EoI will be considered by ministers "soon"

[Paul Welsh]

I've put this on the web site -
http://www.savestbernards.co.uk/news/1-latest-news/92-eoi-will-be-considered-by-ministers-qsoonq

Essentially, we can expect a decision from the government about the EoI "soon".

[Paul Welsh]

This news will almost certainly appear in today's Monday Letter from
St Bernard's. It appeared in St Joseph's weekly letter on Friday.

Bishop Peter is visiting Holy Family Primary school on Wednesday so
who knows, the announcement about the EoI and his visit may dovetail.

Interestingly, St Joseph's newsletter mentions that St Joseph's is
part of Slough's submission for funds from the BSF (Building Schools
for the Future) programme. I don't recall this being mentioned in
previous newsletters, but I could be wrong.

[ni...@cre.org.uk]

You are probably right, Paul.
They always leave the bad news 'til last!!
Best, Nick.

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[Paul Welsh]

The same statement is, as predicted, in the St Bernard's Monday Letter.

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[Ed Lyons]

It is in the Monday letter for St Bernard's a verbatim statement. I note the reference to the Catholic children of "Slough" - not any other catholic children who attend school in Slough.
 
Shame the update could not have included recent comments from the CES regarding Academies, and possible implications for selective entry. "Open" communication is welcome and so would a balanced summary of the specific interests and agendas of all concerned, this might help reduce the concern and suspicions which abound.
 
The reference to Slough children specifically, implies the Northants Diocese has little or possibly no interest in those children who attend St Bernard's / St Joseph's but live outside Slough. But even for those within Slough, there is no clear statement for or against selective entry, and beyond the worthy statement in the newsletter, no clear strategy indicating how the Diocese's stated aim is to be fulfilled in either the short or long term.
 
In these circumstances it is difficult not to speculate that there could be motives other than the children's best interest, or that the current EoI is simply going to lead to unforeseen problems into the future as  vague policy and politics continue to dominate. Meantime parents continue to fret for the future of their children's catholic education and have nothing concrete to guide their decisions.
 
Hiding behind "process" as a reason for not being open about existing agendas is simply disingenuous, and unlikely to be in the best interest of anyone, at least as far as I can tell, with the communication such as it is.
 
A mighty Oak is being slowly strangled by the "ivy" of bureaucracy and hidden agendas.
 
WHY?? 

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[Paul Welsh]

Hi Ed,

An academy has to take the majority of its children from the local
area. Hence the emphasis on Slough kids.

This was emphasised nearly two years ago at the sole meeting with
parents that there has been about this. Incidentally, I wonder
whether Langley and Slough grammars have thought this aspect through;
they have expressed interest in becoming selective academies. Perhaps
they figure correctly that there will be nobody to enforce any rules.

The EoI is for a non-selective academy.

I found the mention of future "open" communication amusing. It's an
admission that it has been far from open thus far. Heck, they don't
even try to spin it by saying they will *continue* to be open!

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[Tony OShea]

Good evening Ed et al,

 

Ed - your comments hit the nail on the head regarding the ‘mighty oak’ and it is a shame that the few cannot see the loss to so many, Once again we wait in anticipation to an announcement from the Diocese (or others)as they have assured all parents that any information will be communicated openly as soon as it is available. I must say that I look forward to this as the majority of information obtained in the past 18 months has been redacted and certainly not openly available.

 

In the meantime, you may be interested to review the link below from the BBC regarding ‘Slough 2’ being on the BSF list as STOPPED! I do not know what this means in full at this stage, if anything, so we will wait to hear if any communication will be issued…?

 

Happy reading!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/05_07_2010_schoolbuilding.pdf

 

Regards,

 

Tony

---

From: Ed Lyons <ed.l...@hotmail.co.uk>
To: save-st-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, 28 June, 2010 16:46:05

[Paul Welsh]

Thanks, Tony.

Whereas the document on the BBC site gives specific school names for
other education authorities, poor old Slough just gets the cryptic
entry:

Slough
Slough2 Stopped

Academies in other authorities generally have the comment "Academy -
for discussion".

However, there is a clue in one of the emails I received as part of a
freedom of information request. If you look here:

http://www.savestbernards.co.uk/images/stories/foi/dec/Image005.jpg

You will see that in December 2009 our friend Saleem Quazi (I do hope
he manages to make it through the forthcoming public sector
redundancies) refers to the "Slough 2" project in one of his emails.
It would therefore seem that "Slough 2" is in fact the proposed
Catholic Academy!

