Published on January 12, 2008
in Walkden.
New Prospect have organised a neighbourhood walkabout for the Athens Drive area this coming Monday, 14th January, starting at 10am. The walkabout will include ward Councillors and representatives from New Prospect, the Council and the local Police.
If you live in the local area and have any problems or concerns, please do not hesitate to come out and let us know your views. I am particularly interested in meeting local residents in Oracle Court to find out how successful the new fencing has been in deterring anti-social behaviour.
As social networking continues to attract column inches and Facebook continues to garner attention - including a double-page spread in the Advertiser a few months ago - I thought I’d do a quick run-down of a few groups that local residents in Walkden and across Salford might be interested in. I apologise in advance if I had a hand in creating a disproportionate number of them!
First of all, there’s a campaign group about creating a Salford network as well as the current Manchester one. This seems to be a roaring success and has nearly 1500 members. I hope it is successful - Salford is of course very much a City in it’s own right.
Even closer to home, the Save St George’s High School facebook group now has nearly 300 members and has gone from strength to strength. St George’s also has an alumni group, as do Walkden High, Mesne Lea and James Brindley schools. If there are any more local schools with facebook groups please let me know in the comments!
There are a plethora of Conservative groups on Facebook - locally, regionally and nationally - but rather than list them all I’ll just give a quick plug to our own City of Salford Conservatives group.
Finally for now, and not Salford-related, the political hacks amongst us will enjoy “You Know You’ve Been In Politics For Too Long When…”
If you have any Facebook groups you want to share, please leave a comment!
Apologies to those readers who do not use Facebook and don’t have the foggiest idea about what these groups mean…
This week’s Advertiser has printed Cllr John Warmisham’s response to the stupid signs on the Ash Grove playing fields:
“The playing fields are private property and the signs have been erected to clearly indicate this”
No, John. Those playing fields are public property and the Council is entrusted with maintaining them on behalf of local residents. Playing fields and urban open spaces are valuable local amenities and senior Councillors should know better than to play dog-in-the-manger with them. Of course, under the terms of the Walkden High School PFI contract, a private firm will fence off those fields in the years to come and charge a small fortune for “community use”. The same will happen at Harrop Fold when those facilities are finished next autumn.
“During the previous consultation the community expressed concerns about anti-social behaviour on the land including the ues of motorbikes and dog fouling on the fields”
This is of course absolutely true, but what are you going to do about it John? I’m sure the kids on motorbikes are quivering at the thought of those signs. All that the signs have achieved is to make a group of residents who have already been badly let down by Councillors Warmisham and Merry have even less trust in the Council.
I’ve just noticed the report on the recent OFSTED report on St George’s High School from Kevin Duffy of Channel M News. Well worth a look…
There have been a couple of good press articles on St George’s over the last day or two that are worth reading - firstly in the Bolton Evening News and secondly on the front page of this week’s Advertiser.
Salford’s Labour administration are - for reasons entirely beyond my comprehension - still committed to the closure of St George’s RC High School here in Walkden. It is a popular, successful and extremely oversubscribed school that is highly valued by the local community.
At the end of November, St George’s underwent an OFSTED inspection. Rather than analyse it page-by-page or post selected extracts, here is the first page entitled “overall effectiveness” (which is effectively a summary of the rest of the report), in full and unedited. The emphasis is mine rather than that of the inspectorate.
This is a good school with a number of outstanding features. Achievement and standards are good. Students make good progress from Year 7 to 11 and outstanding progress in mathematics. Over a sustained period examination results demonstrate year-on-year improvement. Staff have established a strong aspirational culture where success is celebrated. The school acknowledges underperformance in a small minority of departments and has robust strategies in place to promote improvement.
Personal well-being and development are outstanding. The school provides an environment where students are safe and able to advance their self-confidence and motivation. Behaviour is exemplary. Students enjoy school. Teaching is good with some outstanding aspects. However, there is some inconsistency in the quality of marking and detailed feedback to students. An improving curriculum is now linking into a wide range of external partnerships and opportunities for students. Progress to further education is good. The school offers outstanding care, guidance and support. A culture of responsibility and engagement enriches staff and students alike.
The self-evaluation demonstrates that management understands the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. The school has effectively tackled the issues raised at the last inspection. There is excellent leadership from the headteacher and his senior management team particularly in driving the strong improvement agenda. Much middle management is outstanding and they effectively tackle underachievement through robust action plans and evaluations. Governance is very good and committed to maintaining and developing high standards and very close links with the local community. There are exemplary links between the school and its community as well as strong support from parents. The school acknowledges the need to provide adequate supervision of students when they are engaged in experiments in the refurbished science laboratory. Because of measured and sustained improvement over the last four years inspectors judged that the school has outstanding capacity to improve.
Does that sound to you like a school that the Council should be closing down?
I’d like to place on record my own congratulations to the staff and pupils at St George’s who have done a fantastic job under a lot of pressure and scrutiny. Well done.
I’ve received a couple of phone calls from local residents about signs that the Children’s Services directorate have erected on the playing fields behind Ash Grove.
I must say I’m more than a little bemused at why they have appeared. I assume that given the current financial situation, the Council has better things to do than employ officers to chase dog-walkers and kids playing football off an open playing field. Sure, there is sometimes a problem with fly-tipping but that is unlikely to be resolved with a sternly-worded sign!
In fact, other than to either bemuse or annoy some local residents, I don’t see any merit in these signs whatsoever. The Children’s Services directorate has more than enough on it’s plate without attempting to ban football and dog-walking from our green spaces!
The last few days have been quite busy - and that’s aside from the large (and ever increasing) stack of Christmas cards I’ve written recently!
Continue reading ‘Busy Few Days’
Published on December 12, 2007
in Walkden.
The New Prospect tenancy management officer has arranged a “multi-agency walkabout” for the Birch Road area tomorrow (Thursday 13th) in the morning. In reality this means that housing officers, police community support officers, Councillors and representatives from the Council walk around the area talking to residents and looking to identify any potential issues that may be of concern.
We are starting at the Environmental Services depot on Chestnut Avenue at 10am. If you live in the area and feel there are local issues that need to be resolved, feel free to flag us down for a chat!
BSF Feature In The Telegraph
Today’s Telegraph includees an article and a feature on the effect of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. Both articles mention Labour’s appalling decision to close St George’s High School:
Popular Schools Face Closure In £45bn Scheme
The Battle Of The Badge