Save Tharwa School

From ABC News again

ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr has survived a censure motion over his plans to close more than 20 schools.

Opposition education spokeswoman Vicki Dunne mounted the attack on Mr Barr, accusing him of breaking an election promise and describing his handling of the policy to close schools as appalling and amateurish.

Ms Dunne told the Legislative Assembly that even after the announcement there have been no coherent reasons for why the changes are needed.

Mr Barr dismissed the criticism.

“It’s a rite of passage for a minister to be censured by this mob,” he said.

He told the assembly the reason there is a need for such a big change is the neglect of successive governments over 17 years.

The censure motion was defeated on party lines.

From ABC News

The ACT Government says it is ready for any legal challenges mounted over its plans to close more than 20 schools.

The Government is preparing a series of school open days starting this Friday to help families displaced by the changes.

There will be financial assistance available but parents’ groups are still unhappy with the changes.

The ACT’s P&C Council chairwoman Jane Gorrie says the group will meet on Saturday to discuss whether or not to continue to protest.

“We’d really like people’s input into what they want council to do from here,” she said.

“The council will certainly be looking very closely at this whole decision and seeing how well the Government has listened and seeing whether they have met all their requirements.”

Education Minister Andrew Barr says he is not worried about the possibility of more protests or possible legal action from schools listed to close.

“Time will tell. We’re prepared for any legal challenges, should they arise,” he said.

The first 10 schools will close next week.

Meanwhile the Canberra Preschool Society says it supports the Government’s decision to amalgamate all preschools with neighbouring primary schools in 2008.

The society’s president, Carolyn Harkeness, says the Education Department will need to start consultation soon to ensure a smooth transition.

“The children that come on board there, not all of them are going to go on in that school, they’re not all going to go to kindy that next year at that same place so they’re going to have to be re-enrolled or transferred to other schools,” she said.

“So there’s a lot of issues that I think need to be worked through very carefully.”

From ABC News

The ACT Government has almost halved the number of Canberra schools to be shut over the next three years.

Dickson college is among those to win a reprieve but it is bad news for dozens of others.

In the last Budget the Government unveiled plans to close 39 schools in a bid to save $34 million.

Today, after six months of consultation, the Government has announced it will shut 11 preschools, 11 primary schools and one high school at Kambah.

At least 10 will close this year, although others like Kambah High School will stay open until 2007.

The new plan includes other changes - all preschools will have to amalgamate with primary schools by 2008.

And many of those schools saved will eventually have a reduced program.

The Government has also announced a one off $750 payment to parents who have to move their children to a new government school.

Schools remaining open (previously named for closure):

Preschools

* Hall preschool

* Hackett preschool

* Reid preschool

* Weston Creek preschool

* Chifley preschool

* South Curtin preschool

* Tharwa preschool

* Mt Neighbour preschool

* Flynn preschool

* Gilmore preschool

* Melba preschool

Primary schools

* Giralang primary

* Gilmore primary

* Mt Rogers primary

* Isabella Plains primary

Secondary schools

* Dickson College

Schools closing 2006:

Preschools

* Causeway preschool

* Rivett preschool

* McKellar preschool

Primary schools

* Hall primary

* Rivett primary

* Weston Creek primary

* Melrose primary

* Tharwa primary

* Mt Neighbour primary

* Flynn primary

Schools closing 2007:

Preschools
# Giralang preschool (NB preschool building shut but preschool program will continue at Giralang Primary)

# Macarthur preschool

# Cook preschool

# Page preschool

Primary schools

* Cook primary

* Village Creek primary

Secondary schools

* Kambah High

Schools closing 2008:

Preschools

* Isabella Plains preschool (NB preschool building shut but preschool program will continue at IP primary)

* Holt preschool

* Higgins preschool

Primary schools

* Holt primary

* Higgins primary

Schools closing 2010:

* Village Creek preschool

From the ABC news

The ACT’s Education Minister says he will take into account the views expressed in submissions about the Government’s plans to close 39 Canberra schools.

The deadline for written comments closed yesterday; Andrew Barr says more than 250 submissions were received.

He says the submissions will help the Government to fine-tune its final plan, to be released in December.

Mr Barr admits that could mean some schools earmarked for closure will not close.

“Those options are always open,” he said.

“We’ve put forward a proposal that contained a variety of options and we’ll be seeking the community’s feedback on those options.

“We’ll certainly consider the contents of the submissions and that does leave room for fine tuning of the proposal in the end.”

And also

ACT school system a dog’s breakfast: Education Union

The Australian Education Union says the ACT school system is a mess, in the lead-up to school enrolments for next year.

The union’s submission to the ACT Government’s 2020 plan will be made public today and claims the Stanhope Government has not put forward a balanced and reasonable case for the closure of 39 schools.

Union secretary Clive Haggar says the plan also ignores the social impact on local communities.

