Robert Owen Free school

[Sjl436]

Whilst not wishing to be an apologist for the council, I do think it is unfair to blame them for the appointment of the head. They had nothing to do with it. It is a free school sponsored by the Robert Owen Group and outside the control of the council. Indeed it took a lot of persuasion to get the school to share basic information, such as names of pupils attending, without which and given the difficulties of some pupils, the basic safeguarding checks could not be completed.

 

I thought the premise behind the school was sound, but why start at the end of Year 9? Why not at the start of secondary?

[adamski]

The premise is sound, I would agree with you sj, but can there be a worse example of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds in this sector anywhere else in the UK?

[twowheelsgood]

Whilst not wishing to be an apologist for the council, I do think it is unfair to blame them for the appointment of the head. They had nothing to do with it. It is a free school sponsored by the Robert Owen Group and outside the control of the council. Indeed it took a lot of persuasion to get the school to share basic information, such as names of pupils attending, without which and given the difficulties of some pupils, the basic safeguarding checks could not be completed.

 

I thought the premise behind the school was sound, but why start at the end of Year 9? Why not at the start of secondary?

 

I wasn't blaming the Council as I appreciate they are not directly involved in this - the parallel I was drawing, rather badly perhaps, it that Herefordshire Council have a similar track record of employing senior staff with truly terrible ethics and employment history, which is available for all to see by a simple online search. We then end up having to pay for it when it invariably goes wrong. It's all part of the Common Purpose and public service jobs roundabout I know. Self serving in the guise of serving the public.

[Sjl436]

Adam ski

I am absolutely gob smacked that there hasn't been any mention of this in the national media, given there were reports recently about overspend on th Free School programme!

[Denise Lloyd]

Down to people like you Sjl436 to get it into the national media.

 

Look how the sale of the Council farms is in the national/international press

[littlegooner97]

Paul cordey is to be the acting principal for the school

[twowheelsgood]

The Holme Lacy site is the subject of a Council 'consultation' at the moment. The site will be sold and the funds put into the schools pot. Oh wait, the consultation hasn't finished yet. Council website is completely borked at the moment so you can't see it anyway!

[Denise Lloyd]

borked is that a word?

 

This Con Council will go down in history as the ...................................

[twowheelsgood]

borked is that a word?

 

Indeed it is. Urban dictionary succinctly defines it is;

 

To have totally ****** something up. Usually by doing something stupid. Specifically used to describe technology that is broken.

 

The site is once again unborked, but for how long?

[megilleland]

Tens of millions wasted on free schools that closed or never opened amid 'unprecedented' funding crisis

At least £138.5 million spent on opening 62 free schools, university technical colleges (UTC) and studio schools that have either closed, partially closed, or failed to open at all, NUT analysis shows.
 

Quote

(extract from The Independent - 17th April 2017)

Tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has been wasted on opening free schools that have subsequently closed, according to an analysis of Government data.

A review of data carried out by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) estimated that at least £138.5 million had been swallowed by opening 62 free schools, university technical colleges (UTC) and studio schools that have either closed, partially closed, or failed to open at all.

According to the NUT, the figure calculated using information taken from Government transparency websites, Companies House and media reports  would fund the employment of 3,680 teachers for a year, and provide £6,586 for every school in England.

Industry leaders have also protested at the free school plans, which they said earmark billions for state-of-the-art buildings to be created while local authority schools struggle on in desperate need of repair.

Free schools are new state schools that are not under local council control and have freedom over areas such as staff pay and the curriculum. A total of 124 have opened since 2015, with 373 more, including those announced in the latest wave, due to open, while the Government has pledged to open 500 new free schools by September 2020.

 

Mathematics appears to be the weak spot with these schools as the sums just don't add up.
 

[Denise Lloyd]

Maths are the weak spot for Cons full stop!

[adamski]

Any firm news following the rumours of closure at the end of this academic year?

[twowheelsgood]

Maths are the weak spot for Cons full stop!

Labour don't do too well either, as the odious Ms Abbott has shown time and again.

[ragwert]

More bad reading regarding this School.

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/15593432.School_league_tables_2016_17__How_did_schools_in_Herefordshire_do_/?ref=mr&lp=7

[adamski]

More bad reading regarding this School.

 

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/15593432.School_league_tables_2016_17__How_did_schools_in_Herefordshire_do_/?ref=mr&lp=7

That's shocking! I know that this establishment is aimed at those that are not particularly academic, so it's unfair to judge on actual results I guess, but given that this rating is to do with progress, which should be demonstrable by any school, it doesn't look good.

[adamski]

Take it we've all seen the following :

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/15645170.Academy_looks_for_new_sponsor_after_having_funding_withdrawn/

[ragwert]

Yes,and it makes me angry that a school that is such a failure is still open.49 pupils 21 staff..a joke really

[megilleland]

End of the road for Robert Owen School and rebirth

 

Quote

Hereford Times - 4 hrs ago (4th January 2018)

Ben Goddard

Could Hereford get a cyber security college?

PLANS have been submitted to the education minister for a cyber security college in the heart of Hereford.

The Robert Owen Academy, Blackfriars Street, is due to close in its current form at the end of this academic year after having its funding cut by the regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands.

The school has now found a new sponsor in the form of South Gloucestershire and Stroud College which wants to convert the site into a centre for cyber security.

Currently the school has 51 pupils, aged from 14 to 19. If the plans are approved they will be able to complete their studies at the college.

Paul Cordey, principal at Robert Owen, said there is no alternative but to change the schools current model.

We do a really good job with kids, but get nowhere near the same level of financial support as alternative schools, said Mr Cordey.

