Michael Gove boasts he enjoys combative and cerebral debates over education policy......
So why does he refuse to engage with Kensington and Chelsea residents..... confused over what seems to be the reversal of his very sensible policy on school building?
Mr & Mrs Gove recently toured the £80 million Holland Park School. What was the status of the visit?......no one is clear.....
Was it official....or were the couple viewing the school as prospective parents?
Whatever the purpose of the visit one thing stands clear: Holland Park School cuts across the Gove school building rules.
So why did Gove praise the school so lavishly?
So let’s refresh our memories as to what he has said....
-
No school should cost more than £30 million...Holland
Park School costs nearly three times that at over £80
million
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Any new school must add places....Holland Park
School adds not one single extra place
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School playing fields must be preserved....The Council
flogged off the playing fields
- The Hornet has been anxious to engage with Mr Gove....if only to convince residents the rules still stand and that he is very cross with our ex Leader, Pooter Cockell, for breaking every one of his rules in order to build this educational folly in the Park.
-
The fact that Mr Gove seems to have granted an exemption to
Holland Park School and refuses to explain himself is most
disturbing.
There can be no question that the investment in the new Holland Park School exceeds anything that can be found in any other State School by a factor of three. Money buys facilities and this school busted all the guidelines for tax funded spending on a secondary school. Minister Gove is on the inside track and knows a bargain for the "free" education of his kids when he sees one. All he has to do is get them admitted. The first step is a high profile visit from the Secretary Of State for Education. The rest, as they say, will be history
ReplyDeleteLets hope that the National Press picks this one up. Difficult to make "conflict of interest" stick. But a cynical manipulation of position and office. The whole school saga is a cesspit.
ReplyDeleteUsual two faced political stuff. Lots of platitudes and grand sounding values until self interest rears its ugly head. Shame on him and his sort
ReplyDeleteThis is a £90 million school. It is obviously superior to a £30 million school which is the national guideline for state spending on a secondary school. The culprit in chief is disgraced ex K&C Leader Cllr Cockell. A gross abuse of public assets. He should be hauled up before Margaret Hodge and the Public Accounts Committee of The House of Commons. And asked to explain himself.
ReplyDeleteAn FOI probe has been sent to the Department of Education
Delete1 How many state secondary schools are there?
2 How many (and their names) have 25 meter indoor swimming pools?
Note: HPS is the only State School with an indoor 25 meter pool. Know where the money went......
How many schools have classrooms filled with £300 designer chairs?
DeleteAnd the Headmaster's "suite" is kitted out with Philippe Stark furniture
DeleteAs usual, more misinformation by the Hornet. As K&C Cabinet Member for Education, Cllr Elizabeth Campbell has explained, "the school cost nothing"
ReplyDeleteNote for Editors
DeleteCllr Elizabeth Campbell is on a tight leash at home. All household spending is in the control of Mr Campbell. The wayward Councillor's credit cards and cheque books have been confiscated
Try not to be a bloody idiot. The school was paid for by selling an asset owned by residents. In other words £60 million of our funds were wasted on a school that according
Deleteto Gove should have cost no more that £30 million. You are really dumb.
Cllr Palmer spouting again?
DeleteMichael Gove worships at St Mary Abbots, Kensington. And of course his children attend their very good Primary School. But this presents a problem. It means that he cannot get his kids into either of the two best secondary schools in the Borough, Cardinal Vaughn and Sion Manning, which are both Catholic Schools (prospective children need to attend mass every Sunday, live locally, and get a confirmation letter from the local priest). So he is stuck with Holland Park School or has to pay for a private education
ReplyDeleteStrange that Gove with his Irish background is out of the Catholic loop. Something funny there.
DeleteHis background is Scottish
DeleteExplains why he is tight with money then
DeleteSion Manning? Not a good school, would never let a daughter of mine go there.
DeleteShortly to be ex Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove is loaded. A lucrative career in journalism awaits him and his wife earns big money as a professional. So they should educate their children privately (which they can afford) and not deprive the poor of K&C places at Holland Park School. More than 50% of children at the school qualify for free school meals, one of the highest percentages in the country.
ReplyDeleteNorth Kensington is the second most deprived area of Britain. Scarce school places at Holland Park School should not be taken up by fat cats like Gove
DeleteAs usual, thank you Dame for shining a bright light into dark places
ReplyDeleteIf £90 million had been used to build a "community center" of school, medical center, dentist, sports facilities (eg gym and swimming pool) for community use (with school priority in term time), that would have been forward looking. Bringing the school into community, more intensive and economic use of the facilities, and building Town & Gown relations. Instead we have this stupid Cockell notion of "the Eton of comprehensives". What balderdash. What exploitation of tax payers money. What a scandal
ReplyDeleteOut of control despots like Cockell cannot be allowed to abuse tax payers assets in this way. It is an abuse of the democratic process that should not be allowed to go unnoticed. If Government guidelines are that no more than £30 million should be spent on a school then it is not acceptable that a local Councillor, even if he is Leader, can dip his fingers into the tax payers piggy bank and splurge £90 million on his fantasy of "an Eton of the comprehensive system"
ReplyDeleteIt does not say much for Gove that he is the first to jump on the band wagon. I hoped for more from this man
DeleteI don't think Gove has any intention of sending his kids to Holland Park, in any event he may live too far for his kids to get in (depending on which aptitude band they fall in). I think Twyford in Acton is the most likely candidate as a C of E co-ed. He also has the option of St Marylebone or Greycoats for his daughter. Personally I think he should support his local school which is also C of E - Burlington Danes, just over the border in LBHF. I have seen Gove and Cameron on TV visiting that school on more than one occasion, why not follow their own soundbites and send their kids there?
ReplyDeleteThe work to demolish one of the original Holland Park buildings and the delivery of the temporary classrooms was in progress in July 2010 just weeks after the current government was elected; presumably it was too late to halt work and rip up the contracts. I am no fan of Gove, few are, but the blame lies with RBKC.
What is even more depressing is the imposition of Kensington Aldridge Academy in North Kensington, which is where the poor of the local area will end up in a far inferior building. I wonder if there are long term plans to privatise Holland Park School or at least sell the building and lease it back before eventually vacating it altogether. The public library building in Ladbroke Grove (purpose built as a library in Victorian times) is being handed over to the Goldman Sachs funded Notting Hill Prep next door, so not that far fetched a notion perhaps.