Wrexham ‘Super Schools’
-
Posts
-
@wrexview 10792 wrote:
Perhaps the two sites should be shared with other schools like the Faith School and Welsh Language school making for a more integrated system. Throwing primary aged children into the mix is not the answer.
Certainly not. The problems with the “super schools” are not just for the pupils, they are also for the surrounding areas. Adding more people will just add to the problems suffered by people who live near to the sites.
Well after the Executive Board meeting all options are still on the table and going out to consultation, final decision will be made in the New Year.
@wrexview 10792 wrote:
I hope the Executive Board today decide to sort out the quality of education in the Wrexham Secondary Schools. They have a Lead Member, Chief Executive Officer and Statutory Education Officer all with extensive experience of working within the education environment. Surely with all that combined knowledge they must be able to identify the root problems and have the power to put an action plan in place. They can also involve themselves in the delivery of such an action plan to make sure this time it succeeds.There is an element of history repeating itself , Bromfield was closed , followed by The Groves and now after a substantial investment of some £22 million we find a similar situation. Perhaps the two sites should be shared with other schools like the Faith School and Welsh Language school making for a more integrated system. Throwing primary aged children into the mix is not the answer.
Quite agree with the sentiments expressed here. The obvious thing is that introducing space filling students from the primaries would cause an even more rapid flight from these schools and be even more counter productive. This would not be a solution but an aggravation of the present plight.
It might help if those charged with investigating Wrexham’s problems actually stripped out the narrow politics of Education and actually tried to work out why there are so many problems in the system. Besides their qualities, for example, why do many secularly minded parents send their children to a faith based school? Why, despite their qualities, do so many Anglicised parents send their children to a Welsh school? Why, despite their qualities, do so many parents send their children outside the town itself for their teaching (Ruabon, Darland, Maelor Penley, etc) or, even more remarkably as far afield as Malpas and Hope?
The simple truth is that those parents who step outside of the obvious ease of sending their child to a local school must do so because it strikes them that they might stand a better chance of getting a proper education by taking those steps. If that is the case, why?
Can I offer the following hypothesis:
Firstly, in some cases, schools are just badly run and badly organised. This will come out in the reports.
Secondly, in some cases, departments in some schools are badly run and this will also come out in the reports.
Thirdly, in some cases, schools operate Mixed ability classes (for political reasons) in some/all subjects, usually in Years 7-9. This places children with reading ages of Seven to Nine with children with reading ages of Thirteen to fifteen. It also places children with no inclination to a subject, or ability in that subject with the traditional high flyer. It places well behave children in with those who aren’t. The very best teachers find this scenario impossible to deal with, will become detached from their teaching and this will show up in the reports.
All of this needs changing
It seems the Council really believe that these two schools will suddenly improve by just shuffling the accommodation. They have tried this twice before and failed.
I apologise for copying 2 letters that I wrote to a local newspaper in 2007 concerning the ‘superschools’. At the time I recall that the responsible party in charge of education in Wrexham responded to the said paper. If I recall, the letter made me despair.
Letter 1 from 2007:
“I note with interest the concerns that have been raised about Ysgol Clywedog by its School Inspectors. Clywedog, of course, is one of the so called ‘superschools’ that provides a large part of the non Denominational, non Welsh language based Secondary education in Wrexham. The 2 ‘superschools’ themselves were products of the latest round of rationalization that saw the closure of the old Groves High School; itself a fusion of Grove Park High School and Bromfield.
It does seem painfully sad that Wrexham’s secondary school system is less fit for purpose than it was in 1970-1 when the local Grammar School era ended and equally sad that Wrexham and Wales are so out of step with developments across the border. The Grammar/Secondary Modern/Technical School era, as laid out by the 1944 Butler Act, was an attempt to match the interests, aptitudes and abilities of the post 11 year old with an appropriate secondary education. Understandably the selection by examination, of those 11 year olds deigned worthy of Grammar school education, had its critics. Unfortunately what we have as its replacement is a hopeless mess. It is undermined further by the masochistic use of mixed ability classes as a chosen way of organizational structure. This system does not deliver the quality of education we expect for our children and everyone knows it.
