Mason Minnitt was a headteacher at Settlebeck
High School in Sebergh before joining the Barrow Community Action zone
which then morphed into the BECP.
Settlebeck has around 200 pupils aged 11-16. So it's different in every way to the much larger Barrovian and Furness secondary schools.
He held this post for 6 years after he was promoted from deputy head at Impington Village college in 1994.
In 2000 he became the director of the Barrow Community Action Zone. This local quango was created in 2000 with a five year limited lifespan.
It was closed on time in 2005 when Mason became Director of a new local quango Barrow Excellence Custer Partnership where he still is today.
Settlebeck has around 200 pupils aged 11-16. So it's different in every way to the much larger Barrovian and Furness secondary schools.
He held this post for 6 years after he was promoted from deputy head at Impington Village college in 1994.
In 2000 he became the director of the Barrow Community Action Zone. This local quango was created in 2000 with a five year limited lifespan.
It was closed on time in 2005 when Mason became Director of a new local quango Barrow Excellence Custer Partnership where he still is today.
Here's a rare sample
of his work that contains some really bizarre hokum. I've looked through it twice
and my initial thought it was a spoof presentation but then if it was
why is it in the Cumbria County Council archive so it must be real.
This was was produced in April 2007 so it was obviously used as a way of showing that the Academy was coming without actually mentioning the word Academy until he drops it in as if by chance right at the end as though it is a panacea to all the 'ills' both real and imaginary he has just outlined. I wish some hacker would release the BECP files as I'll bet they are just as made up as the Man made climate warming rubbish that has now been exposed as a lie.
"Wearing several hats"?
What's that all about?
How is it possible to equally value every Furness Learner?
It's like trying to decide whether its the surgeon who saves lives or the cleaner who prevents infection is the more important. Both are vital to a successful outcome for the operation but they are not equally valued. They cannot 'job swap'!
Quality is not quantifiable which is why people like Mason like to use the word as often as possible.
I agree that lifelong learning is an ideal and guess that it already happens just not in the way the righteous Mason wants it to. His vision is a cradle to grave reliance on state education within the Furness peninsular. He is a social engineer, one of thousands created by the Labour government since 1997.
This final slide shows us that social engineering is the cornerstone of education in Barrow. The goal is of course to make sure that both colleges and the University have enough bums on seats. The line between each stage of a childs education is being deliberately blurred.
There are no accounts for the BECP in the public domain.
There are no lists of members of the BECP in the public domain.
There are no publications from the BECP in the public domain.
There is no web site for the BECP.
There is no way of finding out how much the BECP is costing taxpayers to run.
There is no way of finding out what it is supposed to achieve.
There is no way of finding out just how close it gets to its objective.
There is no way of finding out who it is responsible to.
It's as though it doesn't actually exist and yet it must because the names of its officers pop up occasionally on funding lists so they are obviously spending the money it is given by the DCSF.
One final example for what the BECP produce.
The Barrow Trust School Pathfinder is made up of four 11-16 secondary schools and a 2-19 special school with all other schools and colleges in the Furness peninsula as partners or members. External partners include St Martin's/University of Cumbria, the educational research department at Lancaster University, plus local company BAE Systems Marine. Its key priorities include the development of the 14-19 curriculum.
Mason Minnitt, director of the Excellence Cluster Partnership in Barrow says that, in the case of a multi-school trust, a key change for heads is the switch from focusing on the needs of a single school to the needs of many.
"You, as a head, may be trying to decide how best to develop a consortium wide curriculum with elements not actually being delivered within the school you lead. On the 14-19 agenda and partnership working, for example, there's an immediate shift from 'how best do I lead and present our school?' to 'how best do we ensure that Barrow and Furness becomes a highly effective learning community?'"
The responsibility for the learning outcomes of a whole community is also shared with other partners in higher education, public, private and voluntary sectors, he adds.
