There is some work going on in the background with helping this situation the best we can, but I won’t post any info unless it’s concrete. Though I will say @Satchers has been doing a lot of work in the background & @MajaHilton has too. I think all groups will finally come together soon to do the best for the boys & the School 
[NOTE FROM THE MODERATORS: A QUOTE FROM AN EXTERNAL SOURCE HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS POST AT THE REQUEST OF THE ORIGINATOR OF THAT SOURCE MATERIAL. THE ORIGINAL SOURCE IS NO LONGER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.]
There are apparently big incentives for Forest Hill School to become an academy. It would not wipe out the PFI debt but it will transfer the previous operating deficit from the school to the council.
Other than the financial implications I cannot say whether the pupils would be better served by an academy than as a council maintained school. But I think there might be a correlation between the worst results in London from Lewisham schools and the ‘political stance to stop’ academies in the borough. However, I’m not an expert on education, I’m happy to accept that academies are a ‘bad thing’ compared to the current state of Forest Hill school if anybody would like to explain why.
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Personally I’m not a fan of Academy Schools, though I would favour the previous deficit being transferred to the Council in any other form if possible?
Hi Michael. If you want to know about the academic performance of ‘multi-academy trusts’ such the Harris Federation, you can view the stats here:
The relevant document is the spreadsheet “Tables: SFR02/2017” and you need to look at the ‘ks4’ or key stage 4 tab. I’m attaching a screenshot of the data with Harris highlighted. Harris is in the ‘Significantly above average’ banding for the Progress 8 measure. That means they get very good exam results in ‘core’ subjects such as English, Maths, sciences, etc compared to schools whose intake of pupils was academically similar.
In general, although the government continues to push for more and more schools to become academies, their academic performance compared to local authority maintained schools is what you might call a mixed bag - ie. they are not in general outperforming local authority maintained schools. So Harris seems to be doing a good job. Obviously Harris is not the only option, but would clearly be the obvious one.
If becoming a ‘sponsored academy’ (the term used to describe schools that are forced to become academies due to poor performance) will help with the financial situation (for the school) then I’d think that’s be a very good thing.
I know this data pretty well, as I’ve been working on the https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk service for the last year.
If you want to give your views to Ofsted, you can do so here: https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/login?destination=give-your-views
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I would have though that anything which provides the boys with a secure education would be a good thing?
David, I would be up for a meeting with you to understand this more.
I think the issue with academies as I’ve seen it reported is more about how rounded and inclusive the education is, issues over whether ‘difficult’ or poorly performing children disappear off the books/and from the results, and how they can be a bit ‘my way or the highway’.
When visiting secondary schools of did find the academies I visited to be much more regimented in their approach. Which wasn’t what I was looking for.
I guess one of the things it depends on is whether you think the results from a set formula of tests is everything?
But I’m absolutely sure there are good and less good examples of all school types…
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I think what Paul Maslin was saying is if they took on this debt in any form (if they had to), then with a finite budget other services would need to be cut.
Really sad. I’m so proud of my daughter starting Uni in London, but not sure what the future holds for my son sadly due to these circumstances, especially as he has SEN.
Saying that I don’t know the best way to make cuts in general in our society.
To be frank, it’s crap & I think someone on our local Council has to grow a pair & start fighting against Central Government to stop these cuts - someone has to start somewhere right?
This is the whole reason why I thought about running for a local Cllr - I don’t see anyone breaking the mould & fighting our corner anytime soon, but someone needs too!!!
And soon!
BTW Not me, I looked into it & I couldn’t give it my all.
A reminder to all participants in this thread: this is an important source of information and updates for all interested in the future of Forest Hill School. It needs to be focused on the current situation and immediate solutions for what is a critical situation.
Wider discussions about central government school funding, and protests relating to that, properly belong in Politicos. Discussion about the pros and cons of academisation is, I think, relevant here, if we can make an effort to keep it non-Partisan, both in our comments and the sources of data we share.
As ever, this is a tricky thread to mod and I want to keep it as open, active and relevant as possible.
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Indeed, and to treat them fairly. It is only state maintained schools that have to follow the increasingly rigid national curriculum. Schools that opt for Academy status, of their own volition, seem to get a easier ride with Ofsted too (as do Private incidentally, totally different framework). As FHS is more likely to be converted to Academy (as mentioned above), the pressure would still be on them so, apart from the deficit transfer, less of an advantage. Source:
There are currently 1,012 open schools with no inspection grade. As schools close and re-open they can lose their inspection history9 and this can affect the national proportions of overall effectiveness grades. Of the schools with no inspection grade:
73% are sponsor-led academies
20% are new free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges
4% are local authority schools
3% are academy converters
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintained-schools-and-academies-inspections-and-outcomes-as-at-31-march-2017/maintained-schools-and-academies-inspections-and-outcomes-as-at-31-march-2017
I agree that exam results are definitely not the be all and end all, but if FHS did become a Harris Academy, at least exam results doesn’t look like it’d be a worry. The good thing about the new emphasis on progress measures such as Progress 8 is that for schools to get a good score, it is just as important for them to help low achievers and high achievers and middle achievers, as it’s all about their amount of progress, not just their actual results. The old measures used to incentivise schools to help ‘D’ grade pupils to get a ‘C’ grade, as the emphasis was on the proportion getting grades A*-C.
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@moderators have moved some posts debating union involvement and central government policy into our opt-in Politicos section
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Agreed the discussion was wandering but am lost as to how some of my comments that were moved into politicos fall into the debate around the broader issue of union involvement and central government financing. So I’ll paraphrase here.
I’m heartened to see parents and teachers working in unison on common issues at FHS. It is clear from talking to both groups that they have much to collaborate on to the betterment of “our” children/students’ education. This is particularly relevant as the financial situation of FHS is directly affecting teacher levels and that directly affects quality of education. Striking is naturally divisive among parents (some for/some against) but both sides have some interesting points. There is a healthy debate on this at the Forest Hill School Parent’s Action Group facebook page. Regardless of issues on striking, it was also obvious from the meeting transcript that parents are universally concerned about teacher staffing levels at FHS.
Even though I have no kids (now), I am sincerely interested in the state of our local education. Notwithstanding the importance it holds to many friends who do have kids in full time education, I am increasingly engaged in this community and want all facets of it, particularly social, to succeed.
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Thanks for that round-up, @starman. It was impossible to split the thread without scooping up some posts that might or might not be overtly political, but all had strayed somewhat from focussing specifically on the situation in hand. Your post above is a good example of how to keep the discussion focussed on FHS, while allowing the scope of discussion to go beyond budget spreadsheets. 
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Nicola Mitchell, who wrote these notes, has decided she doesn’t want them visible here. So she has altered the permissions making them unreachable.
https://twitter.com/nicmitch999/status/885616829024137216
Update she has since deleted the above tweet, in which she made an interesting request - that our link to the notes be removed, and also all the ensuing discussion about them be removed from this site.
Does Ms Mitchell represent the “Action Group”? Perhaps someone can explain why they are unwilling for the proceedings of a public meeting with a local councillor to be discussed on an inclusive, open forum?
I have spoken to an attendee and in no way was this meeting declared confidential.
I’m afraid I’m the one at fault here. I failed to ask permission to link to the transcript and given that it was released to a closed group I am terribly remiss in this regard. Furthermore, given the public animosity between @anon5422159 and FHS PAG I should most particularly have sought permission first.
I’ve removed my post with the link.
I don’t think anyone has suggested the meeting was confidential. Bit of a straw man. This person who is not an admin of FHS PAG took it upon herself to transcribe the meeting and share it with the group she belongs to. I’m now told she had no wish for these to be shared beyond the group as they are not or have never been intended to be official minutes of the meeting. My rush to share these gave the indication they were official. They aren’t. I cannot stress this strongly enough. Its akin to one of us taking notes of a Forest Hill Society meeting and then publishing them as some official notice.
The meeting was open to any parent of a child at FHS… The meeting was however closed to only parents and that was as at the request of Paul Maslin himself. So sadly neither I or you would have been welcome.
Don’t feel bad, Jason - linking between relevant pages is a basic function of the World Wide Web, and no one can tell you not to link to their publicly accessible page, provided you do not actually share any of their content on your own website. You’ve done nothing wrong.
This incident raises questions about the nature of FH “Action Group” meetings, which in this case was entered into in good faith by a local councillor.
If the transcription was designed to be shared with certain “parents” groups but not others, that strikes me as a bit odd. No?
Update I see you have edited your post to add a long piece about her supposed intentions. Have a read of her (public) tweets to get a better feel for her thinking on the matter. It strikes me that she’s concerned that the Action Group won’t be able to control the narrative and discussion if it’s on the open web:
https://twitter.com/nicmitch999/status/885628329289814016
If the notes of this public meeting were shared on Facebook, I see no reason why they cannot be shared on other social media?
Obviously Nicola is more than welcome to comment on this here as we are an inclusive, open forum.