Education in Thurrock is:
A. “On the way up” according to Labour’s John Kent
B. “Failing our children” says Conservative Tunde Ojetola
C. A political bauble of Ofsted say some.
D. None of the above.
E. Schelswig-Holstein
Thurrock’s schools are being set difficult targets to meet the council’s aspiration of having every one of them rated “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted by 2016 said Labour leader, John Kent.
Council Leader, Cllr John Kent, explained how council “officers have been working closely with head teachers and governors to develop a set of targets to achieve together at every level, from early years to post-16; targets which will stretch everyone involved”.
He was speaking at Wednesday (26 March) evening’s meeting of the council, introducing his report as the education portfolio holder.
He said: “Achievement of five good GCSEs including English and maths is already in line with national averages, but we want to be more ambitious; we want to see a ten per cent rise by 2017 and our schools are up for that.
“By 2016 we want every children’s centre, every primary school, every secondary school and all the colleges to be good or outstanding.
”We are making sure every school that requires improvement will have a clear programme and timeline to reach that good standard; and we will ensure Ofsted comes back to do an early inspection to secure the judgement if needed.”
Cllr Kent said he wanted to see young people’s aspirations rise with “more of our children to going to university” and for them to “to set their sights on this from a young age”.
He said that good degrees from top universities should be the aim fulfilling the council’s ambition that Thurrock-educated job seekers would be filling the management posts created by the borough’s regeneration ovetr the coming decade.
Cllr Kent’s arguments were countered by shadow education portfolio holder, Tunde Ojetola who said: “I welcome the report and the hard work that all those involved in education undertake…For far too long, especially in primary schools, according to Ofsted, 2000 children are going up to senior school with very low attainment”.
You can see the full debate here.
Alas, Ofsted do not make their judgements according to context with regards to locality or vicinity! How can you compare like for like…schools in leafy lanes from affluent areas, with those from the locales of deprivation in Grays, Tilbury and Ockendon?!
In essence, sadly what the Overpaid F**ckers Shafting Teachers Every Day just don’t understand and suffice to say…you can’t polish a turd!
Just a little correction. You can, in fact, polish a turd! They did it on Mythbusters a few years ago. Very shiny it was too.
i thought ejitola recently stood down as a school governor.
Gray64, okay, but can you make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear?
E.C.M, indeed you cannot!
Both sides are right in their own way. The performance of primary schools improved by ten per cent compared to the previous year. That’s good, considering Thurrock schools were third from bottom of the whole country. But the two schools below Thurrock in the table improved by 20+%, so Thurrock still gets left behind unless it’s pace of improvement picks up. I think with Carmel Littleton in charge there’ll continue to be big improvements. She is excellent. The damage was done in the previous four ‘lost’ years before she took over, where too much senior management time was wasted on gossip, settling personal scores and internal vendettas.