Just arrived and worthy of a read. It seems that we in Barrow are not alone...
I've just been told about this blog by a very good friend and I am
pleased to say I've found it. Credit to the author for exposing the
sham that has been forced upon Cumbria in the name of 'progress'.
Moira Swann is well know up here for her divide and conquer routine and she has used it to very good effect in Carlisle, Egremont and now down in Barrow.
Were this county a small one she wouldn't be able to get away with this tactic, she did move here from a much smaller county though it has never been made clear why she left. I like to think it's because she couldn't get away with her routine 'down south'.
As it is she has used the geography of the county to her distinct advantage and has managed to offload a whole heap of Cumbrian secondary schools to the publicly funded private sector. She is a social worker as is Jill Stannard the acting CEO of Corporate Cumbria Council and neither of them have a clue about education and nor should they as social work is NOT the same as giving children an EDUCATION.
The grandly named Children's Services Directorate is out of balance which is why Moira holds such sway over proceedings. Here in Carlisle we still have our Richard Rose Central academy stuck in special measures. You would think that the 'best men for the job' yes we have them as well as you people in Barrow, would be spending as much time and money as possible getting the school out of special measures and educating children again but not a bit of it.
The best men for the job are getting between the sheets with Capita Symonds and Kier Construction to put up a tin shed and call it a 21st Century learning environment. The piano in the auditorium may be a bit of poetic licence by the Corporate County Council funded architects but the glass walled classrooms and wide open staircases and open landings aren't. They are going to be fact.
The thing is none of it will get the school out of special measures because the failings in the school are down to it's people. The staff at the Richard Rose Academies, there are actually two of them Morton and Central are on a revolving door as they climb over each other to get out and get better paid or less controversial jobs.
It's precisely this that Moira feared would happen in Barrow so that to me is the main reason she ran so fast to get the Barrow Academy into existence. You people down there scared the hell out of this woman as did our kids protest at the beginning of the year.
It was touch and go for a long time because if Douglas Blackledge or anyone else wasn't appointed in February the school would never have come into being. Even after the principal was appointed, and Mr McQuoid from the Emmanuel Foundation was instrumental in getting the principal appointed although you will never seen this in writing because it was all done verbally, with the growing protest in Barrow first from the pupils and then from the parents was the cause of much concern and twitchy backsides with Corporate County Council I can assure you.
However once Balls, who someone on here accurately referred to as 'a plank', signed off on the sham of an EOL document, you should have seen the ones for the other Cumbrian academies. It must have taken some of the best fiction writers in the County to come up with them as that's all any of them are pure fiction. Once Balls had signed off Moira's deal with Kier was done and dusted.
As for the story about Scowcrofts meeting with Moira and Dave Kelly. It did happen. Again although those present didn't write anything down so there is no public record but Kelly basically said if Scowcroft is anywhere near the Barrow Academy he is out and the rest as they say is history. I read that Kelly didn't get his promised new college as the learning & skills council was lying to everyone about how much money they had to spend so his allegiance to the academies project has gone unrewarded. Interesting that the other Barrow college got funding and yet Carlisle college which had all but demolished its buildings didn't.
What you in the South need to realise is that so many decisions are taken quietly and verbally in side rooms and chance meetings or on the telephone. This means that whatever finally gets written down or uttered in a genuine meeting is finely tuned scripting to gain the pre-determined outcome. It happens all the time just ask any Corporate County Council employee who isn't a manager, there are a few, and they will tell you this is exactly what goes on up here.
You cannot rely on your County Councillors to be truthful with you either. So many of them are simply 'not clued up enough' to understand what is really going on it is easy for the Corporate Directorates and their tame hound Capita Symonds to pull the wool over their eyes. There is as far as I can tell nothing illegal, as in the Expenses Scandal illegal going on, but it is a shambolic practice that totally ignores the democratic process.
So by all means fight on against this school not because you will ever get it closed and your three old schools returned. This can never happen because it would mean the government admitting it has failed and it never does that no matter which lot are having their turn in power.
Egremonts Academy is within a whisker of entering Special Measures. Read the report and you can see how carefully it was crafted to prevent the imposition of special measures. Richard Rose Centrals Ofsted report is crafted in the same precise manner to show that there has been some progress although sadly not enough to lift it out of special measures. Talk to any parent who has a child at this school and they will say the same as me. Faces have changed but the standard of teaching hasn't improved and our children are still being badly let down by Scowcroft and his fellow sponsors, cheers Moira.
But you need to keep fighting and exposing the lies because if you give the sponsors a clear field they will continue to make cock up after cock up because they know there is no way the government is ever going to intervene to stop them although I see that the governments biggest educational sponsor United Learning Trust another religious and therefore 'above board and august body' has been prevented from sponsoring yet more planned academies because of irregularities so perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel.
It's just a pity that Cumbrians couldn't have got together at the start to thwart Moira Swans activities with coordinated efforts but the genie is now out of the bottle and everyone in the County can see exactly how she operates so perhaps she won't ever get away with it again.
