UPDATE: Brent Council were not consulted about two week delay in return to school for Brent children

The London Borough of Brent has been included in a government list of Covid 'hot spots' where schools will not open to the majority of pupils in the first two weeks of January.  Primary schools will be open only to the children of key workers and vulnerable workers. Other children will receive on-line learning. The guidance is available HERE and will be revised on January 18th. 

Cllr Thomas Stephens, Lead Member for Education, Business, Employment and Skills said: 

Following the Government’s announcement about the reopening of schools for the 2021 spring term, I would like to reassure parents that we are working closely to support all our schools and settings as they welcome children back over the next few weeks.

The decision to delay face to face teaching was made by the national Government, and neither the schools nor the council were consulted before these arrangements were put in place.

We appreciate that the phased opening may cause some disruption to families, but the health and safety of our children and residents is of paramount importance. We are pressing the Government for firm commitments on mass testing, priority vaccination for school staff and support for the most vulnerable families.

The guidance makes it clear the schools should consult with the DfE before implementing it.

This is what the  guidance says about primary schools:

 

Primary Schools

 

Primary schools should only allow children of critical workers and those defined as vulnerable to attend.

 

Attendance expectations

 

Children of critical workers: Where a critical worker parent or carer notifies a school that their child requires full-time on-site provision, the school should make this available.

 

Vulnerable children: Vulnerable children are expected to attend full-time on-site provision where it is appropriate for them to do so. This should remain a priority for primary educational providers and local authorities. If they do not attend and it is not a previously agreed leave of absence, schools should:

 

•work together with the local authority and social worker (where applicable) to follow up with the parent or carer to explore the reason for absence, discussing their concerns using supporting guidance, and whether any adjustments could be made to encourage attendance, considering the child’s circumstances and their best interests

 

•work together with the local authority and social worker (where applicable) and other relevant partners to encourage the child to attend educational provision, particularly where the social worker agrees that the child’s attendance would be appropriate.

 

Where schools grant a leave of absence to a vulnerable child they should still speak to parents and carers, and social workers (where applicable) to explore the reasons for this and any concerns raised.

 

The discussions should focus on the welfare of the child and ensuring that the child is able to access appropriate education and support while they are at home.

 

High quality remote education should be provided for all other pupils.

 

Attendance recording Vulnerable children: As vulnerable children are still expected to attend school full-time they should not be marked as Code X if they are not in school (except if they are shielding, self-isolating or quarantining).

 

Schools should encourage vulnerable children to attend but if the parent of a vulnerable child wishes for their child to be absent from school, the parent should let the school know that the pupil will not be attending.

 

The  Department for Education expects schools to grant such applications for leave given the exceptional circumstances. This should be recorded as code C (leave of absence authorised by the school) unless another authorised absence code is more applicable.

 

Children of critical workers: As with vulnerable children, critical worker parents and carers should let schools know if their child will not be attending and, if not, schools should grant a leave of absence (code C) given the exceptional circumstances.

 

Pupils who are not expected to be in school: All pupils who are not expected to be in school should be marked as Code X. They are not attending because they are following public health advice.

  The full list of areas can be found HERE

UPDATE

Yesterday a zoom meeting of NEU London activists quickly reached its limit of 500 attendees indicating how seriously education staff see the present crisis.  There was particular concern over what appears to be  a directive that nurseries and special schools should open next week despite the decision to delay the opening of primary schools in most London boroughs. The union will be discussing what action to take to maintain the safety of chidlren and staff in these circumstances.

London boroughs excluded from the list of London boroughs reopening late were seeking explanations from the Secretary of State. These include our neighbouring boroughs of Harrow and Camden. On social media it was pointed out that many children and young people cross borough boundaries to attend school or college.

Harrow MP Gareth Thomas write to Schools Minister Nick Gibb MP:

 

 

Cllr Ketan Sheth, Chair of Brent Comunity and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee summed up the reaction of many on Twitter:

 

It is expected that Brent Children and Families will issue guidance to schools before the start of term. 

 

Brent primary academies perform less well than the best maintained primary schools

Regular readers of this post will know that I am extremely sceptical of the value of the SATs, especially the Year 6 tests, and even more so after last year's fiasco.

Because it is a new system with new expectations the 2016 results cannot be compared with previous years and comparison between schools is unreliable given that some schools may have been panicked into 'teaching to the test' and abandoned much of the rest of the curriculum.  The changes in the curriculum and testing resulted in much press coverage of distraught children and we saw the launch of several national parent campaigns against the tests.  Teachers felt that the new 'expected standards' were far too high and unattainable for many children.

Nevertheless readers may be interested in the results for Brent as announced by Brent Council:

The headline measure for Brent of the proportion of pupils attaining the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics is 55 per cent compared to the national average of 53 per cent and the London average of 59 per cent. The proportion of Brent disadvantaged pupils attaining the expected standard is 48 per cent, well above the  national average of 39 per cent and just below the London average of 49 per cent.

