Summer holiday decision on the future of primary education in Brent

Map showing unplaced primary children  in Brent 

Click on image to enlarge

Tonight the Brent Council Executive will consider a report setting out plans for future primary provision in the borough as a result of the burgeoning child population. The Council expect to be short of 46 reception class places in September after taking into account places at expanded schools and in bulge classes. However overall they expect as many as 513 Year 1 to Year 4 children to be without a school place in September.  Numbers are expected to rise 'dramatically' in 2012-13 with a record shortage of places of 1778 by 2014-15 if nothing is done.

The report proposes a three-pronged approach to the problem:

A robust lobbying campaign to central government, clearly demonstrating the size of the challenge the Council faces and the inadequacy of the available resources. At the time of writing the government has made no firm proposals or commitments to provide additional capital funding to support the provision of additional school  places. The problems are particularly acute within London, and the Council should actively consider collaborative lobbying with other likeminded Boroughs. On 19 July 2011, the Secretary of State announced that the government will provide an additional £500m to fund more new school places for September 2012 in those areas of greatest need. It is Brent Council's priority to make its case towards this allocation as part of our lobbying efforts.

A medium term approach linked directly to the Council’s emerging property strategy, which considers more radical ways of addressing the challenges associated by providing school places and delivering a ‘fit for purpose’ school portfolio. This will involve a review of the entire education portfolio and  consideration of new models for schools, including five form entry primary schools, all through schools and ‘urban’ style schools. The Council’s approach is in line with the government's latest announcement to conduct a full survey of the school estate for a fairer funding model. Such a strategy will take a number of years to come to fruition and will have little or no impact on the existing pressures. However, clearly the cycle of inadequate extensions and bulge classes needs to be broken at some point. The government has announced a new privately-financed school building programme to address the schools in the worst condition wherever they are in the country. The programme is expected to cover between 100 and 300 schools with the first of these open in September 2014 and is expected to be worth around £2 billion in up front construction costs.

A costed short term strategy to maximise the capacity of the existing school portfolio, involving a combination of extensions, expansions and bulge classes, in order to help meet immediate pressure for additional primary school places. This strategy is currently unfunded, and there is currently no government grant available for this. The report sets out the costs associated with the delivery of the short term strategy and suggests possible sources of finance in order to minimise the unsupported borrowing burden to the Council.

The report summarises the result of the consultation on future primary provision which was carried out in July and extended after protests that insufficient time had been made available for detailed consideration of the options.  They say 29 responses were received of which five were from headteachers, nineteen from individual school governors, and the remainder from 'others'. In fact I know that two responses were made from governing bodies but this isn't mentioned.14 (48%) were in favour of expanding existing primary schools as their first choice and 7 (24%) were in favour of creating bulge classes and 4 (13%) expressed a preference for all-through (4-19 years) schools.4 (13%) said that building new schools should have been considered an option and 6 (21%) suggested that the Gwyneth Rickus Building in Brentfield Road (currently the borough's Centre for Staff Development) become a primary school. (This may be an option if the CSD transfers to the new Civic Centre in 2012)


The strategy put forward in the document is not entirely in line with the consultation findings:

Diversity in the size of primary schools in Brent ranging from 2 FE to 5FE. In future, the minimum size of primary schools in Brent should be 2FE. (2 forms of entry is 420 pupils plus nursery and 5 forms of entry 1050 plus nursery))

Continue the move away from separate infant and junior schools and support the amalgamation of existing infant and junior schools.

Develop all through primary/secondary schools as an option within a diverse range of provision but maintain the primary ethos and character within all through provision.

Support the co-location of special schools and mainstream schools.

