How Would You Think Different ? Council To Plug £30mil Hole
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wxm;7026 wrote:So when will Wrexham Council produce one simple plan, setting out line by line its expenditure for the coming year, and dealing with all the community centres as one, and every other subject as a whole, subject by subject
When will it republish its survey on proposed expenditure and income
I’ll can put it in an easy..
why should they? what would make them want to do that?
Alunh;6948 wrote:I agree. Whilst it is understandable that people have political predispositions, there are real problems with voting local election after local election for the same political party. Local Councillors may well share similar values to the national party but, ultimately, running a local authority is more about brass tacks efficiency, honesty and solid good sense than great ideas. One only has to hark back to the farce that was the Theatre project, look at the running of the various Markets, and evaluate where the authority is in its Secondary Education performance to see the limitations of the Council over several recent years.My favourite joke policy decision was to allow the monstrosity that is the Wrexham Bus station to be developed in the way that it was. How anyone could have built a Bus station that left the buses in the street blocking each other and clogging the roads up when the previous one actually LOGICALLY allowed pickup on the island, is beyond me. Any 5 year old designer could have come up with a modification on the previous that refurbed, put a roof on the top, allowed pedestrianisation at the top of Trinity Street (and therefore safety) and avoided what we have today.
Agreed. The only think i could add is that there is a lack of responsibility.
the top management and councillors get away with making irresponsible decisions.
Eagles meadow was sold to help finance the ‘super schools’ neither have helped the town.
@thewayneinspain 7029 wrote:
I’ll can put it in an easy..
why should they? what would make them want to do that?
It’s beginning to sound like its a STATUTORY and lawful duty to do so! Not from our debate in these forums, but in respect of what the law demands!
wxm;7043 wrote:It’s beginning to sound like its a STATUTORY and lawful duty to do so! Not from our debate in these forums, but in respect of what the law demands!it may be, but who is responsible? and why aren’t they being pulled up?
@thewayneinspain 7030 wrote:
Agreed. The only think i could add is that there is a lack of responsibility.
the top management and councillors get away with making irresponsible decisions.
Eagles meadow was sold to help finance the ‘super schools’ neither have helped the town.
Here we come back to the crux of this however. You say (quite rightly) that “councillors get away with making irresponsible decisions” and then link the decisions made to the Eagles Meadow scheme (which I have no knowledge of how the finances pan out).
Yesterday, the head of Ofsted came out with some pretty clear comments on Secondary schools across Britain. With reference to the non selective (Public and Grammar) schools sector, an attack was launched on the way that children were not reaching their potential because of the unwillingness to set. The Head of Ofsted argued that children should go into sets from perhaps Year 7 onwards so that youngsters can all be in classroom situations that challenge their abilities.
For some perverse reason successive generations of what are (wrongly) called the ‘left; in Britain have supported the FULL implementation of the comprehensive principle in Britain’s schools. This means Mixed ability and, as Ofsted noted, the practice of using Mixed ability across schools for dogmatic reasons has dragged Britain’s educational attainments backwards.
The position in Wales is worse than England because whilst New Labour in England have largely accepted the need for change Welsh Old Labour (and the Welsh Liberals) remain dinosaurs on this subject. Hence, whilst Michael Gove is desperately trying to turn the English schools around, in Wales we are stuck with what has been (and has failed).
This dogmatic attachment to failed thinking dressed up as acceptable dogma lies at the root of the Welsh (and therefore Wrexham) problem. Failed thinking, failed schools and underachievement.
So I agree with you Wayne but, at the same time I don’t just see this as some personal defects with dubious dealings at every turn. I see this as a political thing with a lack of political vision and political will.
@thewayneinspain 7030 wrote:
Agreed. The only think i could add is that there is a lack of responsibility.
the top management and councillors get away with making irresponsible decisions.
Eagles meadow was sold to help finance the ‘super schools’ neither have helped the town.
Here we come back to the crux of this however. You say (quite rightly) that “councillors get away with making irresponsible decisions” and then link the decisions made to the Eagles Meadow scheme (which I have no knowledge of how the finances pan out).
Yesterday, the head of Ofsted came out with some pretty clear comments on Secondary schools across Britain. With reference to the non selective (Public and Grammar) schools sector, an attack was launched on the way that children were not reaching their potential because of the unwillingness to set. The Head of Ofsted argued that children should go into sets from perhaps Year 7 onwards so that youngsters can all be in classroom situations that challenge their abilities.
For some perverse reason successive generations of what are (wrongly) called the ‘left’ in Britain have supported the FULL implementation of the comprehensive principle in Britain’s schools. This means Mixed ability and, as Ofsted noted, the practice of using Mixed ability across schools for dogmatic reasons has dragged Britain’s educational attainments backwards.
The position in Wales is worse than England because whilst New Labour in England have largely accepted the need for change Welsh Old Labour (and the Welsh Liberals) remain dinosaurs on this subject. Hence, whilst Michael Gove is desperately trying to turn the English schools around, in Wales we are stuck with what has been (and has failed).
This dogmatic attachment to failed thinking dressed up as acceptable dogma lies at the root of the Welsh (and therefore Wrexham) problem. Failed thinking, failed schools and underachievement.
So I agree with you Wayne but, at the same time I don’t just see this as some personal defects with dubious dealings at every turn. I see this as a political thing with a lack of political vision and political will.
I completely agree that there is a lack of a political vision from the top down. But I don’t think the principle of a comprehensive system is the problem, but that of the lack of regular evaluation of pupils and acting upon it.
The pupils, the teachers and the quality of lessons are the important factors not spending millions on new pretty buildings and then spend millions more of the teaching budget just to pay the annual PFI fees & interest. I’d say core new labour values are bringing the standards of teaching down.
Lower pupil numbers in classrooms, more teachers and more classroom assistants are needed not brand new capital assets and ‘streamlining’ the actual curriculum content.
Another way to save money is to not have extravagant equipment that serves no purpose. One of the meeting rooms has been set up with full data projector, interactive white board, surround sound speaker systems etc. Great for meetings. So good that one chief officer decided to have the same setup installed in his OFFICE, next door to the meeting room.
NJones;7069 wrote:Another way to save money is to not have extravagant equipment that serves no purpose. One of the meeting rooms has been set up with full data projector, interactive white board, surround sound speaker systems etc. Great for meetings. So good that one chief officer decided to have the same setup installed in his OFFICE, next door to the meeting room.should be sacked for misuse of public money.
If the full council were given the right to scrutinise every quote & invoice over 1k..
@thewayneinspain 7059 wrote:
I completely agree that there is a lack of a political vision from the top down. But I don’t think the principle of a comprehensive system is the problem, but that of the lack of regular evaluation of pupils and acting upon it.
The pupils, the teachers and the quality of lessons are the important factors not spending millions on new pretty buildings and then spend millions more of the teaching budget just to pay the annual PFI fees & interest. I’d say core new labour values are bringing the standards of teaching down.
Lower pupil numbers in classrooms, more teachers and more classroom assistants are needed not brand new capital assets and ‘streamlining’ the actual curriculum content.
I’m not sure why you’ve brought the ‘principle of a comprehensive system’ into this discussion because I haven’t challenged this ‘principle’ (whatever that might be). Across the UK there are Comprehensives that are non-selective but choose to set by ability in the different subjects. There are others who employ the Mixed ability approach. Ofsted are not criticising Comprehensives in this report merely the non setting approach. They criticise the habit of teaching to a notional middle in a large Mixed ability group and the failure to actually advantage either the weaker or stronger students. You appear to have a mindset on this question but read the report. It’s fascinating
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