"It's all very interesting because schools have been used to operating within a perceived pecking order in which more socially mobile families have often chosen certain schools believed to be better at meeting their children's needs and aspirations. Within the trust, influential partners from the wider community will work collaboratively to achieve a shared, informed vision in which every learner is equally valued, included and has access and entitlement to high quality learning within a high quality learning environment."
The implications of Every Child Matters for schools leaders in a trust are also different from those for heads of single schools, says Mason.
"If you start asking how ECM relates to a whole town, or in our case, a peninsula, you come to different conclusions. For example, we have been looking at the way that extended services within our schools can enable extended services to be more integrated across Furness.
We know that family learning opportunities can lead to a renewed interest in adult learning and that both will result in the modelling of positive behaviours which influence school-based learning. We will have a much better chance of having an impact on the learning of individual students if we understand how community learning relates to school."
Irrespective of the bad press that trusts have had nationally, Barrow is also using its trust ambitions as a potential recruitment tool, emphasising the chance to work in an innovative environment with a range of professional opportunities. The trust partnership is also helping in a very practical way on the ground, Mason adds.
"One of our schools is currently in special measures and, naturally enough, the head spends almost all of his time in school. But the other heads are coming forward with advice and guidance for him all the time and he has that pool of support there. They recognise that improved learning outcomes in his school will contribute to community-wide improvements in learning for all ages across the wider community."
This was written in June 2007 in this document
If it is taken at face value it looks like Mason didn't have a clue that Moira Swann and the DCSF had planned for four Cumbrian Academies to come into being with Barrow's being the last of the quartet. This is plainly not the case. Mason who have been fully aware that the Academy was coming and it was going to be announced just four months after this document was produced. What was he playing at here?
obfuscation?
Mis-direction?
False hope?
Only he and a couple of others know and they ain't saying anything. What is now clear is that there aren't enough local schools left to form a trust partnership or are there?
If this trust partnership was a goer this would mean the County could save a fortune in headships and instead have one doing the work of four schools. After all Mason is suggesting that Barrow is a peninsular which therefore encompasses UVHS in Ulverston and Dowdales in Dalton. Along with the two remaining state secondary schools in Barrow he could just about pull this off. Will he or won't he?
This was was produced in April 2007 so it was obviously used as a way of showing that the Academy was coming without actually mentioning the word Academy until he drops it in as if by chance right at the end as though it is a panacea to all the 'ills' both real and imaginary he has just outlined. I wish some hacker would release the BECP files as I'll bet they are just as made up as the Man made climate warming rubbish that has now been exposed as a lie.
"Wearing several hats"?What's that all about?
How is it possible to equally value every Furness Learner?It's like trying to decide whether its the surgeon who saves lives or the cleaner who prevents infection is the more important. Both are vital to a successful outcome for the operation but they are not equally valued. They cannot 'job swap'!
Quality is not quantifiable which is why people like Mason like to use the word as often as possible.
I agree that lifelong learning is an ideal and guess that it already happens just not in the way the righteous Mason wants it to. His vision is a cradle to grave reliance on state education within the Furness peninsular. He is a social engineer, one of thousands created by the Labour government since 1997. The 'Birth of the FEC' that most mysterious of organisations that was instrumental in the destruction of the three secondary schools and their replacement with the Academy.
As for the others on this list other than the bankrupt Uni, see its got an £8.4 million hole in it's budget according to today's Evening Mail, I haven't the slightest idea what these organisations are how they are funded and what they do.
As for the others on this list other than the bankrupt Uni, see its got an £8.4 million hole in it's budget according to today's Evening Mail, I haven't the slightest idea what these organisations are how they are funded and what they do.
As you can see slap bang in the middle of this diagram are the three defunct schools. George Hastwell is in there as originally Mason wanted it to be co-located with the Academy on Parkview fields. This was 2007 remember when all things seemed possible.
Not sure what Millom school has done wrong to be left out on it's own. Nobody wants to be friends with it!
