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werra
Forum Admin
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 Posted - 01/23/2009 : 15:24:48
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It is possible that many local residents have seen the article in the local "Epsom Guardian" free newspaper, dated January 8th, 2009 entitled "Governors Booted Out", regarding Epsom and Ewell High School. On 12th January, your WERRA Chair, Helen Worwood wrote the following letter to the paper, which was unfortunately not selected for print on the letters page, but which may have prompted the follow-on report entitled "Epsom High school governors hit back at shake up", dated 22nd January, that is currently shown on their website, and which may appear in the paper this week:-
To the editor
Through your letters page I would like to add some further information that should be of interest to your readership re the situation at Epsom & Ewell High school
Your article starts with the attention grabbing headline that the board of governors of Epsom & Ewell High school have all been “booted out” following a “disastrous” Ofsted report. I can report that at a recent Governor meeting Surrey County Council indicated that no funding or assistance would be provided to the school unless all the Governors voluntarily relinquished their responsibilities and stood down for 12 – 18 months.
Your article goes on to lay responsibility for the poor Ofsted report solely with previous head, Alison Dawson – citing in particular the plan that would have traded school land being sold off to developers for housing in return for new school buildings being built on playing field land. This ignores the fact that Ms Dawson inherited this plan from the previous head.
Conservative controlled Surrey County Council (SCC) had supported Mr Hutchinson in his pipe dream of trading school land for houses and encouraged his belief that such a scheme would be the only way funding could be secured to develop the school - all without the unanimous support of the governing body and without any consultation with local residents. SCC mismanaged the situation so completely that the school was allowed to be under resourced for many years at a time when competing local secondary schools – Glyn Technology School, Rosebery School & Blenheim High all received multi million pound investment to improve their facilities. SCC then also allowed these schools to receive pupils in excess of their PAN numbers leaving Epsom & Ewell High with fewer pupils still. Funding linked to pupil numbers was therefore not forth coming, leaving the school in a poor physical state and struggling to balance its books. Little wonder then, that local parents find these schools a more attractive proposition for their children. There is no doubt that inept SCC management left Epsom & Ewell High school struggling in dilapidated buildings and with a falling pupil roll.
Parents in Epsom & Ewell will not be surprised to read of SCC’s ongoing mismanagement of their children’s education. After all, they are the council that thought that Southfield Park would be an adequate size at one form intake. Residents Association councillors undertook sustained lobbying to in order to improve facilities to allow for two form intake. Your newspaper has already reported that September 2009 intake children will be housed in temporary huts, whilst substantial redevelopment takes place to catch up with building of real classrooms.
Elsewhere Residents Association councillors have supported local parents to express very real concern with the recent SCC proposal to link shared or adjoining site schools. SCC seems oblivious to the potential negative impact such a policy could have on the remaining unlinked schools and their future viability.
With the building of 2,000 more homes on the hospital cluster sites and increasing government pressure to find ever more homes in the South East there is no more time to waste in pipe dreams. Whilst the special measures status for Epsom & Ewell High will bring much needed investment to the school, the time has come for SCC to stop “fire fighting” problems in individual schools in the borough. The public deserve to know that SCC has a long-term “joined up thinking” plan to support the viability of all schools in the borough of Epsom & Ewell.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs H. Worwood
Chair, West Ewell & Ruxley Residents Association
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werra
Forum Admin
27 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2009 : 10:01:38
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The following is the transcript of a letter from former Epsom and Ewell High School Governor, Michael Guest, which was sent to local papers following the original news story in the "Epsom Guardian" and is reproduced here with Michael's permission:-
SCHOOL GOVERNOR’S RESIGNATION
Local residents will be aware that I attended Epsom and Ewell Secondary Modern School (Epsom and Ewell High School, as it is now) as a youth, and was delighted to be approached in 2007 to become a Governor of my old school. My work to support and develop the school in my roll as a Governor was challenging to say the least. For it very quickly became clear Surrey County Council had undertaken little to improve the environment for both pupils and staff since I had left in 1959.
While other schools basked, developed and improved from Conservative controlled Surrey County Council’s stewardship, Epsom and Ewell High School appears to have been kept at barely life support level.
In the summer of 2008, in reaction to the lack of support for the school from Surrey County Council, I volunteered to head a sub group of Governors to investigate all possible sources of government development funding – this in an attempt to counter the County Council’s lack of appropriate and meaningful development of the school, which for whatever reason, has been disgracefully long over due. Aside from the unstinting support from local Councillor Jan Mason and Alison Dawson the school’s new Head, I received little to no, offer of effective assistance from the school’s Governing body, members of staff or Surrey County Council.
Therefore, it was with great sadness that I; due to frustration at this lack of support, combined with changing personal circumstances, I felt compelled to tender my resignation from the board of Governors in October 2008. From which date, I have continued (incorrectly) to be listed as a school Governor on the Epsom and Ewell High School’s website.
Finally, may I state that I still remain totally committed to the school, its pupils and staff, but without a clear and positive management policy from Surrey County Council to facilitate the development and improvement of the school, I am fearful for the school’s future, especially at a time when the Borough of Epsom and Ewell need more high quality education facilities, not less!
Michael Guest
Former Governor of Epsom & Ewell High school
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Diane
Starting Member
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2009 : 13:01:23
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From reading the Ofsted Report (ref. 125305 on the Ofsted website), I can't see that there would have been any different an outcome in the short to medium term, even if there had been no local opposition to the school's proposed development. The school had entered a downward spiral, due to lacking of funding, quite some years ago, whilst Mr. Hutchinson was Headmaster. Only the school and Surrey County Council really know whether this was due to the school not applying for funding, or whether Surrey County Council had supported the proposed re-development proposals to such an extent that they believed it to be unstoppable and therefore a waste of taxpayers' money to maintain a building that would shortly be demolished.
I am not surprised that the correct calibre of staff have been difficult to recruit, and that sufficient pupil numbers to enable the required maintenance funding have not been forthcoming, with all the press reports and the Development Consortium's literature circulating at this time last year, about the school being in a very poor state of repair and in need of knocking down and rebuilding.
It is rather a shame that Mrs. Dawson was singled out by the press as being responsible for the poor standards reflected in the latest Ofsted Report. She had not really been at the school for long enough to have had chance to make any significant impact. The Leadership and Management section of the Ofsted Report tells the true story. Having met Mrs. Dawson and been given a guided tour of the school on 30th June 2008, I saw for myself the areas of the school that were problematic, together with many areas that appeared to be perfectly adequate. Mrs. Dawson had explained that the funding from Surrey County Council was very much dependent upon the number of pupils on the role, therefore, as pupil numbers dropped, so did the funding for basic repairs and maintenance. This was presenting real problems. For example, where there was limited funding, a decision had to be made between installation of HSE recommended fire doors and mending a leaking roof. Health and Safety dictated that the fire doors (that might be required) had to be installed in priority over repairs to the flat roof that was currently leaking. She had inherited a whole series of problems and was doing what she could to fix these, with the very limited funding available to her.
Only time will tell whether the Special Measures and new Head can turn the school around, and whether the required additional funding will be secured for repair and refurbishment, as a result of the school being put in Special Measures. I am sure we all want what’s best for local secondary school age pupils, but local residents are not likely to conned into considering any future resurrection of the Development Consortium’s plans for the large housing estate with any greater sympathy or favour. |
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Epsom and Ewell High School - the saga continues..
