Proof of the Educational Pudding in Portland

I have always been against academy schools, & indeed must delcare myself an opponent of oversized secondaries as a whole - young people are alienated enough from meaningful participation in our culture without being alienated from each other & their teachers in huge & intimidating factory-learning environments.

This is why I have supported the calls in Swanage for a Swanage Secondary: whatever the subject, young people perform best among teachers & peers with whom they have a 'team' relationship. A school is essential to its community in all sorts of ways, whether from professionals identifying problems & being able to liaise closely with parents or teachers being able to watch their charges grow & mature over the years ( one of the keenest pleasures of working in education) to links with the community that enable a whole range of local , retired, or just enthusiastic experts to engage with them in a 'living' education.

The academy model is the anthesis of the kind of vision parents in Swanage want to make a reality & the argument for a giant secondary in Purbeck, with access to the full range of diplomas has, I feel, disadvantages as well as strengths. It is with relief therefore that I see that the Government's academies programme has decided to prevent ULT, the largest sponsor of academies, from taking on new schools until it dramatically improves the ones it already runs. This will affect the proposed 4 - 19 all through academy in Portland.

In my opinion the idea of an all -through mechanism like this seems completely counter-intuitive to the needs & developmental stages experienced by children of various ages - although on a large enough campus with clear separation between the schools & excellent leadership, it could be made to work.

My big concern however has always been linked to the 'creationist' controversy - & the motivations of bodies wishing to run schools for purposes that are clearly wider than that of education alone. This is something that a future Tory administration would have to address closely, were , under their tutelage ,the Swedish schools model to come into effect.

The United Learning Trust's Sheffield academies, plagued with behavioural problems & low results, have failed spectacularly. It appears that it is not enough simply to throw money & new buildings at a deprived area & that spritual guidance is not an adequate replacement to skilled & professional teaching ! The poor management of the schools has worsened their performance, leading to both being put into special measures.

Of ULT's 13 academies, one was judged outstanding, three good, but seven were only satisfactory & two inadequate. That is why the Government has required them to turn their attention to their existing establishments, stalling plans for new developemnts.

I must admit that separating off state schools & attempting to turn them essentially into private schools with public funding, had always seemed a suspect performance to me - not that different from the Conservative's schools of the Grant Maintained variety. It's a piecemeal rehash when in fact, what we may be said to need is an entirely new debate about how education is organised in the UK.

Government after government has tampered with a succession of schools turning our children ( & teachers !) into experiments in ideology & social engineering.

Schools are most successful when they are adequately resourced to attract skilled & motivated staff who are left to do what those skilled & motivated staff do best. I believe it is fundamentally wrong to offer resources to schools only when they jump through the hoop of the latest social experiment. There are huge problems with how we educate in this country - but they have not been solved by the academies: I am relieved that Portland will not be part of the same experiment in the near future.

Is Tory Foriegn Policy Insane ?

Cameron's experience abroad is described by Geoffrey Wheatcroft in yesterday's Guardian as "a series of missteps & own goals, culminating in the gruesome embarrassment of his volte face on a referendum".

He continues "...this raises the question of whether the Tories actually have a sane foreign policy - for Europe & beyond- that they can conduct in office."

This is more pertinent question than it may at first seem.

Cameron's careful avoidance of detailed policy planning on the domestic scene, which on the doorstep I find is leading so many ordinary voters to question his reliability, & which seems to be designed to avoid critical examination at the same time as inviting approval for twisting every which way the wind blows (where is the emphasis on green issues now we are in a recession ??), is put into sharp profile by his simplistic & partisan approach to diplomacy, international conflict & European affairs. It is here that perhaps we see the real Cameron - a man who whilst adroit at domestic manouverings is clearly quite scarily out of his depth in the international arena.

Most European countries, notably Germany & France, are governed by centre right administrations -in recent months Cameron has alienated both: - a Conservative administration would see us once again in the second tier in Europe.

The alternative to the European idea promulgated by neo-cons & eurosceptics, the opinions of which are so unfortunately shared by the Conservative candidate in South Dorset, is a relationship with the United States so "special" that only the English appear to know it exists & which over recent years has clarified the extent to which the UK is clearly a very junior partner - after the way Blair prostated himself before Bush & got nothing in return.

