Summit called over our schools (From Thurrock Gazette)
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Summit called over our schools
3:10pm Wednesday 5th December 2012 in News
THURROCK’S education boss plans to face up to the borough’s school woes by hosting a summit in the new year.
Cllr Oliver Gerrish, responsible for the council’s education and children’s social care department, plans to invite the Department for Education, chief inspector of Ofsted, headteachers and governors to talk about what more can be done to “accelerate progress”.
He also plans to set up and be chairman of a cross-party panel that will scrutinise schools and their governing bodies.
Cllr Gerrish made the announcement at a full council meeting last week, just a day after it was announced that Thurrock is in the bottom three for the number of good or outstanding primary schools.
Cllr Gerrish said: “On the measure of the percentage of good or outstanding schools, Thurrock’s secondary schools and special schools are in the top 20 per cent in the country.
“However, our primary schools are in the bottom five per cent. Primary schools have been the unremitting focus of our attention since taking office in 2010.
“We have made that progress by never being complacent.
“We are already working closely with the DfE and academy sponsors to deliver rapid progress in the most vulnerable schools.
“We are robustly using the powers available to a local authority to challenge underperformance.”
Comments(4)
Marcus P
says...
10:03pm Wed 5 Dec 12
The secondary schools do well in terms of league tables. So why the contrast in fortunes to the primaries?
I know mass immigration is championed by many in Thurrock; however this could be one of many downsides.
Dave_
says...
7:19am Thu 6 Dec 12
What strikes me is that if EAL is a negative effect, why this isn't taken into account by the LEA and OFSTED. If it isn't maybe that's a fault in the inspection system. You can apply the same thinking to SEN, as this is a drain on a school's resources. Also with primary schools the cohort size has a massive bearing on its percieved performance.
Bernard 87
says...
11:48am Fri 7 Dec 12
While some of the newer residents in Thurrock (and Britain) may have English as a second language most of Thurrocks African community are well versed in English and all their children would almost certainly have English as a first language. The Eastern European children may not however so maybe thats filtering through into these results.
Failure of schools is down to a lack of good teachers in many schools, a complete lack of discipline, a drift away from reading, writing and maths to other areas - many of which are a complete waste of time, too much bureaucracy involving headteachers, education bosses at the council and school governers. Also some parents don't push their children or help them academically at home which doesn't help.
Dave_ says...
9:18pm Wed 5 Dec 12
As for academy sponsors, the easy way out for the govt/council