- Mobile site
- E-Newsletters
-
- News feed
- Find us on Twitter
@Observer_Owl
Follow Watford Observer on Twitter
- Find us on Facebook
Watford Observer
Like us on Facebook
New school for Rickmansworth to open in September 2013 (From Watford Observer)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting WO to 80360, or email us
New school for Rickmansworth to open in September 2013
4:58pm Friday 13th July 2012 in News
By Adam Binnie, Senior Reporter
A new secondary school for children in Rickmansworth, Mill End and Maple Cross, has been approved by the government.
The Reach Free School will open in September 2013, providing it is supported by Three Rivers District Council, and a site can be found.
Carolyn Venn, who is a governor at the new school, said: “Our thanks go to all members of the local community who have supported our application – we could not have got this far without you.”
Comments(46)
The Rover
says...
6:40pm Fri 13 Jul 12
justalocalmum
says...
7:10pm Fri 13 Jul 12
Roy Stockdill
says...
8:18pm Fri 13 Jul 12
If the educational system of this country is ever to get back to what it once was, then the only way is to bring back the grammar schools with selection by examination results. Mixing children of all abilities in the same class simply doesn't work because the less academic hold back the brighter kids - it doesn't work the other way.
We need to re-introduce selective education for the brightest children because they are the future leaders of society.
Arthur
says...
8:55pm Fri 13 Jul 12
Roy Stockdill wrote:Oh Roy wrong again, please do you homework.
As I understand it, if I have read the various reports correctly, free schools are all-ability schools - in other words, very little different to comprehensives. The only difference appears to be that they are state-funded instead of under the control of a local authority.
If the educational system of this country is ever to get back to what it once was, then the only way is to bring back the grammar schools with selection by examination results. Mixing children of all abilities in the same class simply doesn't work because the less academic hold back the brighter kids - it doesn't work the other way.
We need to re-introduce selective education for the brightest children because they are the future leaders of society.
Finland has probably the best school system in the world with results that dwarf anything else.
It works quite simply. Every child in a given catchment area goes to the same school and receive an education tailored to their needs all supplied free by the state. There are no grammar schools, there are no "private" schools, just very good schools for everyone.
Read http://www.guardian.
co.uk/teacher-networ
k/teacher-blog/2012/
apr/09/finish-school
-system
and weep
Roy Stockdill
says...
9:08pm Fri 13 Jul 12
The old grammar school/secondary modern system worked well because the grammars produced the academic and clever people that society needs as its leaders, while the secondary moderns produced the artisans who are equally important - builders, plumbers, electricians, hairdressers etc.
It's called "horses for courses" and it used to work very well.
LSC
says...
10:27pm Fri 13 Jul 12
When I was at school we were divided into 'sets' who were educated according to ability. This meant an academic might be in set 1 for maths, but set 4 for woodwork etc.
Do they not still do this? It seemed to work ok, and as some kids developed later, they were simply moved up a set rather than labelled for life by a single exam aged 11.
Comparing the UK with Finland is pretty pointless. In a report on this site it mentioned a Watford school where over 80% were from ethnic minorities.
I'm sure a proportion of those don't have English as a first language. So time and budget are used to sort that out.
Finland has an average of 3%. Ethnic minorities of ALL AGES in the whole country.
So one might surmise an average school has around 1% of pupils who might have cultural or language challenges to be dealt with. That can be a real advantage in the classroom.
Popeonarope
says...
11:30pm Fri 13 Jul 12
Reg Edit
says...
7:50am Sat 14 Jul 12
Bang goes another swathe of green land - did anybody notice? Does anybody care?
Why not knock down William Penn leisure centres and some houses to build the new school? Re-instate William Penn school as it was. It was well positioned for this area in need.
Or rebuild Durrants on the site where Durrants was (now all houses too)?
