Suffolk Free Schools Pupil Numbers Funding 2012-3

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SuffolkFS20122013PupilFunding.xlsx (41 KB)
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Data sources: Suffolk County Council FOI, Seckford Foundation (Beccles), Stour Valley Communty School, SABRES

Note: Beccles Free School has a PAN of 54 for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years, this will increase to 108 after then

Letter to Seckford re Imposition of Beccles Free School

Dear Mr Finbow, Mr Watson and Mr Cawley

I wonder if you could help me with a question I have?

On 17th Feb 2012 Mr Finbow wrote to me as follows:

Dear Mr Hargrave 
Thank you for drawing to my attention the utterances of Tony Callaghan on the subject of free schools. Mr Callaghan is not known to me, but I understand that he was involved with the Beccles Free School proposal in its early stages. 
He ceased to have any involvement around August last year and I am told he now lives in Canada. 
We are absolutely appalled by Mr Callaghan’s comments; they do not remotely represent the views of the Seckford Foundation and we wish to dissociate ourselves entirely from them. 
The aim of the Foundation in supporting Free School proposals in the county is to support the principle that children and their parents should have a choice in where they are educated, where there is a sufficiently strong desire for such a choice. 
We have consistently made clear that if, contrary to our understanding, the desire is not there, then we will have no wish to impose a free school on the community. 
Yours sincerely 
Roger Finbow 
Chairman - The Seckford Foundation

It has become increasingly clear since this date that as Mr Finbow puts it "the desire is not there in Beccles". This is evidenced by:

  • The low number of expressions of interest in the school (107 across three school years)
  • A petition of around 3000 opposing the school
  • The opposition of Peter Aldous local MP
  • The opposition of Mr Bee local County Councillor
  • The reaction of the Question Time audience in Beccles
  • The collapse of the “parent group” behind the school
  • Letters to the local press
  • The opposition of five local head teachers
Do Seckford agree they have reneged on this promise? If not could you please  explain what a "lack of desire" would look like?

Best wishes

James Hargrave

Letter to Seckford re Imposition of Beccles Free School

Dear Mr Finbow, Mr Watson and Mr Cawley

I wonder if you could help me with a question I have?

On 17th Feb 2012 Mr Finbow wrote to me as follows:

Dear Mr Hargrave 

Thank you for drawing to my attention the utterances of Tony Callaghan on the subject of free schools. Mr Callaghan is not known to me, but I understand that he was involved with the Beccles Free School proposal in its early stages. 

He ceased to have any involvement around August last year and I am told he now lives in Canada. 

We are absolutely appalled by Mr Callaghan’s comments; they do not remotely represent the views of the Seckford Foundation and we wish to dissociate ourselves entirely from them. 

The aim of the Foundation in supporting Free School proposals in the county is to support the principle that children and their parents should have a choice in where they are educated, where there is a sufficiently strong desire for such a choice. 

We have consistently made clear that if, contrary to our understanding, the desire is not there, then we will have no wish to impose a free school on the community. 

Yours sincerely 

Roger Finbow 
Chairman - The Seckford Foundation

It has become increasingly clear since this date that as Mr Finbow puts it "the desire is not there in Beccles". This is evidenced by:

  • The low number of expressions of interest in the school (107 across three school years)
  • A petition of around 3000 opposing the school
  • The opposition of Peter Aldous local MP
  • The opposition of Mr Bee local County Councillor
  • The reaction of the Question Time audience in Beccles
  • The collapse of the “parent group” behind the school
  • Letters to the local press
  • The opposition of five local head teachers

Do Seckford agree they have reneged on this promise? If not could you please  explain what a "lack of desire" would look like?

Best wishes

James Hargrave
http://blog.hargrave.org.uk

Changes made to the Beccles Free School EDP Article

The article below is a Google cache of the original EDP article published on Friday 18th May. It is annotated to show the changes made when the same article was re-published on Monday 21st May. The revised article has the same time and date stame (Fri 18th May) and the fact it is edited is not mentioned....

Click here to download:
chillingchanges.pdf (1.08 MB)
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Missing Free School Articles from today's Papers

These articles appear to have been removed from the Archant Newspapers websites

Click here to download:
Lowestoft_Journal_2.pdf (2.88 MB)
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Click here to download:
FreeSchoolBBJ18May2012.pdf (3.85 MB)
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Thurston Forward Contracts

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Forward Contracts.docx (21 KB)
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This document was received from a teaching union member. It shows the modelling that Thurston Community College has done to assess the potential impact of the Ixworth free school and explains why so few forward contracts could be offered to middle school staff.