This man wants to cut between 2 and 3 billion directly from the cost of
running the UK's schools because we all have to bear the pain of the
bank bailout, even though nobody in government bothered to ask any
member of the electorate if we actually wanted to fund the bailout and
Balls and his cronies didn't seem to care that they were actually
transferring the biggest of public debts to those still in school.
"Not my worry mate! I won't be here after the next election." seems to be the mantra of the entire government, shameful.
Article in the Times. Explanation from a real education expert who wishes to remain anonymous.
Yet another story that shows beyond any doubt that the current government really is unfit for purpose in every sense of the word. I shouldn't be amazed at this but honestly this one really takes the biscuit and I am wondering where it's all going to end.
Seriously I like just about every other Barrovian hasn't a clue about what is coming next to Furness Academy Limited's school. I do of course have the hidden web pages long since pulled which give me a massive clue but even these do not reveal the things that have arrived in Cowley school in St Helens.
He's at it again. I think the reality is that Mr Balls spin doctors are lining him up to be the next Labour leader this is why he is never out of the papers and is appearing in interview after interview on TV and radio.
As part of the creation process of the Furness Academy Limited's curriculum there has had to be subject casualties as it had to accommodate four current diplomas and four new ones starting in September 2010.
I have spoken with three different mothers in as many days of children who are in the new school. They all complain about having to sew the buttons back on to a blazer that has been in use less than a month!
Admittedly it's not an Academy but it is a National Challenge School that has achieved incredible results with the assistance of some committed teachers, governors, pupils, parents and a small amount of cash from the DCSF.
Well after a lengthy and detailed investigation the OFT has fined construction companies a total of £130 million pounds for bid rigging. As I said there was no smoke without fire and so it has been proved.
What on earth has this got to do with Furness Academy Limited?
Ed Balls is a man on a mission but that mission as nothing to do with education! He is actually a career minded New Labour politician not a minister who has education running through his veins.
I have been asked to put this short post on the site by a couple of the pupils.
Apologies for the lack of posting. There have been some big changes in our lives triggered by our decision to home school our youngest son and the reliance of our primary business on the country's best ever delivery service that this crazy government meddles with almost as much as it does with education.
There has also been the 'issue' of figuring out what happened to private information about our son.
At long last the Furness Academy Limited have produced their prospectus for new pupils.
It's been a long while coming and sadly it contains little that is new.
May 2010 is the likely date of the next general election in the UK. It's just over nine months away. For once there is some clear blue sky between the 'toryesque' labour government and the 'labouresque' Conservative pretenders.
Furness Academy has been open for a very short period of time. It is delivering diplomas as a 'dumbing down' exercise whereby every school leaver gets 'something'. It is not unusual all Academies offer diplomas, at least all the Academies I have looked into.
I and many others have argued that planning using 9 year old census data to work out future school places in the technology rich 21st century is daft at best and incompetent at worst. Well it no seems that none other that the Corporate Director of Children's Services on Cumbria County Council has now come to the same conclusion.
Another academy in Sheffield will this week become the third of the
government's flagship quasi-independent schools to be placed in special
measures by Ofsted, in a fresh blow to the credibility of the academy
programme. Sheffield Park Academy - opened last year by the Duke of
York following a £30m redevelopment - will become the third of the
schools to be placed in "special measures".
Or not as the case may be.
It seems Furness Academy Limited's troubled northern sister Academy is once again suffering from incompetence and mismanagement, sadly.
It really is an excellent example of the lunacy that pervades British politics which lead to the creation of the Academy programme lauded by His Tonyness of Blair, European President Elect, all round good egg and 'straight up sort of guy'.
To be perfectly honest I wouldn't have expected anything else from the start of a new term in a new school. Even with adequate planning and skilled planners there will be issues that need to be resolved once the school is open.
...that should be here is delayed.
The reason for the delay is that there is an investigation underway into a specific communication between two parties that appears to have been 'compromised'. I am unable to say anything more at this point.
Well it's nearly the end of the first week of Furness Academy Limited
actually getting down to the business of educating the children in it's
care.