This is the first set of test results following the introduction of the new national curriculum and cannot be compared to the results of previous years. 

The new measures of the progress that pupils made during Key Stage 2 show that the average progress scores for Brent pupils are above the national averages for reading, writing and mathematics. Brent is below the London average for reading and writing but well above London for mathematics:

An ongoing issue is of course the merits, or not, of academies versus local authority schools, faith schools and 'all-through' schools (catering for 4-19 year olds). Independent schools do not have to take SATs so no comparative data is available for them.

SAT results are a very limited measure and I would argue that there are more important aspects of schools that should be taken into account.

Bearing in mind these caveats it is possible to review those issues in the data published by the DfE which can be found HERE along with much more background information about schools.

Using the rather crude measure of the percentage of Year 6 children reaching the new 'expected standards' the figures are:

National: All Schools 53%
                All state funded schools 55%
London Average: 59%
Brent Average: 55%

The highest faith school in Brent was Our Lady of Grace (Catholic) at 93% an exceptional result compared with other Brent schools. The highest other faith groups were:  NW London Jewish Day School 76%.  Islamia Primary 67%. St Mary's CofE Primary 56%.

The highest local authority school in Brent was Wykeham at 80%

The highest academy was Oakington Manor which has only recently converted to academy status  from foundation status at 75%

Other academies:

Ark Franklin 57%

Sudbury Primary 56%

Ark Academy (all through) 53%

St Andrews & St Francis Academy 47%

Preston Manor Academy (all through) 31%

It doesn't appear that all-through schools can claim any superiority on this measure and other academies are mixed.  Although Our Lady of Grace has a stand out result other faith schools  are lower than the best local authority maintained school.

From this very limited survey I cannot see any clinching argument for mass conversion to academy status.

REMINDER

If you have a child born between 1 Sept 2012 and 31 Aug 2013 you need to apply for a Reception place before Sunday Jan 15th https://www.eadmissions.org.uk/eAdmissions/app

Young Eco-Warriors: New 'Cleaner Streets' App for primary schools

Bapchild & Tonge School 'Eco-warriors' using the app to report litter

Brent Council already operates the Cleaner Brent Phone App for reporting flytipping and much else.  Could we see Brent schools using something similar in the future?

Primary schools across the country are invited to join a national clean-up mission, using the latest technology to help make the area around their school cleaner.

Environmental reporting app, Love Clean Streets, was successfully used by Eco-Schools across England in July this year. The successful pilot study took place with 11 primary schools from Rochdale to Kent and has resulted in the Love Clean Streets Board committing to develop the app further for use within the curriculum.

Year 5&6 Woolmore Primary School Students making a report of a vehicle part on the pavement

The modified app, developed specifically for primary school children to use, will be launched in schools throughout the UK in early 2017 and will be fully functional as a tool for both learning and taking action on local environmental issues in school catchment areas. Teachers involved in the pilot study reported considerable learning skills and educational value across the curriculum, positively mentioning benefits to Personal Social Health Economic, litter education, use of technology and demonstrating relevance to our everyday lives, encouraging pupils to be active citizens.

Max, aged 9, a pupil from Middleton Parish C of E Primary School in Middleton, North of Manchester, took part in the pilot study in the summer term which involved looking around the school grounds for environmental issues to report. He said: "The app is good as you can inform people of the areas you don't like and they will then make the environment a better place to live in."

Susannah Butcher, Eco- School leader at Bapchild & Tonge School, said: "The children had a lot of fun taking part in the project. It was an excellent chance for us to do some real work in trying to combat the problem of litter in the school area. " Pupils liked that they could take a picture, detail the problem and send it off themselves. They liked it even more when an overflowing bin outside the school as reported at lunchtime and by end of school at 3.15 it had been emptied!

"This project highlighted a variety of local environmental issues and raised questions with the children, which ensured they were fully engaged and motivated by the task. Smart phones and tablets are big part of children's lives, so showing them how these can be used in a positive way made the lesson really enjoyable for them," said Susannah.

Sophie, aged 11, a pupil from Bapchild & Tonge School in Kent, said: "I hate seeing litter on the way to school. With the app I can let someone know there is litter and it is cleaned up." Love Clean Streets Founder, Ian Blackburn, said: "We believe that educating the next generation on the importance of keeping our environment clean is a step in the right direction to ensure our world is a cleaner, happier place to live for generations to come. By getting involved with the LCS Education Project, children will ensure the issues do not go unnoticed and will inspire their peers to follow their lead."

Primary schools across the UK are invited to register their interest in taking part next summer by contacting Ian Blackburn on +44 203 126 4885 or emailing ian@bbits.co.uk. A further announcement will be made next spring when the revised app for primary schools has been tested and is ready for UK roll-out.