For the clearest & most worrying sign of Cameron's inadequacy in foriegn affairs however, we need to turn back to last year's conflict in Georgia, where he gave his fervent backing to the Tbilisi government , unilaterally declaring, in a literally 'flying' visit, that Georgia should be admitted to Nato forthwith.

A suggestion which, if taken seriously, might have precipitated full scale international war !

As put succinctly by Sir Malcolm Rifkind "Britain, France & Germany are not going to go to war with Russia over South Ossetia"..... but under a Cameron administration, what might have happened ?

Not only does the Shadow Cabinet lack experience of the real world, & the Shadow Chancellor reveal his clear misunderstandings of economic instability by advocating Thatcherite economic retrenchment, against the advicce & practice of the countries that are now officially out of recession, but the forays into foreign affairs of the party leader & Shadow Foreign Secretary are based on prejudice & show they are not fit for purpose as national leaders in the modern world.

In the 1980s the Specials sang about the lunatics taking over the asylum - let's only hope the British people have more sense than to elect this bunch of amatuers.

NEW SKILLS CENTRE TO HELP YOUNG UNEMPLOYED

September 11th saw the opening of the West Dorset Skills & Training Centre in Bridport, the result of 2 years of hard work by the Bridport Local Area Skills Training (BLAST) management team, chaired by Arthur Woodgate, of which I am a director.

The centre opens at an opportune moment with youth unemployment up to 18.5 % & we have been supported all the way by Nacro which has funded the training at the centre to provide opportunities for 16 + year olds not in education, employment or training.

Dorset has the highest rate of exodus of young people in the United Kingdom. One of Blast’s aims is to give them something to stay for – both in terms of training that is relevant to the 21st century & support for employment opportunities that mean they can stay & work in the area.

The project has taken us hours & hours of work to get off the ground. What it gives evidence of however is the value of committed local community groups, pushing for funding & support to do for themselves something which a town has been waiting for for years & which local authorities & colleges alike have failed to deliver.

As a Liberal Democrat I am committed to increasing localism - power to ordinary people in their communities to do things for themselves in order to benefit the whole community with the support of public funding where there will be a measureable return. End the top down centralisation of policy & empower communities to take responsibility for delivery where they are able. I only hope the Swanage Education campaign will be able to make a move in the same direction if their bid for local training at secondary level is scuppered by the County Council - as I suspect it will be.

What we have achieved in BLAST is what motivated me to go into politics. I am proud to have been part of the team that has made this happen !

FIGHT TO SAVE WEYMOUTH REFUGE CONTINUES

I would like to thank all those who have contacted me directly to support our campaign to save the Women's Refuge. I think that the word 'disgusted' probably best describes the shared response . The County Council's Cabinet gave short shrift to the combined arguments of several Lib Dem councillors, myself & Jim Knight . There was no real attempt to listen .

At the beginning of September however I attended a meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee whose role it is to examine the operation of the Supporting People Commissioning Body & it was clear that they were prepared to listen to the arguments & were gravely concerned, voting unanimously against the closure of the refuge.

I hope that this wasn't a pyrrhic victory. Whilst I'm sure the cabinet will ignore this decision it has now been minuted & can be debated in Council.

We are at the stage however where if the decision is not overturned we may well need to begin to raise money in order to save it. Public opinion is so strong & the refuge too important to lose.

People from all over Dorset as well as the Borough are outraged. I have rarely seen people so angry. We have over 5000 signatures on our petition now & people are still signing. When I have spoken to individuals on the street they all express the same opinion: to close a service like this goes beyond the pale.

We must also remember that cutting this service in Weymouth cuts the number of places available for women seeking safety across the whole of Dorset.

Some services are simply too important to cut. The Conservative Cabinet at County Hall think that the safety of women is less important that providing an outreach service: it is not. But this issue goes beyond party politics – we must all work together to get the Council to change its mind, & if it won’t to raise enough money to keep the refuge open ourselves.