As with all new schools there has been a few problems with timetabling,
some lessons missing, some kids 'double booked' for example which is
too be expected given the short time the timetable compiler has had to
integrate three totally different school systems into one as well as
try and 'meld' four different curriculum's into the school day.
Learning a language is never easy, unless you are naturally talented in picking up a language or if you are focussed enough to see it through. However there are some clear advantages to learning and more importantly using a second language depending of course where you are in the world and which language you have learned!
Obviously this is not a representative view of the experiences of the entire Year 11 group but it is a genuine viewpoint of one pupil, student, learning, learning group member or whatever this weeks buzzword is for kids in school.
Good old Ed Balls is thrashing around like a fish out of water.
There have been a few reports now coming in of the first day at Furness Academy Limited. If you have any then add them here.
After the horse as bolted politicians shut the gate.
Well as you may gather I think not. The shower who were paid god knows what to design the 'inspirational' Academy curriculum at a symposium (jolly outing paid for by the taxpayer) in Liverpool last year were not worth their pay if the document they produced is anything to go by.
It's a weekend for proof that the civil servants and the politicians in this country are all but totally useless. This story from the North of the County hasn't made it into the Evening Mail and possibly it shouldn't but it certainly has a bearing on the 'abilities' of one Moira Swann.
Yet more proof, not that it's needed, that governments are having a negative impact on education. They cannot seem to keep their hands off and let the teaching staff get on with providing the best possible education for all children no matter what their background or social status, nor the upfront cost.
To the 'pre Academy Watch me' this news would be staggering. As it is is it's just more proof that this government and it's Blairite predecessor are clueless and simply throw cash at sound bite policies that consultants get paid a fortune from the public purse to dream up.
It must come as great surprise to Ed Balls, Anne Attwood, Dave Kelly and Moira Swann, but teenagers are the best judges of what sort of future they want.
They are rejecting the Diplomas in their droves.
Well it's the end of another week and there is only two days left before Furness Academy Limited staff greet their first Year 7 intake. I seriously hope that the lack of information from the company does not translate into a lack of education for the children.
Update 7-45pm 4th September 2009 The Mail was as good as it's word and got the outstanding questions answered.
Just browsing through the vastly improved Cumbria County Council web site yesterday evening. Congratulations go to whoever did the revamp. It's much more logically laid out. Still best searched by using Google but nevertheless a welcome improvement.
Anyway I came across a 5 year Planned Maintenance Plan that throws more light on how the County operates.
It has never been properly explained why Furness College got it's funding from the LSC when other seemingly more deserving colleges such as Carlisle College, which had already stripped it's buildings ready for demolition and even had Moira on it's governing board, didn't. The LSC ended up funding just 13 schemes and I've now found a list of the other 12 'lucky' colleges on a property web site of all places.
You'll have to be quick there are just a few hours left to apply!
I can't quite believe how idiotic governments really are but this article in the Telegraph shows that on fact they are some of the dumbest institutions on the planet.
I've just gone back through the online County Council press release archive and it makes interesting reading.
Every year since 2006 the Council civil servants and the County councillors slapped the kids of Cumbria on the back saying how well they have done in GCSE and crow about the fact they beat 'last years' results.
I feel confident that Furness Academy Limited or MC2 Limited will update their web site today with something new. So I've got this page up early in anticipation of the information flood.
UPDATE 4-35 PM 3rd September 2009
Well what a waste of an hour that was except for one thing. I managed to record it all and save it for posterity on here.
It's the end of another day and this evening Doug does his Evening Mail web chat.
Yesterday marked the official opening of Furness Academy Limited and you would think such a momentous day would have been marked on their company web site but no it wasn't!
I and others can see there is significant evidence that diplomas are a way of raising results by dumbing down education, despite Mr Balls saying the opposite.
Yet another Cumbria County Council committee. There are so many I'll bet there is an entire hidden department whose job is simply to inform County councillors and civil servants what committee they are on and where the committee is meeting on which day.
Another day rolls on by and there is still NOTHING new on the Furness Academy Limited web site.
Doesn't matter though because it's all in the Mail instead.
As I and everyone else expected this years GCSE results prove conclusively that Cumbria County Council and it's Children's Corporate Director tell lies and get away with it.
Updates 3rd September 2009
At least that's the way it seems.