Local authorities must be allowed to plan and build more community primary schools

This was my response to Boris Johnson's call for educationalists to drop their 'ideological'  opposition to free schools in order to solve the shortage of primary places crisis as reported in the Evening Standard this week. Johnson said, “There’s a lot of prejudice against free schools on the part of the education establishment and they need to lose it and need to build more.There’s a huge demographic crisis looming in London and we need to fund the schools. At the moment we’re worried there’s some kind of ideological foot dragging about free schools. They’ve got to blast ahead and make space."

It is truly shocking that 118,000 children will be without a school place by 2016 and Boris Johnson's solution of 'more free schools' will not answer the problem. Free school provision by its very nature is ad hoc, depending on a group coming forward often with unproven back of the envelope plans (just look at their websites)and there is no guarantee that they will be sited in areas of need.

The Coalition's insistence that any new schools should be academies or free schools means that local authorities cannot carefully plan the construction of new community schools across their borough ensuring that there is equal distribution and access.  The fragmentation of the school system under present government policies alongside the undermining, politically and financially, of local authorities means that LAs have the statutory responsibility to provide a school place for every child but not the powers to do so.

This is forcing them to adopt sticking plaster short-term solutions including bulge classes and expansions of present buildings which result in over-large schools, with in some cases more than 1,000 5-11 year olds in one building, loss of play space and cramped conditions. This worsens the quality of provision of all children order to cater for the additional numbers.

If we put children first, and not Michael Gove's ideology, we will restore a local authority's right to build new community schools with all the quality assurance provided by a properly planned and  funded, democratically accountable, local school system.

Greens backs campaigns against forced primary academies

The Green Party Spring Conference yesterday suspended Standing Orders to take the following motion which was passed with no votes against:

Conference recognises that Michael Gove has recently escalated his policy of forcing primary schools to become academies so that now only one poor Ofsted report is required to trigger such a move. This has currently resulted  in several strong parent-led campaigns in defence of  community schools.

The Green Party believes forced academisation:

• Undermines the role of local authorities and school governing bodies in school improvement
• Undermines local democratic accountability of schools
• Ignores the wishes of major stakeholders including governors and parents
• Hands over local assets to an external provider without recompense
• Opens the school to eventually being run on a profit-making basis

Conference therefore instructs the GPEX campaigns coordinator to facilitate a campaign against this policy at national level over the next 6 months and calls on  local parties to take up the issue where appropriate.

More very large primary schools on their way in Brent

Map of phased developments

Apart from the decision to seek partnerships with free schools and academies (below), another controversial but undebated consequence of the School Review going before the Brent Executive REPORT is to increase the average size of Brent primary schools with some having more than 1,000 pupils (excluding nursery).

I continue with the view that 4-11 year olds need educating in a small and manageable learning community where staff are well-known to them and the geography of the building negotiable.  Such provision will now be rare in Brent with faith schools generally smaller than local authority schools.

There are plans to utilise closed down libraries to form annexes to existing schools, at some distance from the parent school. The Preston Library building will be removed from the Council disposal list to provide extra classes for Preston Park Primary and Kensal Rise Library will be reviewed for additional classes for Princess Frederica Primary.

Following the all-through schools at Ark and Preston Manor primary provision is being considered at Wembley High and Newman College.There is a proposal to co-locate Manor school for special needs pupils on the Braintcroft site where the Braintcroft building would be rebuilt.

The Report does not go into detail about the impact on playground and playing field space available to pupils when the schools are expanded but my Freedom of Information request earlier this year showed a reduction in space per pupil in the recent expansions LINK 

The following details are extracted from the report which includes notes and caveats on each proposal. My capacity figures do not include any temporary bulge classes or nursery classes.

 

Phase 1 by Sept 2013	Current capacity	Future capacity
Barham	630	840
Fryent	420	840
Mitchell Brook	420	630
St Robert Southwell	315	420
Phase 2 by Sept 2014
Wykeham	420	630
Uxendon	420	840
Preston Park	630	1050
Wembley High (new primary on site)	0	840
Vicar’s Green (Ealing)	315	420
Chalkhill	420	840
Harlesden	420	630
St Joseph Primary	420	630
Leopold	420	630
Northview	210	420
Princess Frederica	420	630
Phase 3 by September 2015
Mount Stewart Inf nd Jnr	630	840
Elsley	420	840
Stonebridge	420	630
Malorees Inf and Jnr	420	840
Braintcroft	630	1,050
Carlton Vale Inf and Kilburn Park Jnr	420	630
Oriental City (new primary school)	0	420
Kingsbury Green	630	1,050
Phase 4 between Sept 2016 and Sep 2018
St Joseph Inf and Jnr	420	630
Quintain site-Wembley new primary school	0	420
Our Lady of Lourdes RC	420	630
John Keble C of E	420	630
St Andrew and St Francis	520	630
Newman College (Sec) – new primary school on site	0	420

The report forecasts  a 'significant' shortage of secondary school places by September 2014 and a report on this sector will be tabled in December. This seems rather last minute as the number of pupils in our primary schools has obviously been known for some time.