Seaford school sold in secret deal

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Article in The Times today. Now I am not posting this to spark a debate into the merits or otherwise of private education - I went to Ardingly myself but that is an aside to my main point. Large numbers of pupils are now without a school with parents having to hurriedly find them one, when some of them will be coming up to GCSEs and A-Levels in the summer. Isn't this something the MP for Seaford should be fighting, rather than trying to get rid of a football club that is not even in his constituency?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Baker raised the point about a week ago, but I don't think anything could be done in time. They were debt ridden.

http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2006/4/10/209724.html

Something should have been done a long time ago!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

What I do know is that if an LEA school decided to flog off its site for housing and shut down, there would be an outcry and demands for the resignation of the government minister responsible.

We now have a government that wants to see the values of the private sector brought to all schools.

God help us all.

 

[The Large One]

Oi! Nothing wrong with the Brighton & Hove Montessori School thank you.

There are 'grey' areas in the city where Daisy is trying to mop-up the disaffected parents who don't live in any given state school's catchment area, and who can't get their children into the school of their choice. Once that happens, then it's Mowden or Brighton College who get the overspill, whether the parents intended to pay or not. Hopefully, she'll clean up.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

There's nothing wrong - indeed there is everything right - about schools like B&H Montessori taking on a public sector ethos that delivers education to young people that reflects their needs, rather than the ability of their parents to pay.

The Newlands scandal is that the owners of the school (not the staff at the school, or the managers of the education service provided by the school) have put profit before everything - to the point of shutting the place down with no notice whatsoever being given to anybody.

Disgraceful!

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

A point I would make as well is the high level of help offered to pupils at Newlands who suffer from dyslexia and other Special Educational Needs. My father, who was SENCO at Great Walstead School near Lindfield, used to recommend Newlands to parents because of this and a number of his pupils went on to there from GW. This is sheer greed and I do feel for the parents and pupils regardless of whether they were there because their parents could afford to send them there. The nearest school that is able to offer this sort of help is Northease Manor, which has considerable pressure on places and as far as I know is a charity. Education is regarded as a charitable activity (which is why such schools as Eton have charitable status because of the number of low-income pupils they admit through scholarships, etc). As Lord Bracknell says, this is an example of corporate greed.

 

[Icy Gull]

Same thing happened at my daughter's school, Rosemead in Littlehampton. Meeting called, out of the blue, as the school apparently didn't have enough pupils to make it a viable proposition to keep running, so they were merging with Lavant House which is bloody miles away from Littlehampton, especially coming from Worthing. Angry denials from the Governors that the land was being sold to developers. A year later the place was knocked down and guess what...a new housing estate appeared

 

[Storer68]

Isn't this the school that John Robinson has just sent his children to?

More evidence of anti Albion bias in the People's Kingdom of Bakershire?

 

[The Oldman]

I have no time for Baker but when the scholl closure was announced last week he did offer to act as a go between .
Unfortunately for Newlands Staff and pupils there was nothing to be done. The school had already closed and I believe gone into administration.


It's very bad news for Seaford's local economy and the town will miss seeing 400+ youngsters around the place.

 

[Strike]

Yeah read about this very sad. Just hope the pupils there find something as quickly as possible.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Have a friend who taught there, the position the kids are in is a disgrace, there's over 100 due to sit GCSEs and A Levels this summer.

It's clear that the School staff were blissfully unaware of what was going on behind the scenes, another bloke I know was due to have a job interview with them this week.

It's not the best time of year for a teacher to lose their job, no schools recruiting until September and most of the best positions already filled.

So that's the kids screwed, the staff screwed and a large piece of land in a residential area now vacant.

I'll be very interested to see how LDC treat the inevitable planning application that the owners and the developers will make.


All in all, file under 'STINKS'

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Isn't this the school that John Robinson has just sent his children to?

That explains why he was on the TV the other night, giving an interview.

 

[simonsimon]

If the parents wish to be "Educational Snobs" and pay for their little brats to be educated in the Private Sector, then so be it .
But as this case shows there are inherent selfish risks involved, and no sympathy should be wasted on these snobs.

