Educational Benefit or Political Benefit? (Springfield Comprehensive School)

Member Name: ks.h

Product:	Springfield Comprehensive School
Date:	20/02/02 (1572 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Central position in the Town

Disadvantages: Consistent in receiving poor OFSTED Reports

RAISE IT; RAISE IT EVEN TO ITS FOUNDATIONS THEREOF!

I was looking around dooyoo in an attempt to find a suitable heading for my previous opinion about home schooling and came across an option in North East Schools for opinions about Springfield Comprehensive but no opinions had been written there. This school is often in our local newspaper and since Christmas has had a lot of press.

Long ago in the distant past I had the misfortune to be caught misbehaving during a Religious Education lesson and as my punishment I had to learn Psalm 137 – By the Rivers of Babylon and recite it during School Assembly the following morning. At the time corporal punishment was the norm in schools so I thought I was quite lucky not to have been given the cane, however I still remember that Psalm word perfect and in my opinion the capitalized line above, from the Psalm, should be applied to the school. Harsh words yes but Springfield Comprehensive school should once and for all be laid to rest for the benefit of future generations.

With the abolishment of the eleven-plus and selective education Jarrow Grammar School changed its name to Springfield Comprehensive School and opened its doors to children of all abilities. Having been educated in the days of Jarrow Grammar, selective education and the eleven-plus I have always been and will always be in favour of non-selective education and welcomed the introduction of Comprehensive Education but right from the start things were not right at Springfield Comprehensive School.

Parents who lived in the catchment area for Springfield thought their children were going to have an excellent education, the school was staffed by quite a few of the old grammar school teachers. Unfortunately these teachers were used to teaching the cream of the crop, children with above average ability, who enjoyed learning and very few children disrupted the class. The Headmaster of the grammar school was in reality a figure
head but now he was Head of a comprehensive school with children from all walks of life but he and his staff still wore their gowns and the school kept the old grammar uniform.

Springfield failed it’s first OFSTED report miserably, the teaching staff could not control classes, bullying in the school was on the increase, teachers morale was low and staff started to apply for posts in other schools. At this time there were three other comprehensive schools in Jarrow, Croft – an old Victorian building with no playing fields and outside toilets, Perth Green and Hedworthfield – both fairly new schools with very modern facilities, Croft, Perth Green and Hedworthfield all had good OFSTED reports. It was decided to demolish Croft and move the staff and pupils to Springfield, a sensible move you would think, problems arose from the start because a lot of the staff from Croft left to teach in other schools so Springfield had to advertise for new teachers and they employed newly qualified teachers. Springfield now had more pupils being taught by the old grammar school teachers and newly qualified teachers and the weaknesses identified by the OFSTED report were not addressed.

About five years later Perth Green and Hedworthfield had excellent OFSTED reports but Springfield again failed. The powers that be in their wisdom decided to close Perth Green, build an extension at Springfield and move the Perth Green staff and pupils to Springfield, they gave the reason for this to be a lower birth rate and the number of future pupils would not need three comprehensive schools in the town, so why build a two storey classroom extension at Springfield? Well again the staff from Perth Green sought teaching positions at other schools so Springfield once again had a shortage of experienced teachers.

Five years after the amalgamation of Perth Green and Springfield my eldest child was due to move onto comprehensive school, the primary school he atte
nded was a feeder school for Springfield. I read the latest OFSTED report about the school, which again recognised weaknesses, spoke to parents of children at Springfield who gave the impression that their children were like lambs to the slaughter and went to visit the school, nothing much had changed and I decided to send my son to another school – that was fifteen years ago. During the last fifteen years Springfield has been consistent in receiving poor OFSTED reports and only once to my knowledge has it had an acceptable OFSTED.

OFSTED’s first report into South Tyneside Local Education Authority was published in January 2001 and was highly critical of the way the department was run, this led to a raft of high level changes at both political and officer level. The report said education officials had no clear strategic direction, no long-term financial strategy and showed too much variation in the quality and performance of its services. The Director of Education took early retirement and a new Director was appointed in September 2001.

What has that got to do with Springfield Comprehensive School? Well around that time Springfield was having its OFSTED and the report into the school once again showed serious weaknesses. In October last year Hedworthfield received an outstanding OFSTED report with many areas of the school being highly praised. So what has the new Director of Education for South Tyneside decided to do?

In July of this year both Hedworthfield and Springfield Comprehensive Schools are to be closed. In September one school will open under a new name in the Springfield buildings to educate all of the children in Jarrow. The reason for this is Springfield is more central in the town than Hedworthfield.

Hedworthfield Comprehensive has just had thousands of pounds spent on it to erect a new perimeter fence and install security cameras, a new building was opened in January of this year to house the post eleven
Autistic Unit for the Borough and building work of a new maths block is onging, all of this is to be wasted. To house the pupils of both schools Springfield will have to have another extension built.

So when South Tyneside Local Education Authority has its return visit from Government Inspectors later this year it will have clear strategic direction and a long term financial strategy, it will have cut it’s spending by closing a school, received a grant from the Government to build an extension at Springfield, and will appear to have all Comprehensive schools in the borough receiving good OFSTED reports because Springfield Comprehensive School will no longer exist so there will be no schools with serious weaknesses and the Director of Education will be able to show one large comprehensive “state of the art” school.

The only people who appear happy about these proposals are the staff of Springfield, the residents in the Springfield area are opposed to the amalgamation of the two schools, the parents of pupils at Hedworthfield are horrified and trying to fight against the closure, residents in the area of Hedworthfield do not want the school to close because it will devalue the price of their homes and the staff at Hedworthfield are already starting to apply to other schools for positions.

This is not a proposal, permission has already been granted to implement this at National Government level, so it will happen. In another fifteen to twenty years time this school with a new name on the Springfield site will probably still be failing OFSTED reports but what does that matter, the Director of Education will have done her job, in the short term it will look like a successful turnaround of South Tyneside Local Education Authority.

I don’t know what it is about Springfield Comprehensive School, obviously the staff have changed many times and there is no one left from the days of the old Grammar, all that is lef
t from those days is the Role of Honour in the assembly hall and the school still has the old Grammar uniform; since it’s days as Jarrow Grammar I have followed it’s history closely, it has caused the death of one good school already and is about to cause the death of another. Would you want your child to be educated there? Is it not time to let a good school like Hedworthfield live and say goodbye to Springfield under any name forever?

I no longer have a vested interest in education in Jarrow, my three children have all left school and if I ever have grandchildren I think it very unlikely they will be educated in the town, however I am employed by the Local Education Authority and work with children of comprehensive school age and therefore I do have an interest in what happens. If you talk to pupils or ex-pupils of any comprehensive school you will find successes and failures, Springfield is no exception to this, it has turned out some exceptional young adults and therefore I do not base my opinion on hearsay but on my knowledge of the school through my work within the Authority over the last twenty-five years and published OFSTED reports. So for the benefit of future generations in the town I say again:

RAISE IT; RAISE IT EVEN TO ITS FOUNDATIONS THEREOF!

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