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

[sw17mamma]

Sorry to see you leaving this thread just as I was going to add my two peneth.

I am a Tooting mum, and by distance, Graveney is our nearest school. We are less than 800m away. However we never fall in the immediate catchment. Therefore, our local children have to get in by the test. Thus, it is no surprise that by my counting children on our street attend at least 5 different secondary schools in the area.

Why don' they get in? There are 260 places at Graveney. There are 120 from the two most local primaries and 60 who get in via the Wandsworth test. So where are the other 80 children coming from?

A high majority come from other places in the borough. Their parents rent a house for the specified amount of time, get their kids into Graveney and then move back to wherever they originally lived., The 'parachuting' into Furzedown culture is huge.

I am for or against the new school. Emphatically FOR.

Give those kids a local school then maybe our local kids can reclaim their local school.

[localunionmember]

Falconbrook school is 1.45km as the crow flies from the Bolingbroke site and 1.8km on the approved walking route. Nearer on both measures than wix lane.

Facts are stubborn things.

So why are Winstanley kids attending Falconbrook excluded. We should be told the reason as the reason Mr de Maria claimed re head of Battersea Park school has proved not the be factual and answer re High View and Winstanley kids was worthy of a politician i.e completely misses the point.

Rubbishing GMB will get the proponents of this school nowhere. They need to answer the questions posed. Claiming that there are answers in this thread is not an adequate response.

[localunionmember]

This story will go national when the £13m to acquire the site, £20m to upgrade it and £6m to run it is confirmed. the reason is simple. this money is being taken from existing schools to pay for this school.

This is what was in Financial News on 16th December.


Battersea power struggle ensues over bankers' school

Maryam Omidi
16 Dec 2010

An education union is up in arms over the creation of what it has dubbed a “bankers’ free school” in a well-heeled neighbourhood in Wandsworth, which has the support of 25 bankers and private equity individuals.

GMB has accused Wandsworth Council of bowing to the financiers, who include individuals from top City banks such as Morgan Stanley, by pushing to build the school on the site of the disused Bolingbroke Hospital in Northcote – an area that has acquired the moniker “Nappy Valley” for its high birth rates and affluence.

The union has claimed the council will pay for the school with £13m of public funds and gerrymander the catchment area to ensure only the elite can attend.

“The bankers who were ‘bailed out’ with £850bn of public funds have acquired a taste for using public money to fund their pet projects,” said Paul Maloney, the GMB regional officer in Wandsworth. He added there were “surplus” places at other local secondary schools and a greater need for a primary school in the area.

A spokesman at the council rejected the claims as “very very unlikely”, adding that a secondary school was necessary and negotiations over the site were ongoing.

St George’s NHS Trust, which owns the site, launched a consultation in September regarding the sale of Bolingbroke to make way for 50 apartments, 30% of which would be affordable housing, according to its website.

The Bolingbroke Academy’s website states the school will be a “local, non-selective, socially inclusive non-denomination school, providing opportunities for children from all backgrounds” and open to students based on a number of criteria, including those living closest based on straight line distance and from four local feeder primary schools.

But members of a Facebook group opposed to Bolingbroke Academy have argued that the Neighbourhood Schools Campaign, the parent-led group setting up the school, has chosen the primary schools based on merit rather than distance, and the money would be better spent upgrading the area's other neglected educational institutions.

In an email to Financial News, one of the parents, Andy Henderson, who works at JP Morgan Chase, said that while the area was popular with City workers, the school was in no way restricted to those with parents working in finance.

Henderson, who earns a "modest salary and lives in a two-bed flat", said the school was located in a middle-class area.

"The fact that a group of concerned parents have stood up and are trying to create a new school in a derelict building rather than it just becoming 'yet another property development' built for profit in my view is an excellent use of an old building in an already highly populated area," he said.

