Tag Archives: Department for Education

Summer holiday schemes suffer from council’s missing links

Croydon’s holiday activity and food clubs are open for booking – though with just days before the schools break up for the long summer holiday when the schemes are supposed to get underway, there’s a dearth of detail available on … Continue reading

Posted in Activities, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Inadequate funding that is sending colleges towards failure

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Lack of adequate funding from central government has not been confined to local authorities, as GENE BRODIE, education correspondent, reports Anyone who wanted a warning of the “Inadequate” rating applied to Croydon College last week by Ofsted … Continue reading

Posted in Coulsdon Sixth Form College, Croydon College, Education | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Merton’s £50m education shortfall raises finance alarms

A south London council on the brink of financial collapse, getting a multi-million-pound bail-out from government, while being run by a new chief exec and with a rudderless Labour group where the leader isn’t standing for re-election in their old … Continue reading

Posted in 2022 council elections, Education, London-wide issues, Mark Allison, Merton, Outside Croydon, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon primary school performance among worst in London

GENE BRODIE, our education correspondent, has been crunching some numbers ahead of the new term. It doesn’t make encouraging reading If you are short of things to do in the New Year, there might be nothing more interesting to do … Continue reading

Posted in Coulsdon, Education, Fairchildes Primary, New Addington, New Valley primary, Paul Greenhalgh, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MP Reed calls on Gove to turn police station into school

The police station in South Norwood, closed by London Mayor Boris Johnson and put up for sale to be turned into flats, ought to be used to provide a new school for the area. That’s the view of Steve Reed … Continue reading

Posted in Boris Johnson, Croydon North, Education, Housing, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Policing, Schools, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Harris primary reduces SEN support and adjusts report grades

Parents at what was once the high-attaining Roke Primary have lasted just half a term before losing all patience with the school’s new academy management, and they are now accusing the Harris Federation of trying to force out of the … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Kenley, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Harris academy gets 0/10 for staff’s spelling and grammar

It seems that some of the staff at a newly academised primary in the south of Croydon which is now being run by the Harris Federation need to go back to school, after a document outlining the strict new uniform … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Gavin Barwell, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

How you can tell which schools are really making the grade

School pupils – whether attending the borough’s high-profile independents, our state secondaries or the privatised academies – will be receiving their life-shaping GCSE, AS and A level results in the next few weeks. Education correspondent GENE BRODIE provides an insider’s … Continue reading

Posted in Archbishop Lanfranc, Archbishop Tenison's, Coloma, Croydon High, Education, Old Palace, Roke Primary, Schools, Trinity School, Whitgift School | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gove’s Roke “consultation” uses figures that do not add up

One of the basics taught at every primary school is adding up. Trouble with Michael Gove, the education secretary, and the “consultation” he commissioned on the future of Roke Primary School, is that none of it adds up. Roke is … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Kenley, Richard Ottaway MP, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Roke Primary victim of “overzealous” Gove, says Tory MP

Readers of a nervous disposition should look away now. The following article contains flashing lights and some robust English language and may not be suitable for those under the age of about 12. Or Michael Gove. If further proof were … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon South, Education, Kenley, Richard Ottaway MP, Roke Primary | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Highly objectionable: Roke parents lodge academy complaints

The sham “consultation” over the future of Roke Primary in Kenley, in which Michael Gove, the education secretary, wants to hand over the public property of a recently built, high-achieving school, to a Conservative party donor, ended on Friday. The Save … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Roke Primary | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Roke campaigners take their protest to Harris’s front door

It will be interesting to see whether the private education organisation run by a  carpet salesman rolls out a welcome mat tomorrow when the Save Roke Primary Campaign stages a protest outside the offices of the Harris Federation tomorrow, March … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Gavin Barwell, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Roke parents in legal challenge against “dictator” Gove

The Save Roke group is to launch a legal challenge to the plans of Michael Gove, the education minister, to hand their primary school over to a private academy. The group announced its plans last night, and is working with … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Roke and a tale of “threats, bribes and fake consultations”

George Monbiot, the Guardian journalist who established ArrestBlair.org and apologised to Lord McAlpine, has entered the row over Roke Primary in Kenley being handed over to a carpet salesman by education secretary Michael Gove. In a coruscating piece criticising Gove’s … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Angry Roke parents accuse minister of misleading over status

Parents of children at Roke Primary in Kenley have responded angrily to a letter from Department for Education under-secretary Lord Nash – which Inside Croydon published last month – effectively accusing the Tory peer of deliberately misleading over results and … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Nash letter dashes hopes for Roke to escape Harris

Parents, governors and staff at Roke Primary were left “shattered” last week, after the local MP, Richard Ottaway, passed on to them a letter he had received from Lord Nash, the under-secretary at the Department for Education. Nash’s letter runs … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Kenley, Richard Ottaway MP, Roke Primary | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tory councillor says Gove’s academy conduct is “woeful”

A Conservative councillor in Croydon has made an extraordinary attack against Michael Gove over the way in which the Tory-led government’s education secretary and his department is steamrolling through the transfer of a local primary school. In a rare, if … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Equivalents and exclusions boost results rather than education

Things are beginning to look grim for the future of Roke Primary, where parents, governors and staff fear that the public asset of the school, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, is about to be handed over by education secretary … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Gavin Barwell, Kenley, Richard Ottaway MP, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Harris Foundation starts its charm offensive to Roke parents

The Harris Foundation, which has been handed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds’ worth of public assets by being given Roke Primary by Michael Gove‘s Department for Education, has begun an attempt to smooch its way into the … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Roke Primary to be handed over to a carpet salesman

Roke Primary School in Kenley is being forced into academy status with the Harris Federation, against the wishes of the governors and parents. Malcolm Farquharson, the chairman of governors at Roke, issued this letter to all parents yesterday, the first … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Kenley, Roke Primary, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Oval Primary parents claim to “oust” new headteacher

Extraordinary reports reached Inside Croydon last night that Craig Tunstall, the executive headteacher of the Gipsy Hill Federation installed in charge at east Croydon’s Oval Primary School, had been “ousted” on Friday by angry teachers and parents.

Posted in Education, Schools, Tim Pollard | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment