Mrs Attwood is by some measure the most vocal and forceful of the three
Academy sponsors. She has been silenced of late for whatever reason but
she is the key player in every 'decision' that has been made to date.
Mr Kelly by contrast has been less vocal, more deliberate and much more uncomfortable in the public meetings. He hasn't commented in public, by which I mean the Evening Mail of course, as often as Mrs Attwood and he too has been silent of late.
Mr Kelly by contrast has been less vocal, more deliberate and much more uncomfortable in the public meetings. He hasn't commented in public, by which I mean the Evening Mail of course, as often as Mrs Attwood and he too has been silent of late.
Mr Simco the third sponsor has shown that he understands the situation
far better than the other two and has been almost totally silent from
the start.
The two college principals despite their protestations that they are 'only' representing their colleges as sponsors are the REAL sponsors of the Academy plan. Every Academy project that has succeeded and those that have failed or been killed off in the planning stage are run by REAL people.
Here in Barrow these two people were also trying to double the capacity of their colleges at the same time as oversee the sponsorship of an Academy. Quite how they could do this and run a successful college apiece is frankly beyond me but trying to do three things at once effectively just isn't possible!
Both Mrs Attwood & Mr Kelly had thrown their lot in with the LSC to gain funding for their expansion plans. As we all know the LSC is incredibly incompetent especially when it comes to finance and so they had 'approved' both plans until the Treasury woke up and put the LSC's spending 'under review'. If we are too believe Mrs Attwood the LSC then sneaked out the announcement that 13 of the 173 projects would be able to continue with 'modified' and 'scaled back' schemes.
Mrs Attwoods scheme was one of the 13 Mr Kelly was told that he wouldn't be getting any funding until 2011 at the earliest.
So why Mrs Attwoods college and not Mr Kelly's?
There has to be a valid reason. Neither college had started knocking down buildings. The sixth form has undertaken some preliminary ground works so it could be argued that on the ground at least the sixth form was more 'financially committed'.
However what we cannot see, simply because Mrs Attwoods governors haven't updated their minutes on her web site for some considerable time, is the level of her behind the scenes financial commitment to her plans.
Here's what both principals had to say after the LSC's decisions.
First Big Dave Kelly
"We have been told by the LSC that our project will definitely not go ahead. Obviously we are bitterly disappointed. It is a blow for the college.
The decision has no bearing on the day-to-day running of the college, but unfortunately it means that we will be unable to provide the much-improved facilities we wanted to. We need to have a lot of discussions between staff and governors about what the way forward is for the college. Until we have had those discussions, I cannot make any further comment, but certainly it does not affect us financially."
Big Dave goes to great lengths to show the readers, you and me, that he hasn't put his college under any sort of financial risk. He makes it crystal clear that the college can continue as is without any sort of staffing or other cutbacks to fund the work already carried out. Whether the work already done will turn out to be a waste only time will tell but his college is at least financially secure enough to have forked out a sizeable sum for the groundworks and be able to afford to have this work left hanging for two years.
The money spent will only truly be lost if the LSC's replacement doesn't sanction any future expansion.
Now we have Mrs Attwood
"We will not know how far we can go with the build until we have spoken to the LSC, who we are meeting next week, but obviously we are absolutely over the moon here at the college. We found out yesterday morning.
We did not even know anything was going to be announced until then. We are very happy about it. This is great news for Barrow, the college rebuild forms a major part in the regeneration of Barrow.
Future generations of learners at the college can look forward to having world class facilities in which to study.The announcement means that not only that Furness College will get a new build but also, that in partnership with the University of Cumbria, we can deliver a much wider range of courses with fewer students having to travel out of the county for degree level programmes.
We have totally outgrown our existing buildings that look like industrial units and belie the quality of the education and training that takes place at the college."
She may well be telling the truth about how and when she found out about her good fortune but she is clearly far from ecstatic. She doesn't yet know how much the LSC will force her to scale back her plans but half way through her statement she slips back into Academy speak with her world class reference!
If you read the whole thing through twice you seen the underlying thread of relief running through her comments. This suggests that Anne Attwood came perilously close to some sort of 'bitter disappointment' that is quite different to the one felt by Dave Kelly.
The two college principals despite their protestations that they are 'only' representing their colleges as sponsors are the REAL sponsors of the Academy plan. Every Academy project that has succeeded and those that have failed or been killed off in the planning stage are run by REAL people.
Here in Barrow these two people were also trying to double the capacity of their colleges at the same time as oversee the sponsorship of an Academy. Quite how they could do this and run a successful college apiece is frankly beyond me but trying to do three things at once effectively just isn't possible!
Both Mrs Attwood & Mr Kelly had thrown their lot in with the LSC to gain funding for their expansion plans. As we all know the LSC is incredibly incompetent especially when it comes to finance and so they had 'approved' both plans until the Treasury woke up and put the LSC's spending 'under review'. If we are too believe Mrs Attwood the LSC then sneaked out the announcement that 13 of the 173 projects would be able to continue with 'modified' and 'scaled back' schemes.
Mrs Attwoods scheme was one of the 13 Mr Kelly was told that he wouldn't be getting any funding until 2011 at the earliest.
So why Mrs Attwoods college and not Mr Kelly's?
There has to be a valid reason. Neither college had started knocking down buildings. The sixth form has undertaken some preliminary ground works so it could be argued that on the ground at least the sixth form was more 'financially committed'.
However what we cannot see, simply because Mrs Attwoods governors haven't updated their minutes on her web site for some considerable time, is the level of her behind the scenes financial commitment to her plans.
Here's what both principals had to say after the LSC's decisions.
First Big Dave Kelly
"We have been told by the LSC that our project will definitely not go ahead. Obviously we are bitterly disappointed. It is a blow for the college.
The decision has no bearing on the day-to-day running of the college, but unfortunately it means that we will be unable to provide the much-improved facilities we wanted to. We need to have a lot of discussions between staff and governors about what the way forward is for the college. Until we have had those discussions, I cannot make any further comment, but certainly it does not affect us financially."
Big Dave goes to great lengths to show the readers, you and me, that he hasn't put his college under any sort of financial risk. He makes it crystal clear that the college can continue as is without any sort of staffing or other cutbacks to fund the work already carried out. Whether the work already done will turn out to be a waste only time will tell but his college is at least financially secure enough to have forked out a sizeable sum for the groundworks and be able to afford to have this work left hanging for two years.
The money spent will only truly be lost if the LSC's replacement doesn't sanction any future expansion.
Now we have Mrs Attwood
"We will not know how far we can go with the build until we have spoken to the LSC, who we are meeting next week, but obviously we are absolutely over the moon here at the college. We found out yesterday morning.
We did not even know anything was going to be announced until then. We are very happy about it. This is great news for Barrow, the college rebuild forms a major part in the regeneration of Barrow.
Future generations of learners at the college can look forward to having world class facilities in which to study.The announcement means that not only that Furness College will get a new build but also, that in partnership with the University of Cumbria, we can deliver a much wider range of courses with fewer students having to travel out of the county for degree level programmes.
We have totally outgrown our existing buildings that look like industrial units and belie the quality of the education and training that takes place at the college."
She may well be telling the truth about how and when she found out about her good fortune but she is clearly far from ecstatic. She doesn't yet know how much the LSC will force her to scale back her plans but half way through her statement she slips back into Academy speak with her world class reference!
If you read the whole thing through twice you seen the underlying thread of relief running through her comments. This suggests that Anne Attwood came perilously close to some sort of 'bitter disappointment' that is quite different to the one felt by Dave Kelly.
Is it me or is there an awful lot of 'change for the sake of change' occuring here? I am no expert but why do these establishments need more and more money pumping into them - if someone can explain this to me I would be grateful. I can see that standards need to be maintained but isn't furness college fairly new? Do the government just have money to waste? It seems that the principals involved feel the need to constantly be proving themselves to someone or other - who I don't know (perhaps each other?). Now they are not content with their own game of snakes and ladders - they want to net the town's secondary schools as well. I am merely observing and probably don't appreciate the facts but this all just seems like some sort of rat race gone mad.