Maybe one day the councils will be clever enough to realise that removing a school and building houses produces more school-age children and therefore it is not acceptable to redevelop schools into housing. They should have kept the land fallow for a school later on. That would have been clever.
A housing scheme built on green belt or just green fields would probably not get permission and would have residents up in arms. However, knock down a school and build houses on it, wait a few years then complain there are not enough schools and you can build on green belt and green fields because it is necessary and in the interests of the community.
So, are our local politicians incompetent, stupid or corrupt in allowing this abuse of our green fields?
I suspect a combination of all three.
Politicians should care more about their local area and less about their party when deciding these issues. In general, we need a brighter set of politicians to look after our locality.
Sara
says...
9:44am Sat 14 Jul 12
However I'm not sure this new UKIP policy of throwing hundreds of people out of their homes and knocking down a much used leisure centre (both at huge cost) is a winner on any level.
Boosey
says...
11:03am Sat 14 Jul 12
John Howard Norfolk
says...
11:20am Sat 14 Jul 12
And, as Roy Stockdill rightly says, we need a selective educational system.
I have said this before and I say it again, comprehensive schools polish a few pebbles but dull ALL the diamonds.
Arthur
says...
11:39am Sat 14 Jul 12
Let me help you Roy, it's a very simple Google search - it throws up all these:
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=iy8q_gZR4
qU
AND MOST ACADEMICS REGARD THEIR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AS THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Interestingly, their gap between the 1% and the 99% is a fraction of what it is here in a country run by toffs who reportedly don't even know the price of a pint of milk. Roll on the revolution!
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:06pm Sat 14 Jul 12
I believe Helsinki is renowned for being the most expensive capital on earth - it certainly used to be.
The only famous Finns I can think of offhand are athletes and the composer Sibelius.
Arthur
says...
1:12pm Sun 15 Jul 12
And you claim to be a serious forensic genealogist ...........???
Never mind I'll do it for you:
See: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/List_of_Fin
ns
You really need to get out more if the only Finn you can actually name is Sibelius
According to Mercer, the most expensive city in the world is Tokyo, followed by Luanda, Osaka, Moscow and Geneva. Helsinki is rated 65th (London 25th).
Roy, please remember that old fashioned tip: ensure brain is engaged before opening mouth.
BTW the Squid with wild rice is rather moreish, especially with a nice bottle of Chablis or Macon Village
Arthur
says...
1:19pm Sun 15 Jul 12
Roy Stockdill
says...
1:44pm Sun 15 Jul 12
As for famous Finns, none of the ones mentioned mean much to me at all, since they seem to be famous in somewhat obscure categories. It's like that old game we used to play, name TEN famous Canadians or ten famous Belgians. I guarantee you not many would be able to name Ten Famous Finns beyond Sibelius and perhaps Paavo Nurmi and Lasse Viren. I'm afraid Finnish writers, architects and politicians are of little interest to me, as I don't regard Finland as being exactly one of the world's major countries with a population of just over 5 million in July 2011 - one 12th of the population of the UK, thus comparisons are totally meaningless. I'm sure their schools are quite good since they obviously have far smaller classes than we do. It's easy to be (as Wikipedia puts it) one of the "'world's most peaceful, competitive and liveable countries" when you've got such a tiny population.
John Howard Norfolk
says...
2:05pm Sun 15 Jul 12
Arthur
says...
4:01pm Sun 15 Jul 12
Roy Stockdill wrote:Why is it obvious that they have far smaller classes than us when clearly with a smaller population they have fewer teachers?
I can really scarcely be bothered to point out, Arthur, that you clearly have a problem finding things with Google. The link you gave in your earlier message is nothing like the one who have given now! Please try and be precise in future.
