The Deanes School – Update

I am very disappointed that Essex County Council is progressing with its plans for the closure of The Deanes School. When Essex publishes its statutory notices I will make a further detailed and robust response on behalf of parents, residents and the Council.

I remain opposed to the closure of Deanes and will continue to stand up for what I believe is best for Southend’s pupils: a mixed provision of schools, fundamentally focusing on maximising choice.

Whilst I have not yet been provided with all of the decision papers, I do not feel that all of the issues and concerns raised in my formal response to the consultation, and the questions raised by many concerned parents that turned up to the consultation meeting we hosted in Southend, have been answered.

Blenheim Park’s children do well at GCSEs!

I’m doubly interested in the GCSE results this year, but from a Blenheim perspective a really big shout out and congratulations to the pupils and staff at both Belfairs and The Eastwood Academy for their massive improvement in GCSE results. And, of course, well done to those who go elsewhere.

An extract from the press release issued by the Council a short while ago full story here:

“At Belfairs Academy, 69 per cent of GCSE pupils achieved 5 A*-Cs including Maths and English, (an increase of 22 percentage points on 2012).

Meanwhile, Eastwood Academy celebrated as its rate of pupils achieving 5 A*-Cs including Maths and English increased by 20 percentage points since 2009.

Four years ago, 52 per cent of pupils attained these results compared with 72 per cent this year. The 2013 results represent an increase of five percentage points since 2012.

James Courtenay, Executive Councillor for Children and Learning, said: “We are enormously proud of the achievement of all the young people collecting their GCSE results this year. The results reflect the hard work of the pupils and their teachers.

“I would particularly like to congratulate the pupils and staff at Belfairs Academy and St Bernard’s High School for their rapid improvement on last year, and The Eastwood Academy for their near-continuous improvement over the past five years.

“As we begin the new academic year, we all continue with even more determination to close the gap and improve results for all our young people.”“

I’ve pledged today. Have you?

I have signed the http://www.recycleforsouthend.org/ pledge today. For the chance to win £250 just for recycling – and you get 10 chances too!

If I’m lucky enough to win I’ll be looking for a group or two in Blenheim to help out with the cash – but that’s because I’m your councillor and to do anything else with it wouldn’t feel right.

What would you do though? That’s nearly 100 pints (not all at once!), a nice expensive handbag or pair of shoes (not that I’m stereotypical of course, I might want the handbag!).

And the best thing? It wouldn’t cost you a penny – the council would give you the money in a cheque! 🙂

And it if it encourages recycling, even by a little bit, the council will save SO much money on landfill tax, we will save money too, which will allow us to protect other services more.

So sign today, save the planet and try to get yourself 250 quid!! http://www.recycleforsouthend.org/

Better bus services

Just a short note to say I’m pleased to confirm improvements to two of the more popular bus stops in Blenheim – the two closest to the A127 on Bridgewater Drive.

The plan is to improve accessibility for everyone by replacing the verge at the stops with a hard standing and providing a raised bus boarder (higher kerb for easier access for wheelchair and pram users as well as those who find climbing up difficult). Work to commence shortly.

There are also plans for the London bound Kent Elms A127 stop (for the X30) again with a raised bus boarder, and also a shelter.

More ‘Better Bus Area’ projects to follow elsewhere in the ward soon.

The Deanes School – Formal Response

For, and on behalf of, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, but more importantly on behalf of the 234 children we currently have at The Deanes School and those future children from Southend who might want to go there, I was pleased to recently submit the following response to Essex County Council’s consultation on the proposed closure of The Deanes School.

It was great to see so many parents at the recent meeting we hosted for Essex County Council to come along and hear Southend’s parents concerns, the council chamber was packed!

I like to think I don’t join on the populist bandwagons of some fellow councillors, but fair’s fair, we offer a lot of secondary school places to children from Essex (not just the grammar schools), so please let our parents have that extra choice:

Formal Response to Consultation

The Big Charge – young and not so young councils come together!

I was pleased to attend the Big Charge event with members of Southend Youth Council who performed ALMOST as well as those of us from the “Old” Council (hmm, okay, perhaps they performed a tad better than us, but there were more YC members there, that’s my excuse!)

