Online Petition During the anti-closure campaign readers were invited to leave comments on this website.
The petition is now closed, but it is displayed here for everyone to read.
23rd June The School Organisation Committee has voted to close the school, despite a strong case argued by parents.
Even after the committee had made their decision, the education authority's spokesperson, Gareth Williams, continued to malign Rosebery School by "spinning" the findings of the most recent inspection in a grotesquely negative fashion on a live interview on BBC Radio Leicester (5.45pm June 23rd.) He did not acknowledge that all teaching is now classified Satisfactory, and continued to use phrases suggesting that the authority had been completely supportive at all times. How does he sleep at night?
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| Loughborough Echo March 9th, reproduced with kind permission of Andy Rush, Editor | |
Online Petition During the anti-closure campaign readers were invited to leave comments on this website. The petition is now closed, but it is displayed here for everyone to read. |
Early last November Rosebery was inspected by OfSTED. It was one of the new style short inspections lasting less than two days. The report that resulted was a shock - was this really a report about Rosebery? Teachers prepared and submitted a formal complaint against the inspection. The OfSTED report was made public on 4th January 2006.
Leicestershire County Council's reaction to the OfSTED report was not supportive of the school. Instead, they have immediately prepared a case for closure of the school - or amalgamation with another school which amounts to the same thing. The first meeting in the process was on 31st January 2006, just four weeks after publication of the OfSTED report.
On May 24th/25th Rosebery was visited by Her Majesty's Inspectors, in the first follow-up visit which every school in special measure receives.
Although the full written report will not arrive for several days, the executive headteacher Stuart McFarlane has revealed that all teaching was found to be at least "satisfactory" and in some cases "good". This is in sharp contrast to the findings of the original Ofsted inspection which judged all teaching to be unsatisfactory.
Parents have always claimed that the original Ofsted report was flawed, and this new inspection supports their faith in the teachers at Rosebery.
(16th May) At their meeting today, the Cabinet committee of county council rejected the parents proposal for federation, and so confirmed that they will be recommending closure of the school.
A summary of the cabinet decisions, with links to a paper written to counter the parents' proposal.
Following a meeting with County Hall officials, parents have developed a proposal designed to save Rosebery from closure, namely "federation" with another school. If adopted this could allow the buildings and teachers to remain in place, whilst sharing a headteacher and governors with another school.
The Parents' proposal can be read here. It will be presented to Cabinet for their meeting on Tuesday 16th May.
During the Easter holiday period, County sent a letter to parents of pupils in which they declared a number of dates. However, after parents pointed out a number of procedural irregularities they have had to revise their timetable, which is now as follows...
10th May Publication of the formal Notice of Closure.
11th May Meeting with parents at Rosebery, 6.00pm-7.30pm
16th May Cabinet meeting to decide if they wish to proceed with the closure.
17th May Public meeting at Rosebery 6.00pm-7.30pm
23rd June Schools Organisation Committee meet to take final decision.
(11th April) - A complaint about Leicester County Council's treatment of Rosebery has been lodged with the Local Government Ombudsman.
(22nd March) Today at Prime Ministers Question Time, in a packed House of Commons gathered to hear the budget speech, Loughborough MP Andy Reed asked a question about Rosebery.
Extract from Hansard (offical parliamentary record)...
Mr. Andy Reed (Loughborough) (Lab/Co-op): I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister agrees with me that when local schools have problems, they should be given the opportunity to turn themselves around. Will he join me in condemning Leicestershire county council, which is making the decision this afternoon to close Rosebery primary school, without the opportunity for that school to be given a chance to improve itself over the next year? It has taken the council a matter of weeks to come to the conclusion that it wants to close the school, despite the massive support from parents, governors, teachers and the local community to keep it open.
The Prime Minister: As my hon. Friend will realise, part of the purpose of the education legislation that we are putting through at the moment is precisely to ensure that local authorities take greater account of the wishes, needs and desires of parents. I know that Rosebery school in his constituency has a very high reputation and I hope that his representations are successful.
(See it for yourself - video clip - you'll need broadband. Fast forward to about 2mins 20 seconds.)
(14th March) At its meeting today the Cabinet of County Council voted to move towards closing Rosebery.
School governors have issued two press releases.
(7th March) Today the Cabinet Office of County Council have issued a press release in which it is stated that despite an 84.5% majority in favour of giving Rosebery the time and resources to recover, they are intending to press ahead with procedures for closure.
Member of Parliament Andy Reed has written a letter to the Director of Childrens Services at Leicestershire County Council, clearly stating the case in favour of giving the school the resources and time needed to recover.