Here is a list of the 25 parents flagged up by GMB who have voiced their support for the creation of the school over the building of new flats, all of whom work in the City. The full list, available on the Wandsworth Council website, comprises a few hundred objectors to the property development:

Martin Wygas - Investment Executive, Lyceum Capital

Jacqueline Wygas - Royal Bank of Scotland

Edward Squire - JP Morgan Cazenove

Sue Smith - JP Morgan

John Rowland - Finance Director, Alchemy Partners Private Equity company

Laurence Ryan - Risk Manager, HSBC

Marco Gregotti - Executive Director, Morgan Stanley

Karen Gent - HR Business Partner, Credit Suisse

Julian Morse - International Equities, Cenkos Securities

Jean-Maurice Ladure - Head of Investment Strategy Europe, Coutts

Andrew Lennox - Vice President, Central Government, Capgemini

Julian Morgan - Partner, Advovo Wealth Management LLP

Andy Henderson - Vice President, Domestic GL Strategy, JP Morgan Chase

Heiko Krakowitzer - Director, Citigroup

Louise Parker - Underwriter, Arch Insurance Europe

Evelyn Hunter - Barclays Private Equity

Ian George - Nomura Investment Bank

Ed Duggan - JP Morgan

Leigh Enevoldson - Director, NM Rothschild

Tracey Appleby - Equity Syndicate, Nomura Securities

James Ashwell - Vice President, Morgan Stanley

Sam Cosh - Senior Fund Manager, F&C Investments

Jonathan Conway - Director, Barclays Capital

Frances Bailey - Executive Director, Morgan Stanley

Debbie Checketts - Head of Operational Risk, CMC Markets, Forex broker & spread betting
company

[sw17mamma]

So local union member, you're not bothered about the kids of tooting then? Just your local kids.

Ta

[schoolgatesmum]

Has anyone from the GMB looked into the personal details of the other 450 or so people who objected to the Bolingbroke planning application? If they had they might find that there are many people who have nothing to do with the world of finance but are actually just local people voicing concerns for a local public building. I objected to the application (I'm not on the list above but then "part-time book-keeper for a small business" isn't really newsworthy) and I think my personal details are irrelevant. Is it really a surprise that 25 out of 500 people who objected to a local planning application work for financial institutions? It's a bit like saying "do you realise that there are people living on the same streets as us who work in The City?" How many of the 500 people work in the media? Civil service? Public sector? Unemployed? Are in a union? In a political party? You could go on for ever and make it into whatever story you want. I feel it's pretty low to name people from a planning application and try and turn it into story which bears no relation to the school. But then I guess that's the world of politics.

[foureyes]

Don't worry SW17 mummy, if these people get their school they will turn their nose up at Graveney and you'll be able to send your kids there.

[sw17mamma]

Thanks four eyes! I hoping that if they get this school then the kids of tooting have a fairer chance of getting into Graveney.

[localunionmember]

The names of all 450 opposing the flats and supporting the school with their addresses is already published on the council website and has been in the public domain for months.

GMB merely drew attention to information already published by Wandsworth Council.

[yummydaddy]

Union member

Trying to bash the school by identifying 25 bankers (1% of the supporting parents) is just laughable but at the same time shows everybody how low you are willing to go. No surprise this story has not been picked up by any mainstream media.

It is evident that you are against academies because that's union policy, Academies being outside the Union control.

But really, this discussion is about our children's education and the need for many new school places and not about the Unions loosing power.

[localunionmember]

You obviously dont follow media that closely. Story has been on BBC Today programme, Daily Mirror and Independent.

I am a member of Unite. We recently got a copy of a joint New Year Message from leaders of GMB, Unison and Unite to their 3.5 million members. You can imagine my surprise to find this statement in it.

Secondly, with new Free Schools and Academies in England they want schools competing constantly in a local market and in some areas, e.g. Wandsworth, they are prepared to spend tens of millions of pounds to promote this vision even when there are surplus places in some schools and existing schools in need of repair.

What is happening here is already being watched nationally. Just wait for Tories to commit the £33m and it will hot up.

The leaders of the free school have shown that they are not politicans not having the wisdom to include the kids from the nearer Falconbrook school or at least muddying the watets by not excluding them.

[doleofficedad]

You seem very sure of yourself 'union member'. Spoiling for a dust up with the Thatcherites eh? Keep the red flag flying comrade! My advice to you would be to tone down the hype and beware unintended consequences - the free school policy was never about breaking the teaching unions or the like (it is about stopping the dumbing down of our education system) but because you just can't help yourselves, the only thing you will succeed in doing is to harm these very unions as a direct result of your own actions. Brilliant! The GMB are so witless that by opposing the free school here in Wandsworth for example, they are denying new jobs being created for their own members. People outside the looney left see you for what you are - a hapless bunch of self centred 1970s relics who put political ideology above the education of young children. Thats pretty cold and heartless. I don't think anyone is really that bothered or worried about your negative campaining and threats - it's as pointless as it is predictable.