As for famous Finns, none of the ones mentioned mean much to me at all, since they seem to be famous in somewhat obscure categories. It's like that old game we used to play, name TEN famous Canadians or ten famous Belgians. I guarantee you not many would be able to name Ten Famous Finns beyond Sibelius and perhaps Paavo Nurmi and Lasse Viren. I'm afraid Finnish writers, architects and politicians are of little interest to me, as I don't regard Finland as being exactly one of the world's major countries with a population of just over 5 million in July 2011 - one 12th of the population of the UK, thus comparisons are totally meaningless. I'm sure their schools are quite good since they obviously have far smaller classes than we do. It's easy to be (as Wikipedia puts it) one of the "'world's most peaceful, competitive and liveable countries" when you've got such a tiny population.
According to your logic, the people of Gaza (population 1.5 million) should be able to live their lives in peace without being bombed into oblivion by their extremely aggressive, land grabbing neighbours, which they can't.
Come on Roy why don't you just admit it? You've got this one wrong.
The logic is that we should spend more on educating deprived children in order to give them a leg up rather than the rich ones who hardly need it and derive all the tax breaks of so-called charitable status for their schools. So basically we're all adding 29 pence to each pound their already wealthy parents give to these elitist establishments in tax refunds.
At the very least we should spend just as much on poor children's education as the rich spend on their offspring, which is what they do in Finland and the result is probably reflected in the egalitarian, peaceful, competitive, liveable society, as you so rightly observe.
It's not easy when you've only a small population because lacking critical mass to achieve many things without political will........... and the Finns certainly have plenty of that, puts many obstacles in the way.
BTW
Any motor sport enthusiast can reel of dozens of famous Finns. |that's why they're generally referred to as "Flying Finns"
Roy Stockdill
says...
4:19pm Sun 15 Jul 12
As for education, it seems to me the "rich" (however, you define that term and it means many different things to many people) do in fact pay twice over for their children's education because some of their taxes go to pay the overall education bill and then they pay on top for their children to be privately educated - including, of course, many of your beloved socialist politicians who send their kids to private schools. Hypocrisy Rules, OK!
How do you define "the rich", in fact? That always seems to me to be an envious, spiteful term employed by the crackpot Left. Many middle class people who certainly wouldn't be called rich in my book struggle and scrimp and save to send their children to private schools because they despair of the state system. Would you describe them as rich?
My wife had to be privately educated, even though her parents were just ordinary working class newsagents in Coventry. Why? Because many of the schools had been destroyed by Hitler's Luftwaffe! Would you call her rich?
Popeonarope
says...
5:13pm Sun 15 Jul 12
Guess the property devolpers were to good to pass on.
At the time there was a lot of 'school swapping' going on in Watford.
Grange Park in Bushey eventually became Bushey Hall (the original building on Aldenham Road was shut later on.) Queens' was close by which may have negated the need based on headcount for three schools on top of each other.
There is plenty of possible land around the area, depending on the balance of house building requirements against population requirements, but thats what we elect the council for... making the tough choices, like shutting schools in the first place.
Sara
says...
5:51pm Sun 15 Jul 12
John Howard Norfolk
says...
5:57pm Sun 15 Jul 12
Popeonarope wrote:One tough school decision our councillors approved was the closure of the ONLY secondary school in Carpenders Park / South Oxhey resulting in every child needing public transport to school. Sir James Altham must be turnng in his grave. Surely our councillors must have access to demographic data to predict future demand for school places?
Durrents was a medium size school in need of renovating, which was shut on 31/08/1991.
Guess the property devolpers were to good to pass on.
At the time there was a lot of 'school swapping' going on in Watford.
Grange Park in Bushey eventually became Bushey Hall (the original building on Aldenham Road was shut later on.) Queens' was close by which may have negated the need based on headcount for three schools on top of each other.
There is plenty of possible land around the area, depending on the balance of house building requirements against population requirements, but thats what we elect the council for... making the tough choices, like shutting schools in the first place.
Sara
says...
7:46pm Sun 15 Jul 12
y area.
Arthur
says...
11:08am Mon 16 Jul 12
Roy Stockdill wrote:Roy, how old are you?