Not sure what Millom school has done wrong to be left out on it's own. Nobody wants to be friends with it!
Talk about a bleak picture. From this slide you would think that Barrow and Furnes schools were all in dire straights but that is what we were supposed to think. You can only provide the fix of your choice if you can show that things are far worse than people realise, eh Mason?
Here we see Mason's imagination being unleashed. The health centre was the Joliffie/Cof E idea that was proposed this year for Roose School playing fields and was thrown out by the County Council. One of their rare good decisions in my opinion.
Question is is it still on the table for Parkview fields?
Here we see Mason's imagination being unleashed. The health centre was the Joliffie/Cof E idea that was proposed this year for Roose School playing fields and was thrown out by the County Council. One of their rare good decisions in my opinion. Question is is it still on the table for Parkview fields?
This is where it gets really, really bizarre. At the middle are four Barrovian secondary schools and George Hastwell. Not only have Dowdales, Millom and UVHS disappeared. St Bernards is also nowhere to be seen. This has to mean they are not meant to be part of the trust.
Just look at all the different types of organisations that Mason wants to have an input into the trust.
It looks like another council in all but name and we all know how ineffective those organisations are. Even worse many of the organisations in the blue bubbles are run by committee.
Then we get to see the word Academy rearing it's head for the first time. Learning not schooling means what exactly?
Following this through there would be no need for the schools!
The community wide partnerships have yet to be formed and why do they need to be formed. Are the towns schools so broken that they need another layer of bureaucracy to make it all right.
This slide is the most bizarre of the lot. Social engineering gobbledygook of the highest order. Well done Mason.
Here is a second sample of work that has been put together by the BECP co-authored by Mason Minitt no less. This was produced July 2009 after it became almost certain that Alfred Barrow was going out of existence.
I am not going to reproduce it all here just a couple of slides to give you a flavour.
Just look at all the different types of organisations that Mason wants to have an input into the trust.
It looks like another council in all but name and we all know how ineffective those organisations are. Even worse many of the organisations in the blue bubbles are run by committee.
Then we get to see the word Academy rearing it's head for the first time. Learning not schooling means what exactly?Following this through there would be no need for the schools!
The community wide partnerships have yet to be formed and why do they need to be formed. Are the towns schools so broken that they need another layer of bureaucracy to make it all right.
This slide is the most bizarre of the lot. Social engineering gobbledygook of the highest order. Well done Mason.Here is a second sample of work that has been put together by the BECP co-authored by Mason Minitt no less. This was produced July 2009 after it became almost certain that Alfred Barrow was going out of existence.
I am not going to reproduce it all here just a couple of slides to give you a flavour.
This final slide shows us that social engineering is the cornerstone of education in Barrow. The goal is of course to make sure that both colleges and the University have enough bums on seats. The line between each stage of a childs education is being deliberately blurred.
There are no accounts for the BECP in the public domain.
There are no lists of members of the BECP in the public domain.
There are no publications from the BECP in the public domain.
There is no web site for the BECP.
There is no way of finding out how much the BECP is costing taxpayers to run.
There is no way of finding out what it is supposed to achieve.
There is no way of finding out just how close it gets to its objective.
There is no way of finding out who it is responsible to.
It's as though it doesn't actually exist and yet it must because the names of its officers pop up occasionally on funding lists so they are obviously spending the money it is given by the DCSF.
One final example for what the BECP produce.
The Barrow Trust School Pathfinder is made up of four 11-16 secondary schools and a 2-19 special school with all other schools and colleges in the Furness peninsula as partners or members. External partners include St Martin's/University of Cumbria, the educational research department at Lancaster University, plus local company BAE Systems Marine. Its key priorities include the development of the 14-19 curriculum.
Mason Minnitt, director of the Excellence Cluster Partnership in Barrow says that, in the case of a multi-school trust, a key change for heads is the switch from focusing on the needs of a single school to the needs of many.
