Cameron visits Kingsdale

[happyED]

David Cameron spent some time at Kingsdale today. See if you can spot your child in the Photos.

[intexasatthe moment]

Not that the school's success has anything to do with Cameron ,or his Government .

[happyED]

Two other web sites with Photos Zimbio and Metro.

[bluemusic]

As a prospective parent, I do not feel comfortable with this relationship. First the move to academy and now this, where is this all heading? The school was growing before this government took its place and should therefore not be able to lay any claim to anything. In fact it could be argued that the change in the school which is reflected in the building would not have been possible without the Building Schools for the Future program which has lovingly been scrapped by this new government.

[bluemusic]

I would also question whether the whole school is as supportive of the coalition government as the BBC have just suggested!?

[ajade]

I am a recently retired primary school teacher and I would say it is unlikely that there are many people working in education let alone the state sector who are supportive of this coalition.

Does anyone know why the Prime Minister visited Kingsdale in particular?

[Nom de plume]

It's a brand new academy and popular, this is their view of the future so why would he not go there?

I'm sure a lot of the public sector don't support the government, mostly because the gravy train has stopped and you can feel some of the pain the real world has been subjected too for the last three years.

[TrueAcoustics]

From the sounds of things the visit took most of the staff and the students by complete surprise. Of course that was all carefully stage-managed for the news item. I think its pretty embarrassing to put the students in that situation to be honest. We are teaching them to blindly bow down to political authority. I know that the students at Kingsdale are bright and discerning and yet they did not seem to be given the chance to do anything other than ogle at a celebrity! As a parent I am furious and now feel that Kingsdale has declared its colours with even more pride than when they jumped on the dubious-academy bandwagon!

I sincerely hope that, in the next copy of the school newsletter, the students are given the opportunity to debate the positive presence of their esteemed visitor. That is what I would recognise as education.

[Nom de plume]

As a parent did you apply to Kingsdale and it's dubious academy status or did you send your children to the ideologocally pure but less successful schools nearby?

As a parent I'm outraged by all these parents who seem to detest Kingsdale. I wonder who applied to make it so oversubscribed, you hypocrites.

[Mick Mac]

Maybe he is going to send his bin lids to Kingsdale, he hopes to send his kids to state school (apparently).

If he does send his kids to a state school, I'll applaud that, irrespective of his reasoning, as it seems our local schools are not good enough for our local councillors, yet they never tire of preaching to us as to how good these schools are whilst hypocritically despatching their own children to private schools.

[Agilerunner]

I haven't read any messages from parents who seem to "detest" the school, simply parents and onlookers who are suggesting that the school was successful which may be why they chose the school for their own little ones, prior to the coalition. Also it is not unusual for people to respond in this way if their political ideologies do not meet, so I think the anger which has built up here may just be as a result of that rather than anger towards the school.

[westof]

Nom de plume Wrote:

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> As a parent did you apply to Kingsdale and it's

> dubious academy status or did you send your

> children to the ideologocally pure but less

> successful schools nearby?

Anyone with a child in the current Year 7 or older - i.e. all the curretn pupils - will have applied before the school considered academy status. The decision to encourage outstanding schools to become academies only came in with the present govt.

People applying for Year 7 to start this September, I also doubt if they would have been aware of the change to academy status as AFAIK it wasn't confirmed until after applications went in in October 2010.

As I understand it, the decision to become an academy was made for pragmatic reasons and not to jump on any kind of bandwagon.

[Nom de plume]

westof Wrote:

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> . The

> decision to encourage outstanding schools to

> become academies only came in with the present

> govt.

Maybe in terms of official policy this is true, but I don't think the outgoing administration saw academy status as just being solely a rescue vehicle for failing schools either - it was just less bold about the timetable for changing all schools.

For what it's worth there is much to be criticised in the Coalition's education policy, not least the changes to teacher training, but removing schools from LEA control and giving them more autonomy isn't one of them.

[westof]

Nom de plume Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> the ideologocally pure but less

> successful schools nearby?

Genuinely curious - can you actually name me an "ideologocally pure" local school?

[sillywoman]

Nom de plume Wrote:

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> As a parent did you apply to Kingsdale and it's

> dubious academy status or did you send your

> children to the ideologocally pure but less

> successful schools nearby?

>

> Which would those be then nom? And what measure of success are you using?

[intexasatthe moment]

less successful schools nearby? - or one of these ?

[Nom de plume]

sillywoman Wrote:

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> Which would those be then nom? And what measure

> of success are you using?

westof Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Genuinely curious - can you actually name me an

> "ideologocally pure" local school?