I'm afraid I find motor sport unutterably boring and tedious (that will probably bring an avalanche down upon my head!). However, Finland is - or was once upon a time - known for producing outstanding runners like Paavo Nurmi and Lasse Viren and they were often referred to by the athletics writers as "Flying Finns". I don't think they've had the same success in recent years.
As for education, it seems to me the "rich" (however, you define that term and it means many different things to many people) do in fact pay twice over for their children's education because some of their taxes go to pay the overall education bill and then they pay on top for their children to be privately educated - including, of course, many of your beloved socialist politicians who send their kids to private schools. Hypocrisy Rules, OK!
How do you define "the rich", in fact? That always seems to me to be an envious, spiteful term employed by the crackpot Left. Many middle class people who certainly wouldn't be called rich in my book struggle and scrimp and save to send their children to private schools because they despair of the state system. Would you describe them as rich?
My wife had to be privately educated, even though her parents were just ordinary working class newsagents in Coventry. Why? Because many of the schools had been destroyed by Hitler's Luftwaffe! Would you call her rich?
Haven't you worked out yet that a great many "rich" people, for example the likes of David Cameron's and Gideon Osborne's parents don't pay a lot of tax in the first place, that's how get rich.
The very idea that they "subsidise" education for the masses is ludicrous.
Returning to Finland, they have probably the most egalitarian education system in the world which produces the one of the best educational results attained anywhere in the world for EVERYONE regardless of their financial standing.
We would do well to emulate them instead of allowing this monetary elitist nonsense to persist.
As a war baby, you can't tell me much about the bombing of schools, etc. by the Nazi Luftwaffe. Most of my contemporaries were evacuated out of the danger zone and continued their education without the need for their parents to fund it at misnamed "public" schools; my own brother wound up living with my grand parents in Sacriston for the duration where the local school educated him sufficiently well enough to pass the exam for a free place at Durham County Grammar.
On his return home after the war the Borough of Barnet would only offer him a place at a secondary modern school despite his demonstrable academic prowess, what a waste of talent.
Roy, face up to it, what you aspire to most call snobbery.
Doubtless, you still touch your forelock from time to time to remind yourself of "the good old days".
abbotshornet
says...
11:26am Mon 16 Jul 12
As has been stated by previous posters both Abbots Langley and South Oxhey have had their schools closed and not replaced. Abbots Langley has expanded a lot recently so there must be hundreds of children driven or bused out of the area every day to school when we should have a secondary school within walking/cycling distance. What is Herts CC doing for the children of Abbots Langley? I think it's a case of who shouts loudest is catered for as usual.
Roy Stockdill
says...
11:34am Mon 16 Jul 12
The fact that I told you my wife had to be privately educated because the Luftwaffe had bombed many of the schools in Coventry in 1940 must surely give you some idea of my age.
I was a socialist myself when I was younger but as I grew older and more mature, got a mortgage, worked my way up the ladder and began to take home a decent salary my views gradually changed. Isn't that the way with most middle-class people who aspire to better things for themselves and their children? And what is wrong with that? Why call that snobbery when all people want is a better life?
I don't feel the same sort of hatred and envy as you obviously do for the Camerons of this world. As it happene, I've researched Cameron's ancestry for the Findmypast website and discovered the family wealth was made by his ancestors who were bankers and stockbrokers and he inherited it. So what? I hope to be able to pass on to my sons whatever money and property I own when my time comes. I see nothing wrong with the principle of inherited wealth - surely we all want out children to be better off than we are, don't we?
Why don't you feel the same kind of envy of moronic footballers, barely able to write their own names, who earn in a single year more than most working class folks will earn in a lifetime? Equally, are you envious of the vast rewards earned by pop stars with very little talent? I'm not because I am quite happy and satisfied with what I've done for myself.