[The NSC]

Local union member - I am all for spirited debate but FYI I have just posted the following on another forum about the so called misquote by me of the head at BPS. You will see that the source of the story is in fact GMB spin. Here is what I said on the other forum.

"For the sake of balance, I should point out that I never actually quoted Gail Keller about anything. The source of the misquote is the GMB press release dated 6/1/11 that stated: “Last month the leader of the free school claimed that the Head of Battersea Park school had agreed to divide up the area on a north/south axis. GMB has checked out this claim and find that it is not true”. I’m not surprised the sleuths at GMB found that not to be true – because it’s not! It’s ludicrous to make up a blatant lie saying there was some kind of agreement in place to carve up Battersea. But there you go, thats politics. So no, I didnt misquote Gail. In fact I didn’t quote him at all. The source of the misquote is in fact the spin used by the GMB. All Gail states is that he would like BPS to be the school of choice for all of Wandsworth and parts of both Lambeth and K&C. I am sure the heads of all the other schools in those 3 boroughs would rightly aspire to the same thing."

This comes on the back of a report in the Sunday Times yesterday about left wing bullying tactics in relation to Free School groups.

Best,
Jon De Maria

[equality]

Wow, yummydaddy, do you speak to people in normal life the way you speak on this site, do you not preview your posts? Do you not ask someone to read them to put a check on rude and patronising behaviour. You speak to anyone outside your camp as if they are stupid! Anyway, I posed a question nicely and you ignored it. The question is this. Surely all schools are oversubscribed because pupils apply to several (is it 5?) schools. That does not take into account schools outside Wandsworth, private schools etc. So am I wrong? Happy to have you point this out yummydaddy but please try to be polite. Am I missing something? If I am not then surely it has to be more than 5x the number of applications for it to be truly oversubscribed. This constant refrain about the birth rate is not convincing. If WW schools have places, surely there is no problem as to numbers, why don't you just admit you don't fancy what is on offer?
Union member, if you are engaging the media, do remember to mention the expansion of Belleville to suit the BTC parents. This thread is really a shocker but it is the nastiness of some of the posts that will get the media involved. Some of the selfish statements make great copy. Keep it up, all you are doing is giving the media and anti school campaign more ammo.

[equality]

Sorry, forgot to add one thing. Not everyone is motivated by "petty envy". I live near enough to one of the feeder schools to be almost sure of getting a place for a child at the Academy but it does not alter my view that it is fundamentally unjust. And sorry again, yummydaddy, you are not the only one who writes in a way that would probably land them a punch if they spoke to people the way they write. Why is it all so uncivilised. The nasty stuff all comes from the pro-school people. I don't get it, why do you do this? As I said, just get together to apply to BPS and CG and you will all get in. Those outside the borough who presently apply and get it will have to go elsewhere and surely that is right? They can go to school in their own borough. We are educating children outside this borough because those in the borough don't fancy what WW offers. WW wake up and smell the coffee!

[doleofficedad]

Equality: Classic 'passive aggressive' bahaviour on your part - blaming others for the same actions you too are culpable of. Your blind prejudice prevents any objective analysis on your part. It is after all you who refers above to punching people is it not? I suspect the more the left wing bully boys campaign against the school, the more it will encourage the supporters of the school to ensure the school does in fact open next year. Plus you should look at the tactics being used by the likes of the unions and their SWP cronies detailed in the Sunday Times yesterday - the very people you are encouraging in your posts above. As I said above, no one takes them seriously because there is no real substance to anything they say - its just very boring 1970s 'bash the oiks' type rhetoric. You are also misplaced in your use of metrics - its not the 'out of borough' kids or the 'indy sector' that is the problem. Do your analysis on pupil numbers closer to home - the number of state primary schools closer than BV or HW to either BPS and/or CG and the total of Year 6 kids currently leaving these schools. That will give you the answer you are looking for. It is also very naive of you to simply dismiss the projected pupil numbers over the coming years. Not only is there a current problem with school places but there is an even greater problem coming our way unless additional places like the new school are planned for now. As has been stated before, excluding the VA schools, there are currently only 176 surplus Year 7 places across the whole borough. These are in 2 schools only - Southfields and Elliot. Thats not a lot of state choice for something as important as educating our children is it?