£4million school places boost for Gateway (From Thurrock Gazette)
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£4million school places boost for Gateway
8:00am Thursday 19th July 2012 in News
A TILBURY school has been given a £4million cash boost which will allow it to take in 300 more pupils.
The Gateway Academy, in Marshfoot Road, will use the Government cash to build an extension on top of its new primary school, as well as improving campus infrastructure.
The £6million Gateway Primary Free School is due to be completed in August 2013.
The extension will house a new English and special educational needs block.
The news should go down very well with residents in Tilbury and Chadwell St Mary, who have complained about a shortage of places at the academy.
Headteacher Kevin Sadler said: “It has been very upsetting for us to have to turn away local children, but we are bursting at the seams.
“Now, unless there is a huge house building regime, we should be able to say that any local child who wants to come to the academy will be able to.”
Mr Sadler said the school is grateful to Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price who lobbied hard for the extension for two years.
The Conservative MP said: “The Gateway Academy is an outstanding school, but was never big enough to provide for all local children.
“Times are tough, but we are making a huge amount of money available to give children in Chadwell St Mary and Tilbury a really good start in life.”
Comments(18)
Bernard 87
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9:04am Thu 19 Jul 12
freespirit07
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11:41am Thu 19 Jul 12
RobF4
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12:14pm Thu 19 Jul 12
freespirit07 wrote:From past press I believe they were to have a free school for a primary, and have had to turn away secondary students in the past as they were full to capacity. I’m unsure how the school site is split from a primary and secondary perspective.
This is all rather confusing. If the Gateway is as Mr Sadler claims "bursting at the seams" how can it accomodate 90 primary children in the exisiting building in September and if it is really so "upsetting to turn away local children" why not admit them instead?. Just expand the school not the empire.
Dave_
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2:47pm Thu 19 Jul 12
As for no further new builds, if the planned build at Thurrock Tech goes ahead, they will need to build another extension in the not too distant future.
freespirit07
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4:29pm Thu 19 Jul 12
Dave_
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4:08pm Fri 20 Jul 12
The emphasis should have been/be on providing enough places for the local kids aged 11-16. There are plenty of places, like Palmer's to go post 16 and there are likely to be more places at Palmer's as other parts of Thurrock, get there own little 6th Forms.
Although I personally think a school 6th Form is a bad idea as it's too comfortable and you're going to be as open to new thinking etc as you would in an independent 6th Form like Palmer's.
Marcus P
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5:21pm Sun 22 Jul 12
Well done to the Gateway SLT team for achieving an outstanding Ofsted, despite the school being third bottom in Thurrock.
Marcus P
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5:24pm Sun 22 Jul 12
Bernard 87
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8:30am Mon 23 Jul 12
Lets hope that with expansion comes better results. Third from bottom is not a good position at all.
Marcus P
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11:12am Mon 23 Jul 12
Bernard 87 wrote:There are other schools not too far away, that can be reached no more than 5 -10 minutes by car or bus. However lets hope the 47m they have received for new buildings results in some significant improvement in terms of the percentage of students achieving 5+ 'good' GCSE' and Gove’s Ebacc. Mrs Doyle Price would agree that judged by her own Governments' benchmark for success the Gateway needs to improve.
I imagine its bursting at the seams due to the fact it's the only secondary school catering for a very wide catchment area. Lets hope that with expansion comes better results. Third from bottom is not a good position at all.
I am sure the Gateway is well run and offers a valid curriculum for its current student base. There is no doubt GCSE results have improved albeit from a very low starting base. I do find it odd that it receives such high investment and political support when its GCSE results are amongst the worse in Thurrock.
In fact despite receiving 47m in investment, the Gateway GCSE results are only marginally better than the much maligned Grays Arts and Media School.
Dave_
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4:42pm Mon 23 Jul 12
It was always on a slippery slope with respect to results.
To be honest where it's located is not ideal, ie on a marsh. If they haven't yet, I can see this having huge and costly structural problems.
freespirit07
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5:45pm Mon 23 Jul 12
A Dermot
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8:45pm Mon 23 Jul 12
freespirit07 wrote:It was sinking as the site is a natural flood plain, they had to strengthen the foundations during building. A stupid place to build a school.
I heard it was sinking into the marsh but not sure if that is true. What I do know is that the kids there work for three years on their GCSEs (and of course vocational "equivalents") rather than two in other schools. This means they have extra time as well as extra money thrown at them and still get the third worse results. They may also have given up subjects like languages, history and geography completely at age 13 to be hothoused for this "success".The more you go into this the more amazing it is they are getting the political support now.
Marcus P
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5:51am Tue 24 Jul 12
freespirit07 wrote:The key word is "political". Both Labour and the Tories are obsessed with the de regulation of state education via academies and now free schools. The Gateway like numerous other academies has received greater funding for political rather than educational purposes. In simple terms academies like the Gateway are costly ideologically driven vanity projects that must not fail.
I heard it was sinking into the marsh but not sure if that is true. What I do know is that the kids there work for three years on their GCSEs (and of course vocational "equivalents") rather than two in other schools. This means they have extra time as well as extra money thrown at them and still get the third worse results. They may also have given up subjects like languages, history and geography completely at age 13 to be hothoused for this "success".The more you go into this the more amazing it is they are getting the political support now.
‘Academisation’ is touted as a means of raising standards. However the evidence in terms of National GCSE results is inconclusive.
I believe it would be more cost effective to have allocated the 47m Gateway money to other schools in Thurrock.
freespirit07
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6:40am Tue 24 Jul 12
Bernard 87
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2:19pm Tue 24 Jul 12
Outside of Chafford school and Grays Convent, I wasn't impressed by the pass rate of the rest of the bunch.
freespirit07
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5:48pm Tue 24 Jul 12
Marcus P wrote:Of course if they were in Hackney, Tower Hamlets or Newham they wouldn't be third from bottom with those results.
I don’t wish to denigrate the Gateway Academy. I understand it caters for many children from lower socio economic groups. However the school league tables show that it is ranked only 9th out of the 11 secondary schools in Thurrock. This is in terms of students achieving 5 + 'good’ GCSE grades including English and Maths. Indeed only one student achieved Mr Gove’s much vaunted Ebacc. To be frank if I were the parent of an academic child I would look at a number of other schools before The Gateway. I wonder if the main attraction for the parents in this area are the nice new shiny 47m buildings, rather than the GCSE results.
Well done to the Gateway SLT team for achieving an outstanding Ofsted, despite the school being third bottom in Thurrock.
They'd be right at the bottom.
RobF4 says...
8:54am Thu 19 Jul 12
It also shows that it does not matter what party the MP stands for is different to the local party, you do what is right for your constituency. Well done to Jackie, she seems to care a lot about local education and if the response from TBC is not the right one, she will make contact directly with the Government.