It's an unfair world, Arthur - always has been, always will be - for the simple reason that people are NOT born equal! We are all born with different skills and talents and some of us make the best use they possibly can of them while others fritter their lives away doing nothing and being envious and bitter about anyone and everyone they perceive as being better off than them.
Those who are riddled with envy and poison invariably end up only by destroying themselves!
Why you appear to be so obsessed with Finland baffles me, I'm afraid. So they have a good education system? So could we if we reintroduced the principle of selective education, i.e. old-style grammar schools for the more academically gifted, secondary moderns (academies of whatever the current term is) for those more suited to become artisans, who are just as important in society. It's called horses for courses, an honourable principle we would do well to bring back.
John Howard Norfolk
says...
11:39am Mon 16 Jul 12
Why do you keep banging on about Finland when the WO story is about a local school?
And,
I suspect - indeed am pretty sure I know from reading many posts on the WO website - that Roy is a younger man than you!
We are all allowed our opinions about the best education but no matter how far apart our beliefs may be, surely we are all agreed that things have NOT improved in recent times?
Sara
says...
11:41am Mon 16 Jul 12
Rickmansworth School has to serve both Rickmansworth and Croxley Green and is of course partially selective, so not only local children attend. And St. Joan of Arc brings most of it's pupils in from outside the immediate area.
I don't think the provision for Abbots Langley children is perfect, but with Parmiter's, Francis Coombe and Kings Langley, we are relatively well served compared to other parts of SW Herts.
abbotshornet
says...
11:57am Mon 16 Jul 12
Why is the traffic halved when the schools are off? It is because far too many children are unable to go to a local school and need to be transported around.
Even people who's children go to private schools must see that this is a problem.
John Howard Norfolk
says...
12:08pm Mon 16 Jul 12
Sara wrote:Families to the north and west of Watford would be better served if children were NOT admitted from across the county boundary.
Before Langleybury was closed, it was merged with Francis Coombe. When the Langleybury site was closed, the places were relocated to the Garston campus of Francis Coombe. That is seen by HCC as the non-selective feeder school for Abbots Langley children.
Rickmansworth School has to serve both Rickmansworth and Croxley Green and is of course partially selective, so not only local children attend. And St. Joan of Arc brings most of it's pupils in from outside the immediate area.
I don't think the provision for Abbots Langley children is perfect, but with Parmiter's, Francis Coombe and Kings Langley, we are relatively well served compared to other parts of SW Herts.
How much better things would be if our able and talented local children could attend a local grammar school instead of being "bumped" to a nearby Academy.
Sara
says...
2:31pm Mon 16 Jul 12
"I don't think the provision for Abbots Langley children is perfect, but with Parmiter's, Francis Coombe and Kings Langley, we are relatively well served compared to other parts of SW Herts."
Which means what it says the provision for Abbots Langley children isn't brilliant, but in terms of school places, we are not so badly off as some areas.
What makes the situation worse is that not all the local school places go to local children. Parmiter's is partially selective and admits from a wide area. St. Michael's only admits Roman Catholics. It is much more difficult for Abbots children to get into Kings Langley since HCC rigged the rules to favour children living further away in Bovingdon. Francis Coombe does admit all comers on the basis of proximity, but it is not popular with all parents.
Because most of the schools in SW Herts are partially selective, children leave Abbots Langley every day to attend the Watford Grammar schools, Rickmansworth, St. Clement Danes, Queens and others further away.
But the other truth that we have to face is that many teenagers are taken to even the local schools named above by car. That is their parents' choice, sometimes for financial reasons, sometimes for convenience.
P.S. Sorry for the misplaced apostrophe in the post above - that's what comes of trying to post on a BlackBerry and not re-reading the small screen properly :)
Arthur
says...
3:42pm Mon 16 Jul 12
Keep doffing your cap Roy, they love people like you.
Personally I believe that life should egalitarian. This has nothing to do with envy or any of the other vices you describe.