Just let them pay up and enrol in another elitist institution, if this turns them on.

Ulimately you cannot buy BRAINS.

 

[Monkey Man]

If the parents wish to be "Educational Snobs" and pay for their little brats to be educated in the Private Sector, then so be it .
But as this case shows there are inherent selfish risks involved, and no sympathy should be wasted on these snobs.

Just let them pay up and enrol in another elitist institution, if this turns them on.

Ulimately you cannot buy BRAINS.

"inherent selfish risks"?
"ulimately"?

Newlands could have done a job for you in your formative years.

The rest of your argument makes no sense either.

 

[mona]

I have no time for Baker but when the scholl closure was announced last week he did offer to act as a go between .

Just as he offered to act as a go-between in the healing process between us uncouth football fans and his twee Lewesian, dinner-partying, limp LibDem mates.
Norman Banker is a total onanist.

 

[Simster]

If the parents wish to be "Educational Snobs" and pay for their little brats to be educated in the Private Sector, then so be it .
But as this case shows there are inherent selfish risks involved, and no sympathy should be wasted on these snobs.

Just let them pay up and enrol in another elitist institution, if this turns them on.

Ulimately you cannot buy BRAINS.

What a cock. Did you find yourself without a school with you GCSEs coming up? Is it the kids' fault?

 

[bigc]

This can happen to colleges too.

I am a governor of Varndean College and I'm sure our "owners" see a land sale as far more profitable than running a college.

As LB rightly said, with Blairs ideas, this won't be the exception, this could become the norm.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

This can happen to colleges too.

I am a governor of Varndean College and I'm sure our "owners" see a land sale as far more profitable than running a college.

As LB rightly said, with Blairs ideas, this won't be the exception, this could become the norm.

I remember when ESCC was the Local Education Authority with responsibility for all the schools on the "Varndean" site - Varndean Sixth Form College, Varndean High, Dorothy Stringer and Balfour - the issue of who "owned" the land became very important at the time that it looked like post-16 education was going to be taken out of the hands of the LEA.

I seem to recall that the outcome was that Varndean College ended up with a very restricted plot of land - deliberately kept as small as possible to prevent future non-educational property development.

This was only possible, of course, because it was a shared site. Where former ESCC controlled educational establishments fell out of LEA control, most of them inherited quite substantial landholdings. In a way, this was not an entirely bad thing - since how else would the former ESCC controlled Brighton Polytechnic (in its later incarnation as the University of Brighton) have been able to offer land to the Albion for a stadium at Falmer?

 

[bigc]

I remember when ESCC was the Local Education Authority with responsibility for all the schools on the "Varndean" site - Varndean Sixth Form College, Varndean High, Dorothy Stringer and Balfour - the issue of who "owned" the land became very important at the time that it looked like post-16 education was going to be taken out of the hands of the LEA.

I seem to recall that the outcome was that Varndean College ended up with a very restricted plot of land - deliberately kept as small as possible to prevent future non-educational property development.

This was only possible, of course, because it was a shared site. Where former ESCC controlled educational establishments fell out of LEA control, most of them inherited quite substantial landholdings. In a way, this was not an entirely bad thing - since how else would the former ESCC controlled Brighton Polytechnic (in its later incarnation as the University of Brighton) have been able to offer land to the Albion for a stadium at Falmer?

only problem is the LSC conditions for expansion.

remember the fiasco over selling that hockey field a few years ago?

 

[Gwylan]

If the parents wish to be "Educational Snobs" and pay for their little brats to be educated in the Private Sector, then so be it .
But as this case shows there are inherent selfish risks involved, and no sympathy should be wasted on these snobs.

Just let them pay up and enrol in another elitist institution, if this turns them on.

Totally agree. As Lord B pointed out, an LEA would not close at such short notice; the parents of these kids knew there was a risk of the school closing but didn't think that was important.

I feel really sorry for those kids, it must be terrible to have such disruption just before their GCSEs but their parents really should have thought that stability in education is important.