So, here's hoping that the Catholic Academy plan is dead in the water.

Of course, poor St Joseph's BSF funding is almost certainly not going
to happen either and that leaves the Diocese having to come up with a
Plan B.

Plan B, as I've often said, may well mean signing over St J's to
Slough Council and making St B's comprehensive, so the battle may be
won but not the war.

[ni...@cre.org.uk]

Thanks Tony.

Sounds like good news and delighted to see it clearly says STOPPED against Boston Grammar Schools and Boston High School in Lincolnshire!!

Best, Nick.   

 

---

[Paul Welsh]

I don't think so, Martin. That 2nd wave was part of a wish list that
was due to be put on Ed Balls' credit card. Unfortunately he maxed
out that card and it has had to be cut up.

The list, I believe, refers to projects that had progressed to the
application stage.

On 05/07/2010, Fennell, Martin <Martin....@lsi.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the encouraging remarks.
>
> The pessimism in me takes me back to the parents meeting at St B, and they
> were taking about waves of Building for Schools money. I recall from that,
> that St B would be in the second phase of the BFS money.
>
> Could that be what they are talking about?
>
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[ni...@cre.org.uk]

I think they’re up to ‘waves’ 5 or 6 now in some places. Whatever ‘wave’ it is, without BSF money, they can’t rebuild St Bernard’s and St Joseph’s as a single large academy, so that must be good?  

Best, Nick.      

 

---

From: save-st-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:save-st-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Fennell, Martin

Sent: 05 July 2010 20:49
To: save-st-...@googlegroups.com

Subject: RE: [ssb] Re: Update 05-07-2010

 

Thanks for the encouraging remarks.

 

The pessimism in me takes me back to the parents meeting at St B, and they were taking about waves of Building for Schools money. I recall from that, that St B would be in the second phase of the BFS money.

 

Could that be what they are talking about?

 

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[John McDonnell]

Hi Tony

I saw a note sometime ago asking about another FACT meeting - Any ideas if/when we should organise a get together so we can all get a joined up understanding where we are?

Thanks & Regards

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From:	Tony OShea <fact...@btinternet.com>
To:	save-st-...@googlegroups.com
Date:	05/07/2010 19:39
Subject:	[ssb] Re: Update 05-07-2010
Sent by:	save-st-...@googlegroups.com

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[Paul Dodgshun]

Schools Forum 10/12/2008 - BSF
"5.4 A template and spreadsheet was provided ... The main decision to be taken related to the prioritisation of schools so that 4/5 schools are in phase 1 and the remaining 5/6 are in phase 2.

"5.7 ... Phase 1
St. Joseph's Catholic
Slough and Eton CE
Baylis Court
Wexham Secondary

Phase 2
Haybrook
Westgate
Slough Grammar
St. Bernard's Catholic
Langley Grammar
Herschel Grammar"

My interpretation of this "Slough2 stopped" is therefore that St.J's gets its money and the four Slough grammars plus Haybrook and Westgate do not.

A note of caution about 5.12 :-
"5.12 If the Catholic Academy project should proceed and is not considered part of this phasing by the DCSF ...

Regards,
Paul Dodgshun

[Paul Welsh]

Thanks Paul.  I guess Slough2 could refer to phase 2.

 

However, I just spotted this from Construction Enquirer which summarises the situation well - http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2010/07/06/government-axes-bsf-projects-at-preferred-bidder-stage :

 

Education Secretary Michael Gove has closed the school building programme and axed all projects not at financial close.

 

Some 58 BSF projects covering nearly 715 schools have been cancelled with immediate effect.

 

Now as I recall, none of Slough's projects are anywhere near "financial close".  After all, the Academy is only at the EoI stage and the BSF application for St Joseph's et al was only submitted in January.  The article goes on to say:

 

School rebuilding and refurbishment projects identified by affected local authorities may go ahead at a later date. But this will depend on the outcome of a new education review launched by Gove.

 

The review will be led by Sebastian James, group operations director of high street retailer DSG international, formerly Dixons.

 

So for my money, everything planned for Slough is on hold pending the forthcoming review by the chap from DSGI.  It could well be that this saga will continue.

 

DSGI is a company which is expert in trashing shareholder value - their share price was 150p in 2007 and 26p today.  OK, so they had a rights issue, but you get the picture. 