Ideally, we would become an alternative provider, but the local authority has got to back that and I dont think they will. The public funding from the authority stops in August, but that doesn't mean we have to close. If we close where are these kids going to go?

I currently have three headteachers emailing me asking if I can take pupils who are being excluded. Our intake is not the normal mainstream system. We dont mind taking them and want to help them.

The trust had a vision and I have had a difficult conversation with them and they have agreed to disband. We are now running out of money and need to do something different and the model of the school needs to change.

Mr Cordey has been inspired by Berkeley Green University Technical College, Gloucestershire, which provides specialist high-quality vocational and academic education for learners aged 14 to 18 for advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and cyber security. The proposal has been sent to the minister for education and the regional schools commission to make a decision.

“I know that similar schools work. This is not just a shot in the dark, said Mr Cordey.

This is a really big chance to set up a new and different type of school. This is a fantastic opportunity as if we built a new school it would cost millions when we could just convert this building into a cyber security college.

We want people of this community to have some choice of change and do something different. We are also looking to talk to the NHS Trust to see if we could incorporate a health and well being school and feed through nurses to the hospital. I don't want us to continue as it is, but want to do something else.

We are not precious about the site, but the building is already here. It might cost £20 million to build something like Hereford Academy where as this site will cost very little in transformation costs.

Hopefully the school can be a beacon reaching out to pupils in Worcestershire, South Shropshire and Powys.

 

 

[Humungus]

I've just become aware of this thread.

Looking back through the posts, I find it astonishing that so many are prepared to criticise the RO Academy yet most likely never had a child attend there.

The Academy follows the Robert Owen Foundation's philosophy, based upon those of Robert Owen himself in providing an alternative to the "normal authoritarian approach to child education". In particular, the child's contentment is explored and is found to lead to improved manners of the children brought up under his system. When established at the former Holme Lacy Primary School, the majority of the pupils were what mainstream schools considered as their misfits. Those of poor academic ability or experiencing attention deficit issues. This is where the RO philosophies flourish, they encourage the children to develop their practical capabilities whilst maintaining what were once known as 'The Three R's' (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) in order to ensure that the children were literate and numerate as well as practically skilled.

All but the eldest of our children attended Fairfield and all except our second step-son flourished. My eldest son attended Kingstone and experienced some abuse from a particular teacher hence the others going elsewhere, he has a degree in Animation and works locally. My eldest step-son is about to begin a PhD in biosciences, my daughter attends Hereford 6th Form is preparing to begin a degree in Photographic Arts. Both were encouraged by Fairfield but my youngest step-son was failed by them. He had diagnoses of both dyslexia and dyspraxia but managed to make it to the end of Year 9 before the school decided that he was academically incapable of completing any further study, preferring that he take up the limited vocational options they had on offer. At the same time, the Robert Owen school was taking new students for its initial openings at Holme Lacy. With its small classes, palliative carers, one-to-one periods and extra teaching assistants he flourished. Sure, he performed poorly in English & Maths initially and took two resits before gaining his GCSE passes, but his vocational skills were explored and encouraged by RO Academy. He studied horticulture, carpentry and engineering and (on paper) has achieved BTEC L2, L1 and L1 respectively. I use the term 'on paper' because the teacher whose job so many parents and students campaigned to retain in 2016 was a charlatan. He kept no records of the children's work or studies and the person who took up his legacy is  still now struggling through the mess he left. Not one of the children has been awarded any certificate solely because of that teacher's shortcomings.

Regarding Andrew Hubble, the former headteacher. Mr. Hubble was always wholly professional in his work and presented an environment where children were safe and where bad behaviour was not tolerated. Many parents took issue with that and sought to discredit him but my wife and I always found him to be true to his word when anything was agreed respective to my step-son. Our lad left RO Academy last year to attend Herefordshire & Ludlow College taking a broad-based L1 course in construction skills. He has been accepted to study Electrical Installation L2 which he thoroughly enjoys and is capable of, a far cry from Fairfield's opinion that he would be not capable of anything more than basic animal care. We have RO Academy to thank for that and particularly the headtecaher at the time, Mr. Hubble.

Looking objectively from the outside, Hubble was always going to have a difficult task at RO Academy. Ofsted judges schools based on academic achievement which doesn't fit with a vocational school. Results were always going to be below average and particularly where parents do not encourage their children to 'tow the line' and behave, as was the case with many who I encountered at parent's evenings. Everything was in place - smaller classes, palliative carers with whom children could take time out and vent their anger and frustration, extra teaching assistants, respect for professional diagnoses and the support they can bring for a child - my step-son had 25% extra time for exams, readers and writers (where appropriate) so he could perform his exams and attain his GCSEs. If RO Academy had not become established then our lad would likely have no qualifications and no future other than e.g. working a production line in a cardboard box factory.

Ofsted has noted improvements to RO Academy's processes and procedures in its move to go beyond Special Measures", yet others are working against that. Some say it is the Council and I have learned today (from a staff member) that this is the case. One has to wonder what is the motive for that. Clearly its location at the heart of the "New Hereford" is like the proverbial sore thumb and the Council's desire to build more and more houses within the City leads to suspicions of intent. Our Council listens to nobody and has little care for the needy children who attended RO Academy. I learned today that one student was relocated to Kingstone and lasted just one week. It is not a school for naughty kids, it's a place for needy children to flourish. We must accept that such establishments will never achieve high academic levels but also acknowledge that there is a place for them in our society, bearing in mind too that other mainstream high schools in Hereford and the County had poorer academic results last year.

I do not acknowledge the witch hunt against this school, it is wholly necessary in this Country and its loss will only serve to affect many children who would otherwise benefit from it. My wife and I are wholly indebted to its staff and the RO philosophy without whom our lad would have been left with few prospects for the future.