Forum Topic

Drayton Manor School case

Does anybody have the slightest inkling about what is going on here? The confirmation that the school was behaving correctly doesn't seem to me at all surprising as their position was self-evidently correct. What is peculiar is why the Council chose to take them to court. Parents are always going to want to get their children into better schools and whatever system you choose to allocate places there will be winners and losers. Geographic proximity is a less bad way of allocating places as most.In challenging Drayton Manor's policy the Council have questioned the integrity of a first class head master, wasted significant amount of tax payers money, completely screwed up this year's admissions process and lost the case anyway.I have yet to see a coherent argument as to why this was necessary.

Andy Jones ● 6545d18 Comments

Well hopefully, at the very least, it has taught the council a valuable lesson.

Trizia Fiorellino ● 6545d

Yes this is a complicated case.  It was alleged that the school had contravened the Government's guidelines in its admissions policy, operating a "selective" process. The Evening Standard correctly states  that "Ministers last year introduced a new statutory admissions code, under which councils are encouraged to report schools they believe are failing to promote fair admissions"  A complaint was made to the Council which it had to report to the government quango dealing with such issues. That quango upheld the complaint and ordered Drayton Manor to change its admissions policy.  Drayton Manor took the case to the high court and won.  My personal opinion is that this is the right judgement and the Government will now have to either abandon its Statutory Admissions Code or revise it  to take this judgement into account.  We shall see.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6545d

The words you quote are '...Councils are encouraged to report schools they believe are failing to promote fair admissions'. Then you go on to say the the Council 'had to report'...'a complaint'...'to the government quango'.It sounds to me like the Council did not have to report Brentside High School's complaint to the quango. I'm sure the Council gets lots of complaints about 'unfair' schools' admission policies and decisions. Does the Council really report all these complaints to The Schools Adjudicator?If indeed you (and perhaps other Councillors) feel that this is the right judgement why didn't you or your colleagues intervene in this unfortunate episode. This would have saved alot of time, money and Drayton Manor's reputation for probity.

Eric Alan Leach ● 6545d

Very confusing.The suspicion would be that Drayton Manor's real 'offence' was to get foundation status. By getting free of the clutches of the LEA they have managed to maintain high standards in the school. Therefore an entirely bogus charge has been cooked up against them to try and denigrate their achievements. If the LEA had complete control of the admissions for the school they would have handled admissions in exactly the same way.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6544d

Was it just Brentside, Eric?  I think that with the new rules introduced by Ed Balls, all complaints have to be reported to the Schools Adjudicator otherwise the schools doing the complaining could accuse the Council of ignoring their concerns.  Why do you think that the Council did not have to report the complaint, Eric?

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6544d

The answer surely is that even the badly drafted rules issued by Ed Balls would not intend that every complaint is forwarded to the adjudicator. This one was groundless and therefore should have never been followed up.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6544d

How do you know it was groundless, Peter?  The Schools Adjudicator, independent of the Council, didn't think so.  He upheld the complaint.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6544d

I know it was groundless because Judge Stewart QC said so.He said that he had “looked in vain” in the written decision for evidence that the school's submissions had been taken into account and that this was a 'fundamental error'.For a judge to use such terms is damning. The Schools Adjudicator handling the case, Andrew Baxter, seems to have not been capable of doing his job properly.It appears that the tail is wagging the dog and Councillors have failed to stand up to the LEA who want to wage a turf war over admissions with one of our local schools. They believe by discrediting the head master they can reclaim control.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6543d

Paul, it wouldn't look as if Councillors were standing up to the LEA, it would look as if we were telling Brentside and others, that Councillors will not pass on their complaint to the schools adjudicator.  Can you just see the posts on this Forum were that to happen!  Anyway, Paul, far from demonising the Head, I think we ought to be grateful to all in Drayton Manor School who put these rules to the test and won.  Hopefully, this means that lots of schools throughout England and Wales will be spared such a challenge to their admission rules.......until such time as the government changes the rules again.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6543d

There was a letter in this week's Gazette which demonstrates what a Pandora's box you have opened up on this issue. It contained an astonishing array of clearly false accusations against Sir Pritpal. Although the writer did not supply their name and address it was clearly not written by someone who has had children socially excluded from Drayton Manor but by someone whose political sensitivities had been outraged by a head who has been successful in raising standards. The author did not supply his or her name and address.It was alleged that he has raised the performance of the school by expelling pupils who were predicted to have poor exam results and wanted to turn it into a middle class enclave. This is the classic response of the vested interest of the education bureaucracy to attempts to improve standards - the Prescott doctrine of 'the trouble with good schools is that everyone wants to get into them'.The disappointing thing about this is not the response itself which is entirely predictable but the failure of a Conservative Council to stand four square behind Sir Pritpal.

Andy Jones ● 6540d

'it wouldn't look as if Councillors were standing up to the LEA, it would look as if we were telling Brentside and others, that Councillors will not pass on their complaint to the schools adjudicator'That's exactly what you should have done. The more that comes out about this the more it appears that the original complaint was politically motivated. I know parents at Brentside and they are furious about the impression this has given of their school. They would have appreciated an early intervention by Councillors to kill this issue stone dead as much as anyone.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6530d

Councillor,I didn't get an answer as to how many complaints about schools' admissions procedures were reported to the Council last year and how many of these complaints were passed on to The Schools Adjudicator? Do I have to issue an FoI request to find that out?What is the 'punishment' for a Council not passing on an admissions procedure complaint to The Schools Adjudicator? Is it a wrist slapping akin to the when the Ombudsman finds against a Council?

Eric Alan Leach ● 6530d

I dont know the answers to your questions Eric.  This issue did not come before Councillors.  It may have come before the Cabinet holder for Education, that I do not know either.It is not a policy issue.  Councillors do not manage the Council.  We set policy and oversee the quality and direction of the service.  We would not give a message to Council employees that the Government or the Law can be ignored.  By the way, The Ombudsman doesn't just slap wrists.  The Ombudsman can impose a hefty fine.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6530d

OK.So which Council Officer is responsible/ I can then ask him or her the question. I realise I am imposing on you here.Also when was the last time the Ombudsman fined Ealing Council? I wonder also what was the level of the fine? Again you don't have to answer, but if the info is to hand please spill it out. Thank you

Eric Alan Leach ● 6530d

If as Barbara says the Councillors hands were tied on this issue it is a major concern. The whole things looks as though it is a result of a bureaucratic turf war rather than concern for the quality of education of local children.It has been stated that Brentside were a party to the original complaint. I find it extraordinary that a school should argue that children for whom Brentside is the closest school should not be in the catchment area. Was the Head Teacher a party to the complaint or was it made by the LEA appointed Governors of the school?

Andy Jones ● 6524d

I dont know the answer to this one, maybe the minutes of Governing Body meetings will show how the decision was made but the LEA appointed governors would be outvoted in any governing body as they are three or four out of 12 or 15 depending on the size of the governing body.  It would have had to be a decision, I would have thought, by the whole governing body.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6524d

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/secondaryeducation/3136659/Englands-most-oversubscribed-schools.htmlThis may be of some interest, even relevance.

Alan Brainsby ● 6520d

One wonders why people don't want to go to Brentside. It must be because it's not as good as Drayton. The answer must be to get a headmaster as good as Sir Pritpal and staff who are as loyal and motivated as those at Drayton Manor. In spite of what is said, there's no difference in the children who go to both schools. We should be overjoyed to have a school of this quality in our borough and should be cloning it as fast as possible.

Richard Williams ● 6496d