S.O.C.K. Support Our Chapter Kids

Another consultation, another questionaire - surely this time someone will take notice.

2009-01-31T17:23:00.002Z

There is another consultation about the academy - I am not sure how far it has been published (the document says it has been distributed to staff and governors at Chapter and Temple, to local MP's and councillors to other local schools and to interested parties and groups.)But - it does have a public website www.stroodacademy.org where the consultation docs are to be found for download and they

Expression of Interest Published

2008-09-23T14:22:00.003+01:00

The EOI is available online, not sure how to search for it but the DCSF have sent me a direct linkExpression Of Interest on the DCSF siteInteresting that the date for opening the new building which has always been 2011 - is now listed as 2012.Not sure what the impact of that will be but I think it means there will need to be an increase in the facilities at Chapter to handle the extra intake for

The Expression of Interest

2008-09-22T16:08:00.003+01:00

For those of you who don't know, the first stage of the Academy process (after the required Insultation - sorry Consultation) is the Expression of Interest (EOI) - that has been completed and some funds have been released to allow the Feasability study.Trouble is, right now, nobody seems to know how much public money has been released, or to whom, or what they are going to spend it on.The

CHATHAM SOUTH PARENTS - IT'S HAPPENING TO YOUR CHILDREN NOW - YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR CASE

2008-09-12T09:50:00.003+01:00

Open letter to parents and students at Chatham South SchoolWe attended your consultation meeting last night, and we were alarmed at what we heard - it was deja vue for us.We (SOCK) feel we have made a difference to the future of our children we did this by being organised, gaining support of the Head, the staff, the parents and the students and local residents. It's not over yet, but we have made

Council publish details for Year 6

2008-09-12T09:37:00.003+01:00

One of the biggest concerns that SOCK have had over the past few months is the readiness of the Council to FINALLY provide some detail on the tranistional arrangements, and indeed some detail on the specifics around the academy.This week the Admission to Secondary Schools parent information pack was published. The Academy is there, and the open evening so people can see the facilities is ........

A year to go.... - academy opens in Sept 2009!

2008-09-12T09:29:00.002+01:00

Over the summer the role of principal of the academy has been advertised, the advert carried some useful information, namely the name "The Strood Academy", and the confirmation that the location is the Chapter School site.The rest of the ad makes interesting reading - not least that the closing date for applications is the 15th September. Given that the council think they will make the

Details of the council's response to the objection to close Chapter School

2008-07-08T22:51:00.002+01:00

The council received an objection from the Governors of Chapter School regarding its closure notice (note: this is the revised notice, not the one our highly paid professionals failed to issue correctly in the 1st place.)They propose to "debate" this at the upcoming Cabinet meeting on the 15th July.It does not take much guessing as to the outcome of the debate - but the papers have been published

A SUMMER UPDATE

2008-07-08T21:20:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone, it's been a couple of months since we posted. Why? - well we have been patiently waiting for the next steps in the process.And - we have them - the council formally began the process of closing Chapter school. A few simple steps, issue a notice (content automatically prepared via a government website), get it posted at the library, the school(s) and in the local paper.The notice

Council upset in local elections - no not Medway, but.....

2008-05-06T20:20:00.003+01:00

A council in Barrow-in-Furness suffered at the hands of local schools campaigners in the local elections last week - the article on the bbc website makes interesting reading.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7381927.stmIt just shows what power the people really have, when it matters.

A good website for information on procedures for school closures and opening of new ones

2008-04-27T23:08:00.003+01:00

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/schoolorg/index.cfmYou might find the closing a school and creating a new school document they are worth a read.

Lord Adonis confirm's that his original letter will be followed

2008-04-23T14:29:00.010+01:00

Many of you who attended the Overview and Scrutiny call in will have heard the statement that the Local Authority would not fetter the Sponsor's ability to run the academy how they wanted. There was a long debate and the result was that Lord Adonis' letter was included in the minutes as part of the other background information.Since then, SOCK have met with the Council (see this posting for our

SOCK meeting with the University 1st April

2008-04-12T20:54:00.000+01:00

Dear Parents We were expecting to have a meeting with Dianne Taylor-Gearing, the principal of UCCA along with Rose Collinson the Director of Childrens Services in Medway. In the event the following people were there UCCA were represented by:- Dianne Taylor Gearing Professor Mark Hunt, the Deputy Rector responsible for Strategic Planning The Council were

Head and Governors of both schools will meet with UCCA.