The point I was making was that Kingsdale seems to be attracting some criticism for being (a) an academy and (b) hosting a visit by the Prime Minister. The implication is that it is either supportive of Government policy or has been somehow duped.

I was poking at all the self righteous and hypocritical indignation on this thread.

One of our local schools is outstanding and has been visited because it's an example of what the current Government wants for all schools. The leadership of Kingsdale will have taken the visit as a validation of their success, and so should we.

[Penguin68]

As there is (now) no current election we could assume that the school was being visited by the Prime Minister (in that office) rather than the leader of the Conservative Party. Most schools take visits by the Prime Minister as being rather good things. Obviously the Prime Minister wishes to promote and endorse the policies of his government - but if this is a celebration of success for the school (I assume it was) this reflects back on the pupils and teachers in the school in what (should be) a positive and reinforcing fashion.

Raining on their parade is a somewhat curmudgeonly attitude.

[bluemusic]

The point I originally tried to make was that I cannot understand why the head teacher would present themselves to be an ally of this government who has made some shocking changes which will affect the children who attend Kigadale ie. Students who are exceptionally able and bright but on the whole (although not so much any more) able to pay up to ?9000 per year in tuition fees. Whilst this is only one example of their policies which will impact on our childrens' future, it is one example of why the school should be distancing itself from this government.

I have just spoken to a friend who has a child who attended the school, she suggested that this is just another one of the head teachers moves to increasing his chances of receiving his CBE, OBE or similar? Interesting but perhaps just another conspiracy story.

[Dulwich_ Park_ Fairy]

The point I originally tried to make was that I cannot understand why the head teacher would present themselves to be an ally of this government who has made some shocking changes which will affect the children who attend Kigadale ie

Err, possibly because he is professional enough to realise that his own beliefs come a distant second to making decisions which will benefit the school in the long-term. Anyone who knows anything about the new Academy policy realises that he had no other option than to take academy status as eventually the school would have been forced to under terms that were much less favourable than the ones offered last year. This was clearly explained to parents at various meetings he held on the subject. Perhaps he should have "martyred" the school on this issue but I for one would have criticised him had he done so as it would have been a case of letting his heart rule his head.

Re David Cameron, how many schools would turn down a visit from the Prime Minister? Being a Headteacher is not primarily a political role.

[Nom de plume]

bluemusic Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The point I originally tried to make was that I

> cannot understand why the head teacher would

> present themselves to be an ally of this

> government who has made some shocking changes

> which will affect the children who attend Kigadale

Schools try on the whole to be apolitical, and to refuse a visit is in itself a political statement, unless they also choose not to take visits from local MPs or Councillors in case it was interpreted as endorsing their politics rather than recognising their office.

As an outstanding school i'd be astounded if the visit wasn't used in some way to stimulate debate about politics / government/ economics so this will be useful for the pupil's understanding of the world.

It's a bit sad that recognition of a school's success is the subject of political grandstanding and suggestions that it's driven by the head's ego.

[AC1964]

bluemusic Wrote:

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it is

> one example of why the school should be distancing

> itself from this government.

Come again?

Schools should distance themselves from this - or any other - government?

How should they do this, exactly? And how far should such schools go in carrying out their distancing? Civil disobedience, guerilla warfare?

And you don't even have a kid at the school - viz "I have just spoken to a friend..."

[James Barber]

What a lot of rubbish.

Whatever your political views having the Prime Minister visit is a great event to make the children feel their school is special.

The chair of governors is a Southwark Labour councillor - and has been both for many years.

Funilly enoguh I visited the day before and the head and chair of governors very kindly gave me two hours of their valuable time.

The kids I met were smart and the school was clearly up to something preparing itself.

Had really useful discussions about admissions and I suggested some changes that they were clearly partly already thinking about. I also suggested the chair a cross political party potential way to hel pthe scholl serve Southwark even better.

[Dulwich_ Park_ Fairy]

Had really useful discussions about admissions and I suggested some changes that they were clearly partly already thinking about. I also suggested the chair a cross political party potential way to hel pthe scholl serve Southwark even better.

How can they do that? Due to the location of the school any introduction of a catchment area would benefit Lewisham, Croydon, Bromley, and Lambeth more than Southwark.

[Otta]

For what it's worth there is much to be criticised in the Coalition's education policy, not least the changes to teacher training, but removing schools from LEA control and giving them more autonomy isn't one of them.

Disagree with that, I think that is pretty much the worst part of it.