(7th March) There are unconfirmed reports that the parents of future pupils are already being turned away from Rosebery by County. One enquirer was told that the catchment school for the Storer Road area is Robert Bakewell. When the enquirer insisted that there was a school just along the road, the reply was "that school will be closed by September." Other enquirers have allegedly been told that Rosebery's reception class is already full.
If there are any further incidents of this nature, please get in touch by emailing a.d.bailey@lboro.ac.uk
The argument The argument against the school was laid out in a Report to County Council Cabinet. Their main points are...
(5th April) The Cabinet committee of Leicester County Council, accompanied by Gareth Williams and most members of his office, have met with parents at the school. Two reports of this meeting have been prepared, this one by a parent, and another written by a local resident.
(22nd March) Today there was a full meeting of the County Council at which Rosebery was discussed for over three hours. A Labour motion for full consideration of an option to keep the school open was changed by Conservative amendments to further meetings with parents. (Note the coincidence of dates - today was the day that questions were asked in the House of Commons.)
(14th March) At its meeting today the Cabinet of County Council voted to move towards closing Rosebery, effectively ignoring the Education Scrutiny Committee..
(27th February, afternoon)
The County Council's Education Scrutiny Committee met on Monday 27
February
as part of the consultation about the future of Rosebery Primary school.
After a lengthy discussion it was decided to recommend to Cabinet that they consider all options including the option of a properly resourced recovery strategy, i.e. keeping Rosebery Primary School open and giving it support to help it out of special measures.
The Director of Childrens' Services (Gareth Williams) presented the case for closure and amalgamation and argued that the option of keeping the school open was already implied as a "default setting." Local Councillors Betty Newton, Mike Jones and Neville Stork spoke in favour of explicitly including the third option, Cllr Peter Lewis spoke in favour of closing Rosebery. Robert Knight spoke on behalf of the Save Rosebery Action Group on the basis of the nine-point submission for which substantial parental support had been received. In the course of discussion questions were raised about the school's academic performance, the quality of its management and the likelihood of turning the school round, and the consultation procedure.
A motion was passed to ask Cabinet on 14 March to consider all options including that of supporting the school to get it out of special meaures.
Before the discussion written answers were given about the failure to appoint a head teacher in 2005 and the implications for other schools in Leicestershire of closing the school.
Read for yourself the report that was prepared and which was delivered to Education Scrutiny Committee.
Read also this account of the meeting written by a local resident and supporter.
(7th February , evening)
Two meetings have now been held, this afternoon at the local Community Centre and this evening in the School. Speakers from County stated their position - in essence the document as presented to Cabinet was re-iterated. Parents, governors, teachers from other schools, and members of the community all spoke, and everything was recorded by two clerks, one from County, one from the School.
A reply to the complaint about the OfSTED report has been received. It contains a lot of jargon and coded language. Work is underway to translate the reply into a more understandable form and key points will be posted on this website. The bottom line is that OfSTED's finding of "Special Measures" stands.
A Press Release has been prepared and sent to both local and national outlets.
The formal minutes of the meetings of 7th February can never capture the atmosphere - but here they are.
Minutes of The Afternoon Meeting
Minutes of The Evening meeting(version 1) (version2)
(3rd February , afternoon)
With the first event of the formal consultation yet to take place, the County have already issued letters to all parents inviting them to choose an alternative school for their child(ren). In the letter it is stated "Places will be made available at Robert Bakewell School for all children currently at Rosebery Primary School and for those...due to start there in September 2006." Enclosed with the letter is an application form which has to be returned by 10th March.
This tactic by County is surely going to precipitate an early exodus of children away from Rosebery. It is clear evidence that the County regard the consultation as only a formality, that the decision to close/amalgamate is already made.
(1st February , midday)
Parents are receiving letters through the post informing them of the cabinet decision and including a "consultation pack". These letters are dated 30th January - the day before the cabinet met! Who is making the decisions in this matter? If Cllr.Mike Jones suggestion of adding a third option to the consultation been agreed, someone somewhere would have been very embarrassed.
(31st January , evening)
The Cabinet of the County Council have met. Well constructed arguments were put by councillors Stork, Newton and Jones (non-cabinet members for various parts of Loughborough) asking that the school be given a chance to recover from the (disputed) OfSTED special measures, but the cabinet (none of whom serve Loughborough constituencies) voted to "go ahead with the consultation" (which in reality means to decide how to set about closing the school).
See also this report written by a representative of the local Residents Group.
Pages prepared by A.D.Bailey@lboro.ac.uk