North Walsham Infant & Nursery and Junior Schools

See 22 January. Spent a lot of time lately on this proposal to federate – good investment of time though! I chaired a joint committee of 3 Governors from the 2 Schools which is managing the consultation process; we’ve drafted the consultation letter which has been accepted by both sets of Governors and is now going out to Parents, Staff and other interested parties. Consultation period ends 20 March and if that goes well then we could have a Federation for 1 June. Only then can the new Governing Body look at how they want the 2 Schools to work together more closely and consider management arrangements.

Norfolk County Council / Who can you believe or trust?

The events of last week (see 17 & 20 Jan) still leave a bitter taste.  I will probably never forget an angry Council Leader Derrick Murphy bawling at me in full Council “in the name of God, go” which is a quote, I think, from Oliver Cromwell, used also by a backbench MP against Neville Chamberlain in 1940 (the Leader would know as an ex-history teacher).

Last weekend I e-mailed the Leader and Councillor Hardy expressing my dismay at them both breaching confidence. At least the latter replied, but only to promise there would be no more breaches. I don’t trust him. I also had a Tory, with whom I get on fine, tell me she/he wanted an apology for something I had said in my speech as it slurred him/her. Couldn’t see how it did but I gave that apology. Later I discover that Tory has been forwarding my e-mails (I assumed we were having a private conversation)  to the Leader. Was she/he really offended or did the Leader decide it would be helpful if that individual was? Sometimes politics is a very silly game.

Walcott

See 30 Nov & 10 Dec. North Norfolk District Council Scrutiny Committee invited the Environment Agency (EA) to their meeting on Wednesday to discuss the events of Nov 27. Parish Councillors were able to ask questions and I commented as well. Not sure many solutions came out except the need for improved working between partners and the EA better explaining their warning system. Outside the meeting, in discussions with the EA, we came up with the idea of a village meeting to explain that warning system, what the roles of the different agencies were and what the plan is when there is an emergency. To be discussed at the next Parish Council.

Free Schools and Academies

I can’t find any good in the Government’s obsession with promoting these. They are all about worsening divisions in our society, diluting the role of Councils in education, centralising power with the Secretary of State,  and ensuring there is no local accountability. To make life even more difficult for Schools that want to “remain with the Council” Gove insists they have to offer the National Curriculum whilst Free Schools /Academies don’t. I’m convinced the ultimate aim is to privatise education.

Read on Sunday about a proposal for a 11 -18  Free School in an area of London where there is a major shortage of Primary School places. So it won’t solve the local problem, just make existing 11-18 Schools less viable as they compete for students. Horrified too to hear of 2 more Free School proposals for Norfolk. Schools need to work together, not against each other and be part of their communities.

North Walsham High School/ The Atrium

2 meetings at the High School  last week. One was the new “Community & Development” Governors’ sub -committee which I chair, the other the “Atrium Interim Executive” (includes representatives from Business & the Voluntary Sector) which is advising the School on the management of the Atrium in advance of a charitable company being set up to run it. In the first meeting we didn’t really get much further than discussing priorities, but that was important because the Atrium isn’t the only issue that Committee has to deal with. In the second we agreed to recruit someone with responsibility to mange the Atrium and get new business in. I think we are getting there with the Atrium but we have a long way to go. It is an amazing community facility (not that I have seen round it yet!)

North Walsham – “Leadership of Place”

See 23 September. Steering Group meeting last  Tuesday afternoon. Much of the discussion was around a report about St. Nicholas Court (the Precinct). Can’t say much as it was a District Council commissioned report and they will be publishing it in due course; there was unanimity about the way forward from the partners on the Group. The many different owners there is a real problem. What I didn’t realise was that the development company went bust  a few years ago, which is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to deal with basic infrastructure problems like the parking and the paving slabs.

National Express

See 24 November. Would you believe I’ve still not had a response to my letter of 11 October?  In November they said they would look into it – last week they denied all knowledge of the letter! Don’t have the time to keep chasing non- replies. Soon they won’t be running our franchise anyway.

What do Councillors do? The Past Week

Not been a good week. Quite apart from the “bruising” events of Monday & Thursday (see 17 & 20 Jan) it was a week of relentless meetings. Early starts and no evenings at home until Friday. Still, that’s the life I’ve chosen and the next 2 weeks are less hectic, though this coming one I’m out the first 3 evenings again – always more difficult in the winter. One of the problems of a full schedule is no time to progress issues. Another is at the end of a long day I struggle to maintain my jobs list; just come in late and dump the folders down without listing what I have to do. My desk is a shambles and I hate that.Guess what I’m doing the next couple of hours? Going through all those folders, updating my jobs list and reading the papers for 4 meetings I have tomorrow. Hoping to relax then.

North Walsham Infant & Nursery and Junior Schools

Parents were officially told a couple of days ago that the Governing Bodies of the 2 Schools – I am a Governor at the Junior School – are formally discussing forming a ”Federation”.  If this goes through it would mean as a first step forming a single Governing Body; it could well eventually result in a merger but there are a number of possibilities to look at and stages to go through. The overriding consideration has to be maximum benefit for the children.

I’ve been active “behind the scenes” on this for a bit now and it is good to have it out in the public domain. The 2 Governing Bodies have formed a joint group (3 from each School) that I’m on, to steer the process. There are various stages we have to go through – some of them legal ones. All starts with a consultation with interested parties which we hope to commence next week.

Without going into detail, I think it is the right decision. I’ve never worked out why there are 2 Schools, especially as they are on the same site. This isn’t going to be easy though, managing change never is. Staff will have concerns and one of my biggest worries is keeping them properly informed.

Happisburgh

Parish Council Monday night. Got there about 2000 after going to Walcott. Picked up a couple of issues:

• blocked culvert in the Street
• gritting lorries that deposit too much on the corners and not enough on the “straight bits”

I also reported I was pushing the County Council on costings to reconfigure the School car park – heard today that they should be able to give me them within 10 days. Taking much longer than I hoped!