Unlike you Roy, who clearly know your "place" as delineated by "them", you support a code that perpetuates wealth and privileged for the few, I believe that we are all born equal.
Clearly you missed the bit in your research where reportedly Cameron's old man off-shored as much as he could to avoid the tax ordinary folk have to pay.
As you well know Roy, or at least should, track back far enough and you'll find most wealth is based in disreputable practices.
For example there is a large financial group whose funds came from trading in opium; something that they prefer the general public not to know these days.
Basically they're drug dealers made good. Somewhat simlar to Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
While there are people like you going round doffing their caps in subjugation they'll always be there.
One day you'll realise that it's time to get up off your knees rather than grovelling at the feet of wealth/power.
LSC
says...
12:52am Tue 17 Jul 12
The very fact you are able to use the Internet to post opinions on a forum such as this actually means you have already won life's lottery, and are making full use of it.
When I read a report that you have given up your worldly goods to the poor and leave your children and grandchildren with nothing, then your statements have some validity.
But don't lecture the rest of us about grovelling to the wealthy when in World terms, you are very much one of them and clearly enjoying the benefits of being so.
Roy Stockdill
says...
7:35am Tue 17 Jul 12
As you so rightly point out, people are NOT born equal, never have been and never will be, for the simple reason that everyone is born with different degrees of intelligence, skills, talents and ability to assimilate education. It's up to all of us to make the best we can of what we are born with, and that's what I've tried to do all my life, advancing myself, my career and my lifestyle little by little. I concede I was fortunate to be born with a fair modicum of intelligence and literary skills, but I made the best of what I had, climbing my way up the greasy pole. I expect that's what Cameron's father thought he was doing for his children when he took advantage of a few tax dodges!
I note Arthur neglects to answer my previous point, while he rambles on and on about the iniquitous wealthy, he has nothing to say at all when I challenge him on the subject of whether it's right that thick and dim footballers (all working classes to a man and therefore presumably Arthur's heroes) should earn more in a single year than the vast majority of ordinary people will earn in an entire lifetime. Nor does he have anything to say about the rock and pop stars who pull in inordinate amounts of money with little basic talent.
No, poor old Arthur is clearly obsessed with the so-called upper classes and the Camerons of this world. He is riddled with class hatred, whether he admits it or not - typical old-style Left Wing lunacy.
And a final word, Arthur: I don't grovel at anybody's feet! Why should I when my wife and I own property in several places worth around a million pounds? But, then, that is hardly unusual these days, given the steady rise in property values. It's not too difficult to be at least a paper millionaire today and there are a great many ordinary middle-class people who could say the same.
As I keep telling you, it's an unfair world. Get used to it !!!
tomsanders
says...
1:14pm Tue 17 Jul 12
There appears to be a complete lack of foresight and long term planning at HCC level and and an ability at TRDC level to effluence or deliver any meaningful actions.
From what has been said above, it seems to be quite fragmented approach to school planning at a local, county and national level.
I went to school in Ricky over 20 years ago, and it was ridiculous then how the intake areas were so large and overlapped one another. Ricky should not have a need for another school if the volumes of children from as far afield as east Watford, Abbots, Northwood, Amersham were reduced.
Of course they have to be bussed-in currently because of the closures of other schools and scadalous school land sell-offs.
Keeping schooling as local as possible produces tighter, more connected communities. It also reduces traffic and works better for families.
I suggest HCC, TRDC and the existing school governors spend more effort recalibrating the geographic spread of future school intakes and catchment areas instead of building a new school on greenbelt land.
If there really does need to be a new school. How about the compulsory purchased of brownfield sites held by developers for 'corporate headquarters' developments.
Here's another hint HCC: New offices developments = incoming population = more families = need for more school places.
Arthur
says...
11:25am Wed 18 Jul 12
I belief that a child born in the Gambia has as much worth as any child born anywhere else in the world. Clearly these two don't.