What seems really criminal is that so little debate about Wrexham’s Secondary Schools ever reaches the local papers. Many parents have resigned themselves, where possible, to using the private schooling sector. Many more select St Joseph’s or Morgan Llwyd to avoid the ‘superschools’; others, where they can, send their children to Hope, Rossett, Penley, Malpas and Summerhill. I do appreciate that the local Council is hamstrung by the constraints laid down by the Welsh Assembly and that the Academies and Grammar Schools seen in England are unlikely to be replicated here. Nevertheless, something must happen. Wrexham and Wales are falling behind both England and Europe. This vital question must be thrashed out and a solution that makes sense for all our Secondary School children must be found”.Letter 2 (in response to a letter of response):
“It was pleasing to read in the paper (July 27th) that business in Wrexham is booming. As an entrepreneur I welcome the UHY Hacker Young survey with its interesting range of findings. Clear reference is made to the ‘entrepreneurial’ spirit of the Borough and the relative competitive success in attracting investment away from larger towns and cities, London, Manchester and Liverpool included. Bob Dutton rightly, and reassuringly, points to the role that the local work force makes to the success.
Less reassuring is the letter (July 27th) from Hywyn Williams about Secondary Education in Wrexham. A response to letters from myself, Mr Williams rolls out all the arguments that justified the crude introduction of Comprehensives in the 1960’s. Misinterpreting or misunderstanding my point about choice in the 1970’s he ranged over the issues concluding with the comment (and I quote) that “creating different schools will only promote more competition and wherever we have competition there are inevitably winners and losers”.
Firstly, let me establish one or two principles; my letters were not an attempt to stoke up some campaign for selective education, the 11+, or any other water that has run under the bridge. The irony I was pointing out was that this earlier (inferior) framework offered more in the way of range/choice than Wrexham’s does today whilst it is patently clear that we are losing creative ground to England (let alone Germany, the US and China).
Secondly, I find it strange that Mr Williams thinks that two comparable schools going head to head for the floating pupil community are not in competition with each other; try telling that to every interested parent in Wrexham ! Strangely, specialist schools tend to be complementary as opposed to competitive, allowing choice according to aptitude.
On the theme of competition, Mr Williams really must get up to speed with the current macro thoughts emerging from the Government and increasingly gathering a consensus across the political parties. Competition is the real world, inevitable and possibly praiseworthy. A competitive training encourages aspiration and the ability to cope with both success and loss; without exposing youngsters to such reality, it will come as no surprise if adolescents fall at life’s first hurdle. The Welsh Assembly is currently encouraging entrepreneurial thinking across Wales and throughout the curriculum; to ensure that Wales can compete in the 21st century world, not fight the intellectual battles of the 1960’s. The ‘Dynamo’ project is just such an initiative.
I am a supporter of differentiation in schools to establish choice and allow pupils to slot into appropriate educational framework. I am in favour of children being taught in classes with pupils of comparable subject abilities and aptitudes to allow a wider range of approaches. I am in favour of the very highest educational standards and the budget to match. If there are logistical problems in achieving this (backdoor selection, etc) then it is incumbent upon the education authority to tackle them, not discard the system that is logical”.Should be interesting to see how Wrexham’s schools perform when today’s bandings are released by the Welsh Government. Can’t say I’m sold on the merits of the banding system personally, it just appears to be another stick to beat schools with. The data used is useful when looked at separately, but mash it all together and I’m not sure it gives an accurate view of how a school is doing. Last year St Joseph’s dropped three bands yet Rhosnesni went up two, however Estyn tell us all is far from rosy at Rhosnesni.
Why can’t we just have some good old fashioned numbers, how many children in each school got A- C in Maths ,English, Welsh ,Science etc then we can all see the strong and weaker subjects in each school. Maybe there is even merit in the schools with very good results in one subject “cascading” their good practice to the weaker ones!
@Liam 10832 wrote:
Should be interesting to see how Wrexham’s schools perform when today’s bandings are released by the Welsh Government. Can’t say I’m sold on the merits of the banding system personally, it just appears to be another stick to beat schools with. The data used is useful when looked at separately, but mash it all together and I’m not sure it gives an accurate view of how a school is doing. Last year St Joseph’s dropped three bands yet Rhosnesni went up two, however Estyn tell us all is far from rosy at Rhosnesni.
I like the system but you do have to navigate through the various reports (as many of the comments above show). Schools are judged on all methods by criteria and this might mislead the public if they are not tutored in translating it.
Banding data for local schools – https://www.wrexham.com/news/2013-banding-data-schools-released-39427.html
@wrexview 10836 wrote:
Why can’t we just have some good old fashioned numbers, how many children in each school got A- C in Maths ,English, Welsh ,Science etc then we can all see the strong and weaker subjects in each school. Maybe there is even merit in the schools with very good results in one subject “cascading” their good practice to the weaker ones!
The problem with this is that you won’t necessarily know how well the school is performing relative to its expectancy. That’s why the Welsh assembly, for example, factor in stuff like free school meals uptakes, etc when calculating the quality of a school. All Welsh schools are expected to add ‘value’ to the child’s education and if pupils are starting from a different base a good school is the one that adds the most value relative to the starting position
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
