure of this because of the selection). If all you lot who are so keen for this new school got together to improve the existing ones, we would have a borough full of "Graveneys". If these schools were oversubscribed by locals in a few years, then you'd have a case. At the moment you don't.

[yummydaddy]

Well, schools are not built over a few weeks. You have to plan ahead, based on your projected school places / birth rates. Anything else is irresponsible muddling through.

[localunionmember]

can i rephrase the question.

most winstanley kids go to falconbrook. so why are kids from falconbrook school being excluded?

[foureyes]

Because the people who are in this group won't have ever heard of Falconbrook school, never mind the Winstanley estate!

I went to a meeting about this a couple of years ago in the cafe on Wandsworth common and they were all pledging 000s to support the campaign - after all they'd be saving 00000s if it went ahead. It was actually sickening and I really hope it doesn't happen - and I speak as someone with kids at one of the feeder schools - so I would "benefit" if it went ahead.

[yummydaddy]

Falconbrook is 2.1 Km from the new school site
The 3 biggest feeders (Wix has only one form) will be Belleville (350m from site, 4 form), Honeywell 650m (3 form), High View 850m (2-3 form).

Your question has already been answered a number of times on this thread - Asking the same question over and over again will not move Falconbrook any closer than the 2.1 Km.

[Thankyoutories]

@YummyDaddy

You claim "It is totally irrelevant whether or not my children would get into CG (and depending on ability band mine might get into GC)"

Why?

Surely if your child can get into a local secondary school then all is well?

Are you saying that CG is not good enough?

If that is what you believe, please have the honesty to say that.

What is harming the pro-school debate, and believe me it is being harmed, is that it is percevied as simply a middle class enclave opting out of the local education system. Some of the comments here are not helping.

As I understand it the government are now very worried that this is going to turn into another angle on the "bankers bonus" row and now that they are failing to contain the latest bonus round in the city the Bolingbroke school has gone from "very likely" to "maybe" in the last few days. Expect to hear issues regarding the site suitability very soon and unexpected problems with the building.

[yummydaddy]

TYT

It is irrelevant because we need 1,100 - 1,700 new school place (when my children move to secondary). I might have mentioned this already ...

I have already said plenty of times (read the thread) that I don't think CG is as excellent as some people claim it is. I'm honest.

You don't seem to have the honesty to admit that what drives you is your envy that some motivated parents set up a free school. Plus you appear to be envious about people living between the commons. You also seem to be envious about the bankers bonuses (the meagre 1% of supporters who are bankers, you can't stop banging on about it, can you ).

Your petty envy doesn't matter, what counts is that this council needs a massive amount of extra school place.

[schoolgatesmum]

@TYT - I'm very interested to know where you get your information regarding the government being worried about this turning into a bankers bonus row. As far as I'm aware the only things in the press are the Morning Star and press releases from the GMB (hardly unbiased sources). Maybe you have information not available to the general public? Or maybe this is just an attempt to get people worried about the school?

[Thankyoutories]

I'm going to step out of this thread now.

I think we've all put our points of view forward and I don't think that we're going to change the minds of people in "opposing" camps.

I wish everyone on the thread good luck with the education of their children.

TYT