"You, as a head, may be trying to decide how best to develop a consortium wide curriculum with elements not actually being delivered within the school you lead. On the 14-19 agenda and partnership working, for example, there's an immediate shift from 'how best do I lead and present our school?' to 'how best do we ensure that Barrow and Furness becomes a highly effective learning community?'"
The responsibility for the learning outcomes of a whole community is also shared with other partners in higher education, public, private and voluntary sectors, he adds.
"It's all very interesting because schools have been used to operating within a perceived pecking order in which more socially mobile families have often chosen certain schools believed to be better at meeting their children's needs and aspirations. Within the trust, influential partners from the wider community will work collaboratively to achieve a shared, informed vision in which every learner is equally valued, included and has access and entitlement to high quality learning within a high quality learning environment."
The implications of Every Child Matters for schools leaders in a trust are also different from those for heads of single schools, says Mason.
"If you start asking how ECM relates to a whole town, or in our case, a peninsula, you come to different conclusions. For example, we have been looking at the way that extended services within our schools can enable extended services to be more integrated across Furness.
We know that family learning opportunities can lead to a renewed interest in adult learning and that both will result in the modelling of positive behaviours which influence school-based learning. We will have a much better chance of having an impact on the learning of individual students if we understand how community learning relates to school."
Irrespective of the bad press that trusts have had nationally, Barrow is also using its trust ambitions as a potential recruitment tool, emphasising the chance to work in an innovative environment with a range of professional opportunities. The trust partnership is also helping in a very practical way on the ground, Mason adds.
"One of our schools is currently in special measures and, naturally enough, the head spends almost all of his time in school. But the other heads are coming forward with advice and guidance for him all the time and he has that pool of support there. They recognise that improved learning outcomes in his school will contribute to community-wide improvements in learning for all ages across the wider community."
This was written in June 2007 in this document
If it is taken at face value it looks like Mason didn't have a clue that Moira Swann and the DCSF had planned for four Cumbrian Academies to come into being with Barrow's being the last of the quartet. This is plainly not the case. Mason who have been fully aware that the Academy was coming and it was going to be announced just four months after this document was produced. What was he playing at here?
obfuscation?
Mis-direction?
False hope?
Only he and a couple of others know and they ain't saying anything. What is now clear is that there aren't enough local schools left to form a trust partnership or are there?
If this trust partnership was a goer this would mean the County could save a fortune in headships and instead have one doing the work of four schools. After all Mason is suggesting that Barrow is a peninsular which therefore encompasses UVHS in Ulverston and Dowdales in Dalton. Along with the two remaining state secondary schools in Barrow he could just about pull this off. Will he or won't he?
We all know becp had the aim of making the curricula across barrow secondaries uniform to pave the way for the academy. Why else did mason make us deliver the 5 diplomas before the rest of britain.
It is the case that millom pulled out of becp by choice and uvhs wanted to be part but for some reason could not. Dowdales beacon status meant it could not be included but could be called on for advice and support. It was becp that initiated the cross curricular working for barrow secondaries. Some of its top staff spent thousands on an american critical skills programme then went to work for the private company when the funding dried up.
Grapevine news of 500 fixed term exclusions at fa this term. More than whole of cumbria put together
This 'work' is a case of the Emperor's new clothes. The hyperbole on display here reminds me of the snake-oiled bollocks fed to the victims of clever pyramid scams. It baffles and amuses me, but then the thought that people are paid by the taxpayer to produce this stuff, whilst others struggle by on the minumum wage, makes me upset.
Trojan Owls, enthusiastically stunning flocks, in order to catch people out collaborating? The document has more relevance to the work of the late L Ron Hubbard than to the people of Furness.
Hi Derek, is there any way I can comment on the ofsted thread, I don't seem to see a box to comment.
Our friend mason does seem to had the benefit of a classical education doesnt he. Sadly, fa can not offer the world class education it promises. I can not see any need for becp now. Twit twoo...