Rutland County Council £7.6M to build new Oakham CofE Primary School and it fails!
I recently read a cabinet report which showed Rutland County Councils schools are
failing. This included one school having all its exam results voided. I have not got around to blogging
about this issue. I noticed Cllr Dave Richardson had written about it so here it is
Cllr Dave Richardson writes:
Dec 3 2013 2:25 PM
Rutland Council builds a brand new Primary School in Oakham, Oakham CofE, Burley Road, replacing a perfectly good and well-built school, it was a total waste of public money as we constantly stated long before it was built. It was also totally out of keeping in design for the area and cost a staggering £7.6M, for a school that should have cost no more than £5 to £6M.
One of the requirements for funding a new school build is that it should be to improve the educational standards achieved. So what do we now find with Oakham CofE, which, before it was rebuilt, was one of the better performing schools in the County? We now find it is the only Primary School in the County to fail in all levels of the Key Stage 2 Floor Standards and not by a small margin. By any standard this is a disaster, see below:
Standard National Thresholds* 60 90 94 91
Oakham CofE 56 78 68 60
In fact, Rutland received a staggering £12M Grant for the rebuild and improvement of its Primary School buildings. So what has that achieved? Just look below at the extract from the recent Report:
Rutland has dropped below both the national and East Midlands average in 2013, with a 10% drop in the number achieving Level 4 or above when compared to 2012 results where we were the highest ranked authority in the East Midlands.
28% of those eligible for Free School Meals achieved Level 4+ in reading, writing and maths, compared to 60% nationally. The gap in achieving Level 4 between those receiving FSM and those not nationally is 19% and in Rutland the gap is 44% an increase on 2012 where the gap was only 20%.
Serious questions should now be asked? Especially when one reads in the same Report the Key Stage 4 performance for Colleges in Rutland, all now Academies and so have no input from Rutland Council, have all improved in the last year:
Results for all 3 secondary schools in Rutland have improved against the national average when compared with 2012. Each school has improved in terms of 5A*-C grades including English and Maths and one school has improved in terms of 5 A*-C grades in any subject.
Perhaps it is time we took all schools out of the control of the Local Authority, which appears to be the drive of this Conservative Government anyway? Right now that is fully justified.
I have said for years that Rutland Council does nothing but consume public money in the name of education. For such a small County, with such a high calibre of pupil, it is ridiculous and totally unjustifiable that we have any School failing, how then can we have?:
Ryhall Primary School: Inadequate In Special Measures
St Mary and St John CofE VA Primary School, North Luffenham: Requires Improvement
Cottesmore Primary School Requires Improvement
In the case of North Luffenham School, it states in their latest Inspector Report that: “The Local Authority was initially slow to act on concerns rightly raised as early as 2011 by the governing body about the leadership of the school.”
Just when are people going to be held accountable for all of this? That must start first and foremost with the Council Leadership under the Conservatives of Councillor Begy and Councillor King.
I recently read a cabinet report which showed Rutland County Councils schools are
failing. This included one school having all its exam results voided. I have not got around to blogging
about this issue. I noticed Cllr Dave Richardson had written about it so here it is
Cllr Dave Richardson writes:
Dec 3 2013 2:25 PM
Rutland Council builds a brand new Primary School in Oakham, Oakham CofE, Burley Road, replacing a perfectly good and well-built school, it was a total waste of public money as we constantly stated long before it was built. It was also totally out of keeping in design for the area and cost a staggering £7.6M, for a school that should have cost no more than £5 to £6M.
One of the requirements for funding a new school build is that it should be to improve the educational standards achieved. So what do we now find with Oakham CofE, which, before it was rebuilt, was one of the better performing schools in the County? We now find it is the only Primary School in the County to fail in all levels of the Key Stage 2 Floor Standards and not by a small margin. By any standard this is a disaster, see below:
Standard National Thresholds* 60 90 94 91
Oakham CofE 56 78 68 60
In fact, Rutland received a staggering £12M Grant for the rebuild and improvement of its Primary School buildings. So what has that achieved? Just look below at the extract from the recent Report:
Rutland has dropped below both the national and East Midlands average in 2013, with a 10% drop in the number achieving Level 4 or above when compared to 2012 results where we were the highest ranked authority in the East Midlands.
28% of those eligible for Free School Meals achieved Level 4+ in reading, writing and maths, compared to 60% nationally. The gap in achieving Level 4 between those receiving FSM and those not nationally is 19% and in Rutland the gap is 44% an increase on 2012 where the gap was only 20%.
Serious questions should now be asked? Especially when one reads in the same Report the Key Stage 4 performance for Colleges in Rutland, all now Academies and so have no input from Rutland Council, have all improved in the last year:
Results for all 3 secondary schools in Rutland have improved against the national average when compared with 2012. Each school has improved in terms of 5A*-C grades including English and Maths and one school has improved in terms of 5 A*-C grades in any subject.
Perhaps it is time we took all schools out of the control of the Local Authority, which appears to be the drive of this Conservative Government anyway? Right now that is fully justified.
I have said for years that Rutland Council does nothing but consume public money in the name of education. For such a small County, with such a high calibre of pupil, it is ridiculous and totally unjustifiable that we have any School failing, how then can we have?:
Ryhall Primary School: Inadequate In Special Measures
St Mary and St John CofE VA Primary School, North Luffenham: Requires Improvement
Cottesmore Primary School Requires Improvement
In the case of North Luffenham School, it states in their latest Inspector Report that: “The Local Authority was initially slow to act on concerns rightly raised as early as 2011 by the governing body about the leadership of the school.”
Just when are people going to be held accountable for all of this? That must start first and foremost with the Council Leadership under the Conservatives of Councillor Begy and Councillor King.