I understand that psychotherapy can help with this personality defect.
Keep doffing you caps lads
Arthur
says...
11:44am Wed 18 Jul 12
My attainments in the journey of life are irrelevant in the bigger picture of opportunities for everyone. The fact of my status or otherwise accordingly has little to do with my desire to see a better world for everyone.
Seemingly, LRC and Roystock don't.
Clearly, they are aficionado's of the Frost report's delineation of "class":
see: http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=QftCra8q2
o4
Maybe they should let us all know how tall they are, they we can place then in the "system"
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:03pm Wed 18 Jul 12
Your sanctimonious, self righteous prattling about wanting to see a better world for everybody serves only to illustrate the depths of your naivety.
Unless you actually have something sensible to contribute from now on, I shall exercise my right to ignore your nonsense.
I note you still haven't answered my query about whether you are as envious of millionaire footballers and pop stars as you are about the upper classes. Your problem, Arthur, is that envy and bile drip from every pore of your body. As I keep telling you, it's an unfair world - get over it!
LSC
says...
1:06pm Wed 18 Jul 12
As Roy says, I was talking about equality, not superiority. I am VERY aware of how lucky I am to be typing this on my broadband computer in my centrally heated house. I work hard to maintain that, but no harder than most others do the world over; and many work far harder, just to eat.
But this is the hand life dealt me, and I'm going to make the most of it. If I can help other people less fortunate along the way, I will.
Arthur
says...
6:32pm Thu 19 Jul 12
Stockdill seems keen to accelerate class and financial differentials in the UK.
I have first hand experience of bright youngsters who when they failed the 11+ found themselves consigned to the educational scrap heap
Stockdill wishes to perpetuate this situation. He also makes a failed attempt to reduce the discussion to name-calling.
I believe that the Finnish education model is one to be emulated. Its results are outstanding for everyone, not just the privileged few, regardless of income.
We've had red herrings about the cost of living in Finland; we've had diatribes on just about everything except the merits of various education systems.
Clearly, certain contributors here are incapable of putting forward a sensible rational argument about anything, merely plumbing the depths of personal abuse and little else.
I do not.
I believe everyone is equal and is entitled to equal opportunities
Roy Stockdill
says...
11:29pm Thu 19 Jul 12
Think about it.
BTW, Arthur, it would be nice if you eventually conjured up the guts to put your full, real name to your posts, as I do.
tomsanders
says...
8:39am Fri 20 Jul 12
What a shame that two grown adults have nothing better to do that trade insults than do something about such an important subject.
John Howard Norfolk
says...
9:22am Fri 20 Jul 12
That said, this news story has allowed us to air some valid points about making the best of our education system - and that should include an opportunity for the brightest of our kids to benefit from excellent teaching. Inevitably it is the grammar schools that attract these teachers and so those children fortunate enough to have the intelligence (and willingness to learn) will take and gain form the opporunity. A point made both logically and lucidly by Roy Stockdill.
pr76uk
says...
12:20pm Fri 20 Jul 12
Pity it's taken the Tory county council so long to get this done; Three Rivers Council have been asking for a new school for years!
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:37pm Fri 20 Jul 12
It wasn't just Labour, successive governments and councils, Labour and Tory, were selling off school playing fields for houses for donkeys' years. With the Tories it was partly greed for money, with Labour there was the additional element of the Loony Left who thought that competitive sports were bad for children because not all could be winners.
The result has been a major rise in the numbers of seriously obese kids in Britain because they don't get any exercise while scoffing junk food at the same time.
I will frankly be amazed if we win anything like the number of medals at the London Olympics as we did in Beijing four years ago because our sporting standards have declined - with the possible exception of our fantastic cyclists - and we don't seem to be getting the stars of the future coming through, and one of the reasons is the selling off of playing fields for housing.
JohnnyHornet says...
5:05pm Fri 13 Jul 12