Tata for now
Moira Swann is well know up here for her divide and conquer routine and she has used it to very good effect in Carlisle, Egremont and now down in Barrow.
Were this county a small one she wouldn't be able to get away with this tactic, she did move here from a much smaller county though it has never been made clear why she left. I like to think it's because she couldn't get away with her routine 'down south'.
As it is she has used the geography of the county to her distinct advantage and has managed to offload a whole heap of Cumbrian secondary schools to the publicly funded private sector. She is a social worker as is Jill Stannard the acting CEO of Corporate Cumbria Council and neither of them have a clue about education and nor should they as social work is NOT the same as giving children an EDUCATION.
The grandly named Children's Services Directorate is out of balance which is why Moira holds such sway over proceedings. Here in Carlisle we still have our Richard Rose Central academy stuck in special measures. You would think that the 'best men for the job' yes we have them as well as you people in Barrow, would be spending as much time and money as possible getting the school out of special measures and educating children again but not a bit of it.
The best men for the job are getting between the sheets with Capita Symonds and Kier Construction to put up a tin shed and call it a 21st Century learning environment. The piano in the auditorium may be a bit of poetic licence by the Corporate County Council funded architects but the glass walled classrooms and wide open staircases and open landings aren't. They are going to be fact.
The thing is none of it will get the school out of special measures because the failings in the school are down to it's people. The staff at the Richard Rose Academies, there are actually two of them Morton and Central are on a revolving door as they climb over each other to get out and get better paid or less controversial jobs.
It's precisely this that Moira feared would happen in Barrow so that to me is the main reason she ran so fast to get the Barrow Academy into existence. You people down there scared the hell out of this woman as did our kids protest at the beginning of the year.
It was touch and go for a long time because if Douglas Blackledge or anyone else wasn't appointed in February the school would never have come into being. Even after the principal was appointed, and Mr McQuoid from the Emmanuel Foundation was instrumental in getting the principal appointed although you will never seen this in writing because it was all done verbally, with the growing protest in Barrow first from the pupils and then from the parents was the cause of much concern and twitchy backsides with Corporate County Council I can assure you.
However once Balls, who someone on here accurately referred to as 'a plank', signed off on the sham of an EOL document, you should have seen the ones for the other Cumbrian academies. It must have taken some of the best fiction writers in the County to come up with them as that's all any of them are pure fiction. Once Balls had signed off Moira's deal with Kier was done and dusted.
As for the story about Scowcrofts meeting with Moira and Dave Kelly. It did happen. Again although those present didn't write anything down so there is no public record but Kelly basically said if Scowcroft is anywhere near the Barrow Academy he is out and the rest as they say is history. I read that Kelly didn't get his promised new college as the learning & skills council was lying to everyone about how much money they had to spend so his allegiance to the academies project has gone unrewarded. Interesting that the other Barrow college got funding and yet Carlisle college which had all but demolished its buildings didn't.
What you in the South need to realise is that so many decisions are taken quietly and verbally in side rooms and chance meetings or on the telephone. This means that whatever finally gets written down or uttered in a genuine meeting is finely tuned scripting to gain the pre-determined outcome. It happens all the time just ask any Corporate County Council employee who isn't a manager, there are a few, and they will tell you this is exactly what goes on up here.
You cannot rely on your County Councillors to be truthful with you either. So many of them are simply 'not clued up enough' to understand what is really going on it is easy for the Corporate Directorates and their tame hound Capita Symonds to pull the wool over their eyes. There is as far as I can tell nothing illegal, as in the Expenses Scandal illegal going on, but it is a shambolic practice that totally ignores the democratic process.
So by all means fight on against this school not because you will ever get it closed and your three old schools returned. This can never happen because it would mean the government admitting it has failed and it never does that no matter which lot are having their turn in power.
Egremonts Academy is within a whisker of entering Special Measures. Read the report and you can see how carefully it was crafted to prevent the imposition of special measures. Richard Rose Centrals Ofsted report is crafted in the same precise manner to show that there has been some progress although sadly not enough to lift it out of special measures. Talk to any parent who has a child at this school and they will say the same as me. Faces have changed but the standard of teaching hasn't improved and our children are still being badly let down by Scowcroft and his fellow sponsors, cheers Moira.
But you need to keep fighting and exposing the lies because if you give the sponsors a clear field they will continue to make cock up after cock up because they know there is no way the government is ever going to intervene to stop them although I see that the governments biggest educational sponsor United Learning Trust another religious and therefore 'above board and august body' has been prevented from sponsoring yet more planned academies because of irregularities so perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel.
It's just a pity that Cumbrians couldn't have got together at the start to thwart Moira Swans activities with coordinated efforts but the genie is now out of the bottle and everyone in the County can see exactly how she operates so perhaps she won't ever get away with it again.
Tata for now
Barrovians cannot get together to agree on anything so there is not a chance of Cumbrians getting together to stop moira swann.
Too much head in the sand and it happens to someone else mentality.