When people in power refuse to listen to what ordinary people want, we have to take action as a community to make sure that they do.

More on the Purbeck funding fiasco

SHAM OF UPGRADES IN FLAGSHIP SCHOOLS’ POLICY

Government policies to rebuild or refurbish almost every school in England have been labelled a sham after Liberal Democrats have discovered that one in every five projects had provided only computers !

Last year, out of 41 projects, 9 involved little more than an upgraded computer suite, according to data provided in answer to a parliamentary question by the new schools minister, Vernon Coaker.

David Laws, Lib Dem Schools Spokesperson said “The inclusion of such small scale projects turns what is supposed to be a flagship programme into a bit of a sham”

“Schools in Purbeck are supposed to be being reorganised on the basis of this money” said Lib Dem parliamentary Candidate for South Dorset, Ros Kayes. “I hope that the County Council planning this unpopular move have taken these figures into consideration. The Government is running out of money & a Conservative administration would be committed to cuts: schools restructuring in Purbeck is clearly a question of wrong time, wrong place.”

South Dorset Support for Clegg's bank plan

BANK CHARGES CHALLENGED BY LIB DEM LEADER

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, has described the refusal of banks to repay unfair charges as “scandalous” & is tabling a parliamentary motion backing a campaign to force banks to repay them automatically, rather than making customers apply for them to do so.

Around a million customers have had refund claims frozen until the result of a test case that will decide whether fairness rules apply to charges of up to £35 a time for unauthorised use of overdrafts.

Seven major banks & a building society have asked the law lords to overturn rulings that the charges for making just one payment over an agreed overdraft limit come under “unfair contract “ rule making them subject to Office of Fair Trading regulation.

“This is a hugely important case – but I don’t think it goes far enough” said Ros Kayes, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for South Dorset. “The banks say they make £2.6 billion a year from these charges. They have the ordinary customer by the short & curlies here. If a payment goes out by direct debit & it’s been a difficult month, even the most careful customer can go over that limit all too easily.

“Perhaps if they win the case, another should be made for making them pay us the interest on the money they make by taking 5 working days to clear a payment into our accounts. I wonder how much they are making from us in that process, in an age when debits can be made at the push of a button. I applaud Nick Clegg & he is right – but all of these antiquated & unfair practices need to be challenged, not just one of them.”

A NEW KIND OF SCHOOL REFUSAL

PRIVATE SCHOOL’S REFUSAL TO ALLOW STATE SCHOOL USE OF FACILITIES IS SELFISHNESS IN CARNATE says South Dorset parliamentary candidate.


South Dorset’s Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate, Cllr Ros Kayes has slammed the Independent Schools’ Council (ISC) following a statement by its chief executive earlier this week that the LSC intends to challenge the Charity Commission in court.

The Commission has interpreted legislation passed in 2006 by insisting that schools should pass a new “public benefit test” to continue to qualify for charitable status & tax breaks worth millions of pounds every year.

That would mean allowing state pupils to use their facilities & having a number of free state bursaries to allow limited number of children from poor backgrounds to attend the schools for free.

“If the private schools challenge this”, said Ros, “it makes them no different from the banks ! In receipt of millions of pound of public money every year in the form of tax breaks because they claim to exist for charitable purposes. This stretches the definition of charity very far”, she continued. ”Fees at these schools are very high – more than most of us earn in a year for the top schools. In my opinion, with parents who can afford these fees, schools should not be claiming charitable status at all. It’s charity for the very rich.

The schools claim that without their existance, ordinary tax payers would be having to pay £3 to 4 million extra in taxes and therefore they ae already giving aid to the poor. “A ridiculous argument !” said Cllr Kayes. “ How much do the tax breaks schools receive already cost us in lost revenues that could be ploughed back into the state system. On the contrary, if private schools did not exist, those same parents would be sending their children to comprehensive schools & giving generously to those schools to ensure that their facilities were upgraded instead – improving education for all of us.

“It’s selfishness incarnate to seek to challenge legislation that attempts to make private schools take some responsibility for supporting the public sector & at least goes some way to improving education for all of us.”.