Mr Haggar says the Government only has itself to blame for the mess facing ACT Education towards the end of the year.

“If they’d been more open and transparent and had a more realistic timetable there could have been community support for some rationalisations instead of what we’ve now got - very, very powerful voices from the community united in terms of a recognition,” he said.

“This has been a dreadful process and I don’t believe dog’s breakfast is too far from the truth.”

After months of preparation, our submission in response to the ACT Government’s “Towards 2020″ proposal is complete. Many thanks to all who wrote sections, edited and gave feedback - it made a great difference. Now we have to wait for the Government to process this and hopefully rethink their proposal.

You can download it here - Tharwa School Submission

The process has been very difficult and less than ideal. The strain and stress placed on the community could have been avoided by talking to the community first before proposing (and naming) 39 Schools and PreSchools that will close. It all seems a bit unnecesary to save $10 million a year (after all 39 are closed). Closing 20 Preschools to save $500,000 seems a crime, when all the research shows a good early childhood foundation prevents many of the social issues we struggle with later.

Any one of the community clubs could probably sponsor all these preschools from the proceeds of the poker machines. What better way to invest in the future of communities by providing opportunities for our youngest and most vulnerable members of our society. There is a small amount of irony if public education turned to proceeds from gambling to survive. Certainly it is struggling to survive under the largess of the the government. Lucky our rates have gone up to cover the short fall.

Not many people are reading this blog at the moment, but it is important that in the next month we continue to pressure those charged with leading the community to do what is right, and not just on a shallow fiscal dimension.

Continue to fight the good fight, its the only one worth fighting for.

Thanks again to all the contributers

Written by Trevor Cobbold for Save Our Schools

Save Our Schools says that new research published in the UK last week shows that the majority of school closures lead to a decline in student results. SOS spokesperson, Trevor Cobbold, said that the research calls into question the whole rationale of the Stanhope Government’s school closure and amalgamation plan.

“Far from improving the quality of education as the Minister claims, his school closure and amalgamation plan is more likely to result in lower student achievement. Towards 2020 is destined for failure because it has ignored the most basic requirements for successful school consolidation.

“A study by the Hay Group, a major international consultancy firm, shows that 55% of merged schools in the UK had a sustained decline in student performance in the three years after the merger compared to the average for the separate schools in the three years beforehand. It says that the number of merged schools that have lower student results ‘is worryingly high.’

“A major finding of the study is that if the social and cultural difficulties of school mergers are not managed effectively, mergers are likely to have a negative impact on student achievement.

“It says that poor planning of school mergers can have a disastrous effect on thousands of students.”

Mr. Cobbold said that the study’s findings have important implications for the Towards 2020 Plan.

“The study demonstrates that school consolidation is a complex process and success depends on successfully combining school visions and culture. It is not merely a matter of logistics and infrastructure as the Minister for Education seems to believe.

“Schools need long lead times and considerable planning and resources to ensure successful consolidation, particularly on the scale proposed under Towards 2020.

“For example, the UK study says that it is essential that a new principal, and preferably the majority of the senior leadership team of a merged school, is appointed long before the formal merger takes place so that they have the space to form as a team, develop their vision and begin the communication process with staff, parents and students.

“The appointment of new leadership teams well ahead of the merger is fundamental to overcoming resistance and resentments, differences in school visions and cultures and to developing an inclusive change process.

“The Minister for Education has failed to implement these basic requirements. Towards 2020 involves many formal amalgamations and the de facto takeover of many schools by others. The consolidated schools will operate with much the same leadership teams and without sufficient time or resources for planning and implementing a new vision and change process involving staff, students and parents.

“Some 27 pre-schools and schools are proposed for closure or amalgamation at the end of this year. It is not possible for successful change to be planned and implemented over such a short period, let alone during school holidays. As one P&C President told the ABC Stateline program on Friday, ‘the Government is breaking all the rules of change management’.

“This is a failure of Government planning on a large scale and represents gross Ministerial incompetence, already a common enough feature of Towards 2020. The UK study suggests that students are likely to suffer serious consequences as a result of these failures.”

Mr. Cobbold said that while SOS considers that the Stanhope Government has failed to justify its school closure plan on either financial or educational grounds, any school mergers that go ahead should be given a chance of success.

“It would be appalling if the Minister’s neglect of planning for change led to lower student results. At the very least, the Government should allow for a longer transition period than the school holidays and commit considerable additional resources to providing specialist management change advice and support before proceeding with any school closures or amalgamations.”

The Hay Group’s findings are based on a detailed study of 73 full-scale school mergers across the UK over the past six years, involving more than 200 primary and secondary schools in a broad range of socio-economic areas. The mergers involved the closure of schools and their consolidation on an existing or new site. The study was published on 23 October 2006 and is available on the Hay Group website