2008-03-30T16:34:00.002+01:00

The Heads and the chair of Governors of both schools are due to have a meeting with the main sponsor, The University College of Creative Arts (UCCA), and the council on Tuesday 1st April. SOCK are also due to meet with UCCA and the council later that same day.We will post an update to the blog with an update of how those meetings went as soon as we have had a chance to get the details.In the

Parents are disgusted at Cllr's comments

2008-03-19T21:20:00.005Z

Parents who attended the meeting on Monday would have been amazed at many things that happened, but aside from the sheer smugness and single minded attitude, one that seems to be causing the most upset currently was the comments made by Cllr Burt regarding the references made to the loss of faith in the council due to the actions and style of a number of individuals – and mention of a senior

Fallout from the meeting

2008-03-19T10:02:00.001Z

Our first SOCK meeting back in October last year agreed that we would support the proposal of an academy in Strood and that our campaign would be about the transition between two single sex schools into one co-educational academy.We therefore were dismayed that at last nights overview and scrutiny meeting the Conservative committee members singularly failed to address anything remotely concerned

Oh dear....

2008-03-18T00:16:00.008Z

First of all a big thanks to those who came along to the overview and scrutiny meeting tonight; you witnessed possibly the most bizarre demonstration of how our council handles itself.They all applauded and congratulated themselves for agreeing with what was being asked for, then poured scorn on those who spoke asking for it. We said – we want the Adonis letter to

Another reminder

2008-03-16T12:33:00.002Z

Many thanks to those of you who are watching the campaign pages on this site and on the sockcampaign homepage you are obviously interested in how the council progress this situation.A reminder - we need your support at the Corn Exchange tomorrow evening - we will be there from 6:30 pm onwards - it starts at 7:00pm - once again the council need to see how the people feel.

A letter from SOCK

2008-03-13T23:10:00.004Z

Hello blog watchers, another month another meeting - as advertised previously on this blog the councils decision has been "called-in" - roughly translated to be "they have been asked to take another look" and once again SOCK have been asked to speak at the meeting.This is our 1st real chance to give a considered response to the cabinet's decision, as we said it at the time we see it as real

The agenda for the meeting has been published - you can find it at

2008-03-07T12:33:00.001Z

http://www.medway.gov.uk/index/council/committees/commdoc/commlist/viewagenda.htm?id=547Seems to be a lot of words - I wonder what they say - more when we have had chance to read it.

The cabinet's decision has been "called in" - back for another examination at Overview and Scrutiny

2008-03-07T10:44:00.002Z

The decision made at the cabinet meeting has been called back to Overview and Scrutiny committe, this means that there will be some more debate and hopefully some details of how the council propose to procede with the academy. We hope this will help us understand how the council plan to implement the quite clear guidance they received from Lord Adonis.The Overview and Scrutiny meeting is on the

Another piece of Academy info that might interest you.

2008-03-06T00:17:00.002Z

I asked the DCSF a question about what the rules were regarding the appointment of a new principal when an academy is formed, since I was lead to believe that it was an “absolute requirement” that the post of principal was advertised nationally. He is the response I received from the DCSF: Thank you for your e-mail dated 19 February, about setting up an Academy. Information

The DCSF has some details on Academies

2008-03-04T21:25:00.001Z

There is a site that has some more details about academies and the process for setting them up. If you are interested you can take a look at this link

It's been a while since we posted some updates....

2008-02-26T22:25:00.000Z

why - is it because we haven't had anything to report or is it because we have been busy. Bit of both really and MUCH has happened since we last posted.To cut to the chase, we (SOCK) had a meeting with the council (in fact with some of the senior officers and councillors) - we talked about the proposals and our mutual concerns and we think that we made some progress in setting the scene for

Our campaign gathers strength

2007-12-23T13:05:00.000Z

We spoke to Bob Marshall-Andrews yesterday, and left with a feeling of cautious optimism. The department for education and the minister Lord Adonis have heard the proposals and the message that S.O.C.K. are telling and the phrase "gradualism" has come in, a sensible, reasonable approach to creating a school with a good chance to succeed that will build a proven structure and culture for the

Some uses for S.O.C.K.s at Christmas

2007-12-19T23:35:00.000Z

No obvious gags about Santa here - just an update on SOCK activity. For a few reasons (namely the late breaking news that to be included as part of the consulation the remaining petition signatures had to be submitted this week) - a few of the core SOCK folks were able to get the last remaining signatures and the online submissions to Simon Trotter - we presented 1,645 online signatures and 4,402