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| PUFFED UP HEADMASTER |
This Thursday “Prime Minister” Cockell(how he describes
himself on the Rotten Borough website) will rubber stamp the transfer of a
prime asset, Holland Park School, to an Academy Trust.
At a stroke £105 million
of our assets will transfer to a separate company and out of our reach.
One of the promises made to
local residents was that they would be able to use the palatial facilities of
the school. These include sports hall, sports pitches, swimming pool and
performing arts facilities.
It now seems likely that these ‘promises’ are
likely to be set aside and we will have to rely upon the goodwill of the very
spoilt headmaster, Colin“Bonaparte” Hall for access to any or all of the
facilities.
The new school has already attracted adverse publicity for the £400 chairs, waiting staff to serve the teaching staff coffee, etc and the £150,000 sculpture.
It is time Hall was taught a lesson or two....
Holland Park School has gone from slum comprehensive under Labour controlled ILEA to three times over subscribed and further improving Eton of the state sector. Well Done RBKC education department and the Conservative Councillors involved.
ReplyDelete14:39. You need help. Fortunately Doctor Tannock has availability now that his gas fracking business is less time consuming.
Delete14:39 I have tried to make an appointment for Cllr Palmer(14:39) with Doc Tannock: what a defeatist....he says he cannot assist in this desperate case. There is little that can be done.
ReplyDelete£100 million....no increase in pupil numbers....the loss of a playing field and a blot on the landscape according English Heritage....well done Pooter and pals....you screwed up again!
Don't forget all the interest the Council has had to pay while waiting for the developers to pay them.....still waiting. All those trees and green destroyed. Now not a blade of real grass to be seen anywhere on the site. Now with local residents having built, financed and paid for Hall's ugly palace, worthy of Sadam Hussein, (more like a vast multi-floored wharehouse) where flunkies serve his breakfast, the Cabinet has decided to give away the school and all its assets. What a brilliant deal for Cockell, even better than the Commonwealth Institute. What a boy, great that he is there looking after the interests of residents!
DeleteJust in case this blog gets out of balance, lets get some facts straight. Holland Park School still lags behind (way behind) the neighbouring secondary schools in exam results. The teaching team are turning things around (great) but there was only one way to go. Lets keep some perspective. The school may like to think of itself as an "Eton" but well off local parents still vote with their feet and send their children to other schools. The school is not yet competitive in the market. The students at Holland Park are "shipped in". Discipline is getting better and the kids are now in uniform. But it was only a few years ago that they were setting fire to cars in Campden Hill. And the council still employs twenty Special Constables to stand on the streets between the school and the local bus stops to make sure that they behave on the way home. The new school will be an impressive looking building when it is finished but so it should be for £100 million. The Government benchmark cost for building a new school is £25 million (the land for this school came free) and it defies understanding to figure out how the Council could sanction the £100 million cost of public money. Especially when the school is located exactly where it is not required. The locals do not use it!
ReplyDeleteResidents can forget the "promise" to make the new sports facilities available for out of hours use. This was a sop to NIMBYs during the consultation period. The Council is now giving away the school to be an Academy and has no intention of honouring the undertaking. So whats new?? Cockell's bunch are not noted for keeping their promises
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments about "bonaparte" Hall. I along with several hundred other Holland Park parents were forced to put on plastic overshoes before we were allowed to tour the hallowed building on Monday evening. The building, though pristine gives the impression that you are a small cog in a massive machine. Unfortunately, there are still no lockers or anywhere for the pupils to leave books or coats during the day. The lunch hall is a massive failure, the 30 minute lunch-break means that there is not enough time to serve or seat everyone, including packed lunchers so my child goes hungry. The pupils have seating plans for each classroom and even the assembly hall, in case anyone damages one of the famous chairs or tables. A crisp littering incident last week in an RE classroom led to a major crisis, with Hall called and his PAs summoned to gather evidence and track down possible suspects from the seating plans!
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Bonaparte is out of control and needs to be stopped. Let no-one be fooled into thinking he will ever let Joe Public in to use "his" facilities, it will not happen under his dictatorship. He has been quoted in another thread as saying that he could not keep teachers in the old building.It will be interesting to see how many stay in the new. I hear that he has distributed photographs of how classroom shelves and office drawers should look with their sets of standardised stationery and books, that inspections will be undertaken weekly to check compliance, and that any non-conforming items will be thrown away! What sensible adult will tolerate this bully boy, individuality crushing, treatment for any length of time?
ReplyDelete