Within the overall system, maintain the flexibility to commission or decommission school places in response to fluctuations in demand

The move to all-through schools and the establishment of large 5 form entry schools are  both likely to be controversial. The short-list for possible expansion includes the conversion of Wembley High, Alperton and Capital City into 'all-through' schools with twoor three forms of entry in the  primary phase.The separate Roe Green Infant and Junior schools and Lyon Park Infant and Junior are ear-marked for expansion to five forms of entry, along with Barham and Braintcroft.  Byron Court and Preston Park are considered for expansion to 4FE. The 'short-list' is actually quite long with Wykeham, Fryent, Elsley, Chalkhill, Mitchell Brook, Leopold, Malorees Infants, Malorees Junior, St Andews and St Francis and Furness on the list for possible expansion to 3FE.

The report signals the end of one form entry primary schools which I personally find very sad as they can be quite magical places that are amazingly responsive to children and their families.

These are clearly important long-term decisions so it is a pity that the Executive is making them in the middle of the Summer holidays when many people concerned about such matters are away.

Council call police in as they close Charteris

From the Save Charteris Sports Centre Facebook page:

As most of you are aware, Charteris ceased operations on Thursday, March 31st. Council, in a last act of thumbing their nose to all of those who worked hard to keep it open and have supported Charteris over the years with their patronage, shut the centre in the middle of the afternoon rather than their normal 10pm closing time. They brought police officers to shoo everyone away and a work crew to board up the premises. The staff weren’t even alerted in advance. Evidently, they can’t imagine that those of us subject to their budget cuts and trapped by their inability to imagine another course of action could actually leave quietly and respectfully, as we would any other night. Shame on them.

It is likely that the Council feared that the premises may have been occupied by campaigners ahead of closure. Next step libraries?

Claremont Well On the Way to Academy Conversion

It appears that the governing body of Claremont High School has moved further along the academy road than I had realised. The Additional Governing Body meeting of February 9th heard representations from the education unions, which mainly focused on changes in pay and conditions and school governance.  The issue of the impact on other schools and the Brent education budget as a whole does not appear to have been addressed

After the union representatives left the governing body went on to discuss conversion to an academy in more detail.  The governors decided not to enter into an open debate between the school leadership and the leadership, in front of staff,  with both taking questions from the staff, as this would give the impression that 'the staff would be voting for or against the conversion and effectively making the decision'.

On salaries and conditions of service,  governors were told that there was no intention to move away from national agreements but no 100% guarantee could be given that this would not happen in the future. It was pointed out that the school had already lost staff to a local academy because they were offered better salaries and conditions: 'the market force is already in evidence and teachers are taking an active part in it'.

Addressing financial aspects Mr Malloy, headteacher, told governors that on initial calculations the school was facing a deficit out-turn of £179,000. When cuts had been made but staffing levels maintained the deficit would be £53,000. He went on to claim that if the school converted to academy status it would receive an additional £657,000 top-sliced from the Brent schools' budget.  In addition there would be a £25,000 one-off start-up grant.  There is no record of any discussion about the impact on other schools. Indeed earlier in the meeting the governors agreed  that they could not predict or influence the government's agenda  and 'their only focus is Claremont High and what is best for the future of the school'.

The governors considered a paper on the next steps in the conversion process that had been drawn up by a firm of lawyers experienced in advising schools converting to academy status. The governing body agreed to delegate authority to a committee to work with the legal team on employment, finances, Trust and articles. Legal fees were expected to be between £12,000 and £13,000.

Governors decided to defer decisions about membership of the Academy Trust until roles and responsibilities were clearer and advice had been sought on the levels of liability members would have. The first meeting of the Trust was scheduled for March 10th when the governing body meets. This meeting would decide on membership.  It was suggested that the funding agreement might be ready by March 10th, to be implemented by April 1st 2011.

Since the governing body meeting, governors have been circulated with Articles of Association of  Claremont High School Academy Trust and were asked to send comments in by last Friday so that it could be registered with Company's House yesterday or today.

Tomorrow's meeting at Kenton Methodist Church should be very interesting!

Documentation on Claremont's Academy Conversion can be found on the school's website HERE