[Paul Dodgshun]

Paul,
I would agree we are 'polishing the crystal ball' here but there is
the issue of the surging birth rate in Slough. To meet the demand
that will arrive in Year 7 in a few years time will require building;
there is simply no alternative. Central government would be very
pushed indeed to stop necessary capacity increases, so I am still
inclined to think that Phase 1 needs to be carried out but I would
agree that listing Slough1 as unaffected, or otherwise, would have
cleared up the doubt.
PaulD

[Fennell, Martin]

At the New Pupil Induction day this morning, Mr McAteer said

"If he were a betting man, the proposed changes would be off"

He did emphasize that he has no information and no authority to say that.

He also said that if the changes do not happen, there is a lot of work to be done that funds need to be found for.

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[Paul Welsh]

I took the liberty of emailing Frances Image last night about this on behalf of FaCT and received a reply this morning. 

 

Here's what I asked:

 

Dear Mrs Image

 

Can you please confirm whether Michael Gove's announcement yesterday means that the proposed Catholic Academy in Slough has been "stopped" pending the review by Sebastian James of DSG International plc?

Can you also confirm whether the application by Slough Council on behalf of St Joseph's Catholic High School for Building Schools for the Future funds has also been stopped?

It would seem to me that they have, since neither were at the stage of financial close.

 

Regards

Paul Welsh
Secretary
FaCT
www.savestbernards.co.uk

 

She replied this morning and for some odd reason copied in a whole bunch of people namely, Kevin McGinnell from the Diocese, Clair Pyper from Slough Council, Kevin O'Driscoll (chair of governors at St J's and governor at St B's), Howard McBrien (Chair of governors at St B's), Kevin Jones (head of St J's) and someone at St Bernard's.

 

She simply said:

 

Dear Mr Welsh

 

Thank you for your email. As soon as we have had discussions with the Local Authority and the Academies Division we will inform the schools of the outcome.

 

With best wishes

Frances Image

[susy shearer]

Paul,

 

Thank you for doing this. 

 

I have to admit to being more than slightly concerned by the choice of type

of organisation to undertake this review.  A similar scenario arose during the

large-scale reviews of music education service provision in RBWM which took

place some years ago, and whilst the size and impact of the exercise were 

different, a number of key details and principles are remarkably consistent

with this situation.  We should be prepared to step up our campaign quickly

and possibly dramatically should the results be less than we hope for. 

Best wishes,

Susy

 

---

From: Paul Welsh <paul.w...@googlemail.com>
To: save-st-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 7 July, 2010 11:10:47
Subject: Re: [ssb] New Pupil Induction Day

--

[Pat McGill]

Dear All

 

Although I follow all the e-mails I tend as a parent governor not to get too involved in the discussions

The below e-mail from Kellie is quite simply wrong, Kellie your friend is wholly inaccurate I cannot

Imagine what has caused the comments. It is highly frustrating but there is simply no new information

Available. As for tomorrow’s meeting I do not know what will happen but nothing is a foregone conclusion.

 

Pat

 

From: save-st-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:save-st-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kellie Day
Sent: 13 July 2010 13:32
To: save-st-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [ssb] New Pupil Induction Day

 

My daughter will be joining St Bernard's in September and I have therefore been following the postings of this group avidly for some time now. I was delighted to hear Mr McAteer's comment that if he were a betting man he would bet against the merger. However, today I was 'reliably' informed by a friend of a St B's governor that the merger was definitely happening and the school would be well on its way to becoming a comprehensive by this time next year. Is this just sour grapes from someone whose child didn't get into St B's or is tomorrows emergency governors meeting a foregone conclusion.   Kellie --- On Thu, 8/7/10, susy shearer <shea...@btinternet.com> wrote:

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.830 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3002 - Release Date: 07/13/10 07:36:00

[Zoe Ward]

I heard something similar direct from a St Jo's governor although a time limit was not said -   it was definitely going to happen..

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Kellie Day <kell...@rocketmail.com> wrote:

My daughter will be joining St Bernard's in September and I have therefore been following the postings of this group avidly for some time now. I was delighted to hear Mr McAteer's comment that if he were a betting man he would bet against the merger. However, today I was 'reliably' informed by a friend of a St B's governor that the merger was definitely happening and the school would be well on its way to becoming a comprehensive by this time next year. Is this just sour grapes from someone whose child didn't get into St B's or is tomorrows emergency governors meeting a foregone conclusion.   Kellie --- On Thu, 8/7/10, susy shearer <shea...@btinternet.com> wrote:

From: susy shearer <shea...@btinternet.com>

Subject: Re: [ssb] New Pupil Induction Day

To: save-st-...@googlegroups.com Date: Thursday, 8 July, 2010, 8:11