Residents First

Hammersmith and Fulham to get huge slice of extra school funding

An announcement this week by the Government of an extra £600million budget for school buildings nationwide, shows H&F getting the seventh highest allocation of cash in the country, despite being one of the smallest boroughs.

It comes on top of an existing £14million of funding already allocated for next year, bringing the total for the borough to £33million.

Individual schools are being asked to submit bids for improving or expanding their buildings and facilities.

“This money is a huge boost to our efforts to ensure families can get places in their top choice schools,” says Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of the council. “It will help us support the developments of our schools, to continue to deliver our Schools of Choice programme.”

Council calls on schools to stay open on Wednesday

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is calling on teachers and staff to do everything they can to keep their schools open during next week's strike.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called a strike on Wednesday in London, along with the University and College Union (UCU).

The council is advising schools in H&F that they should consider making up the time by replacing an inset day with a full day’s teaching, so that no children lose out.

Cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Helen Binmore, said her top priority was the education of children in the borough and that local pupils should not suffer as a result of the industrial action.

Staff mutual to cut costs for tri-borough councils

Council staff are setting up their own company to take over school support services for three London boroughs.

In the latest local government innovation to provide public services at lower cost to taxpayers, the employee-led mutual will save more than £1 million over four years.

Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea councils are already sharing many services, enabling them to reduce back office costs in order to protect frontline services from the public spending squeeze.

Now, staff involved in supplying support services for schools across the three boroughs are putting the finishing touches to plans to set themselves up as an employee-led mutual.

Borough welcomes academy changes

Schools in Hammersmith & Fulham are continuing to offer parents a diverse choice of educational possibilities, as a further four schools show their interest in becoming academies.

Three secondary schools and one primary school in the borough are currently going through the process to become an academy, as part of the government’s educational reforms that give teachers, governors and parents more freedom to create and deliver the curriculum and to purchase services.

The London Oratory School in Seagrave Road in Fulham became an academy in September 2011 and Sacred Heart School in Hammersmith in March 2012.

Last month, following a consultation with residents, parents and staff, the governing body of Bentworth Primary School in Shepherds Bush also decided to apply to become an ARK Academy. Lady Margaret School in Parsons Green is currently consulting with residents and staff on potentially changing its status.

Bentworth primary agrees to become an ARK academy

Following a wide public consultation, the Governors of Bentworth Primary School have agreed to go ahead with proposals for the school to become an academy in September 2012.

The new academy will be operated by ARK Schools which has a track record of success in the area. The education charity operates 11 schools across the country including the hugely popular and high achieving Burlington Danes Academy in the north of the borough and the recently opened ARK Conway Primary Academy in Wormholt.

ARK’s network includes several of the most improved academies in the country. Of the ARK academies so far inspected by Ofsted, three are rated as outstanding and all but one of the others have been rated good.

Chairman of Governors, Eugenie White says:

Bentworth Primary School Academy consultation

The Governors of Bentworth Primary School have begun a public consultation on the school becoming an academy in September 2012.

The new academy would be operated by ARK Schools who have a track record of success in the area.The education charity operates 11 schools across London, Portsmouth and Birmingham, including the hugely popular Burlington Danes Academy in the north of the borough. It has recently opened a primary free school in White City, the ARK Conway Primary Academy.

Chairman of Governors, Eugenie White says:

“We have been considering various options to raise the levels of academic achievement at the school and to establish a leadership and financial structure that is effective in the long term. We think this is best done through being part of an academy group and we have chosen ARK Schools because of its substantial and successful local presence.”

Parent support needed for Fulham Boys Free School

A group of Fulham parents is seeking local support to set up a new Church of England free school for boys aged 11 to 18 years in the borough.

School organisers will be submitting their proposals to the Secretary of State for Education next month and parents are being urged to register their support now.

If successful, the secondary school, based in Fulham, would open in September 2013 with its first intake of Year 7 boys.

The Fulham Boys School organisers say they aim to provide an outstanding, enterprising education for boys, set within a framework of Christian values and striving for academic excellence.

Alex Wade, chairman of the group, said:

“From speaking to parents locally, it is clear there’s very real demand for more choice at secondary level, for boys in particular.  Fulham hasn’t got a secondary faith school for boys, other than the excellent but heavily oversubscribed Oratory School, and our ambition is to fill this gap with an outstanding school, with inspirational teaching planned specifically to bring out the best in boys.”

Whilst the plans are for a Church of England school, organisers are actively encouraging support from across the community. Their vision is for a truly inclusive school with at least half of the places each year open to applicants of all faiths and none.

Jonny Ambrose, one of the school’s sponsors, said:

“We know the funding for new free schools is tough, and while we’re confident in the strength of our proposals we are going to need your support to persuade the Department of Education that a Church of England boys’ secondary school is needed and will have a positive effect locally.

"We won't be able successfully to create Fulham Boys School without your help. In particular, we need to prove there is a demand from parents of current Year 5 and Year 4 boys - moving to secondary school in 2013 and 2014 respectively.”

The council’s cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Helen Binmore, added,

“Free schools have proved extremely popular in the borough with lots of applications for the two free schools we already have. As a council we are giving our full backing to free schools. We believe every child deserves a top quality education and these initiatives give parents even more choice. If you are interested in sending your child to the kind of boys school being proposed, now is the time to register your support.”

Visit the Fulham Boys School website to register your support by 15 February 2012.

Top results for Special Needs education provision

Cllr Helen Binmore's speech to the Council Meeting on Wednesday evening

Mayor, I am delighted to second this motion, which once again demonstrates this Councils commitment to delivering a ‘Borough of Opportunity’ for ALL children in order to give them the very best start in life.

This Council prides itself upon our ‘Schools of Choice’ strategy, which aims to provide a top quality education for all children, including all those who attend our range of ‘Outstanding’ Special Schools that we’ve heard about tonight.

To give this some context, some 26% of the 17 000 children in our schools have some form of Special Educational Need, so this area is of real significance to many of our residents.

Therefore nearly 2 years ago Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh commissioned a review of S.E.N. provision in the borough to ensure that it was being delivered appropriately and to ensure that we deliver our manifesto pledge to make the statementing process less adversarial.

Poorer children succeed in Hammersmith and Fulham

Pupils from low income families in Hammersmith & Fulham, are likely to get better GCSE results than children elsewhere.

According to new research carried out by the think tank CentreForum, 56 per cent of pupils from lower income groups in the borough achieve five GCSEs A* to C including English and maths, the sixth highest number for any local authority in the country.

Cllr Helen Binmore, H&F’s cabinet member for children’s services, says:

“Education is the single most important factor in giving future generations a hand up to succeed in life. Children in H&F schools come from a huge range of backgrounds and we have a high proportion of pupils from low income families.

“Thirty one per cent of pupils qualify for free school meals compared to 15 per cent nationally.

“It is a huge credit to the schools in Hammersmith & Fulham that less well-off pupils do better than they do in other parts of the country. The explanation for their exceptional performance lies in the expectation in all our schools that pupils will do well, whatever their family circumstances.”

Schools of Choice delivers soaring popularity

A radical transformation of secondary schools in Hammersmith & Fulham has resulted in an explosion in popularity.

With standards soaring and choice widening, the number of applications to local state secondary schools for September 2012 is up 50% since 2009.

“We have made it our mission to halt the exodus from the local state school sector when children turn eleven,” says cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Helen Binmore. “In 2006 only 45 per cent of local children chose to attend local state schools. That has now risen to 61 per cent.

“That’s a result of our ‘Schools of Choice’ programme that has created more places  in the kind of schools parents want for their children and supported schools in dramatically driving up standards.”