 

Me with some Youth Council members:

                 

 

 

Rob Tinlin (Chief Executive of Southend Borough Council), along with Nigel Holdcroft (Leader of the Council), my Cabinet colleague Derek Jarvis (Culture) and me (Children and Learning):

 

I now look forward to being able to watch the big LED screen and thinking “I powered that” – well at least for 5 minutes anyway!

Public Meeting – The Deanes School

 

I am pleased to announce that I have organised a public meeting with Essex education chiefs specifically for Southend parents with children at The Deanes School.

I have called the meeting as I know many parents of the 234 children we have at the Thundersley school are concerned.

I think it’s vitally important that parents and students have the opportunity to meet and question some of the key policy makers from Essex County Council.

This has been a worrying time for parents of students currently at the school – as well as for those who are due to start there this September – and this meeting is an important way to assist parents in gaining first-hand information and in assisting  me to develop our formal response to Essex County Council’s consultation document.

It will be held at Committee Room 1, Civic Centre on 17 July at 7.30pm.

95% of our 16 year olds go onto work, further training, or work towards university

On the face of it, the Echo’s report last Thursday (28th June) positioned Southend as a ‘town of two extremes’ when it comes to students attending university, or going into further education, with figures varying widely across the spectrum.

But in addressing that issue, I think there’s one statistic that says so much about a town’s true educational status: the NEET figure: which for those unaware of this particular acronym, means those aged 16-19 Not in Education, Employment or Training. For 2012/3 Southend’s NEET figure was just 5.4 per cent, below the national average.

Southend is also 3rd out of 60 ‘cities’ (City Outlook 2013, Centre for Cities) for 5 A*-C GCSEs (including English and Maths), we have high apprenticeship figures and are below average on Job Seekers’ allowance claimants, youth claimant count and long-term claimant count.

So much for stats you might say, but these figures present a much fuller educational picture. So now to the big question for many with children in Southend: why are we recognised as having great success sending students to university from some secondary schools in the town, while the numbers of students going to university from others appears low?

The answer is that these figures are quite normal for Southend. This is because with few large companies in the Southend area, there is a long-standing pattern of children either going to university or into work.

However, the companies that traditionally employ these youngsters are typically small or medium-sized companies who tend to train people ‘on the job’ rather than through formal training courses, which they don’t have the capacity to run themselves.

Whilst education is important in its own right, I think we have to be pragmatic and say that for the average resident they are more worried about using their education to get a job and earning a decent wage. Which is why it is great to see external verification that this is exactly what is happening, with Southend being 15th out of 64 for employment and 9th out of 64 for average weekly wages (City Outlook 2013, Centre for Cities).

Civic duty x2, music and beer x?

Been a fairly busy but enjoyable weekend. Firstly I attended the Open Air Service at the top of the High Street for Armed Forces Day. Something that reminds me every year of the more recent and present sacrifice our Armed Forces make, where as Remembrance Sunday always makes me think of WWI and WWII first and foremost.

Good parade and service once again:

This morning was the annual Civic Service, held this year at Holy Trinity,  Southchurch – in the Mayor’s ward of Southchurch.

Then time for the British Grand Prix,  whilst emailing some Blenheim residents about issues they’ve raised with me.

Now time to catch the end of the Leigh Folk festival – not usually my sort of thing,  but you have to try these things and someone told me there was beer,  so (sorry Dr Kent) I’d better get down there and have one or two….

One of my many days off work tomorrow – Children and Learning duties this time,  where I’m going to Lancaster (special) School for the grand opening of their new building – just on the back of a brilliant Ofsted inspection. Good times there!

Fair Havens Hospice on non-greenbelt land?

I last blogged about Havens’ new hospice plan in October last year.

It now appears that Havens have found a site that isn’t greenbelt and should be suitable for their needs.

“The appeal lodged by Havens Hospices against the decision of the Council to refuse planning permission for a hospice building on land south of Belton Way West, Leigh, has been postponed following a joint request from the Council and Havens Hospice.

The Planning Inspectorate has agreed to postpone the Public Inquiry for a period of four months to enable the Hospice to explore the potential of locating on the former EKCO site at Priory Crescent.”

As this has now been postponed, I understand that planning officers will now be meeting with Havens to discuss the details of how they might able to progress their planning application on the EKCO site. I’m sure there will be difficulties along the way, but let’s hope these can be thrashed out.

Great news and I hope we can move forward from the last few years of “the greenbelt distraction” and go back to being in awe of what Havens does for those in need of care and support in the final period of their life.