Alton School's deserved praise

I've written before about the huge efforts that the The Alton School makes to improve the educational achievements of its pupils. So I was delighted to read the school's recent Ofsted report, and the positive write-up this prompted in this week's Wandsworth Guardian.

Alton School serves one of Europe's biggest estates, in Roehampton. The population of the Alton is changing rapidly - as well as some of the worst deprivation in the borough (Roehampton is the second most deprived ward in Wandsworth) it also has a large and growing eastern European population, which is both highly transient and introduces lots of children for whom English is not their primary language.

High turnover, significant deprivation and sadly, on occasion, parents who don't always appreciate that education isn't just a 9am-3pm past-time but rather a round-the-clock collective effort: all these factors mean that Alton will always struggle to head the Primary School league tables.

The school's just launched a breakfast club starting at 8am offering a healthy breakfast and games to start off the school day. As Headteacher Ruth Hudson says: "If children aren't coming in ready to learn it's no use forcing literacy and numeracy on them". That's not some liberal excuse to not teach the basics - it's a recognition that schools like the Alton need to go an extra mile to set their pupils on the right course. They're evidently doing so, and it's great that Ofsted has recognised their achievement.

You can read the Ofsted report here.

In secondary schooling, size matters

It's interesting that the debate on school standards is now switching to the size of secondary schools, because for some time I've thought that the large intakes of secondary schools are a far more significant factor than what they are called or who funds them.

In this, the circumstantial evidence seems pretty conclusive: our primary schools, which typically educate between 100 and 300 pupils have come on leaps and bounds since 1997: reading, writing and mathematics scores are all significantly up, class sizes well down - and as I reported here, standards in Putney Primaries are high.

Something happens when kids get to Secondary School. What is the biggest factor likely to influence - and impede - progress? For me, it is the culture shock for 11 year olds overnight going from a school of 150 to one of possibly ten times that size. A secondary school must, by definition, be less personal, more daunting and surely a less effective learning environment.

The Conservatives are among the latest to come out against super-sized schools, but their opposition is confined to the very biggest schools of possibly 2,000 or more pupils. I agree with them that these are far too big. But unlike them, I think 500 is too large. I think we need secondary schools of broadly similar size to our primaries.

The argument against is that secondaries teach differently - with subject classes rather than year-group teaching. Such a system makes small secondary schools impractical. My response is that, with smaller secondary schools we'd have far more such institutions: twenty or thirty in an area like Putney rather than three or four as we have now.

One interesting idea is to organise these schools in a campus structure similar to Universities, with particular schools in a local cluster specialising in different aspects of the curriculum. This would also help prepare students for the second upheavel many of them will face: the transfer from secondary to further or higher education. But more importantly, it could almost be guaranteed that standards will rise and far, far fewer pupils will leave school without the basic skills and abilities they'll need to face life.

Secondary school league tables

The Secondary School league tables have been published today.

Putney has a mixed bag of results: almost half of the entire borough's secondary schools can be found here, with our three fee-paying selective independent schools - Putney High School on Putney Hill, Ibstock Place on Clarence Lane, and The Hall School in Putney Vale - unsurprisingly doing best.

There is a huge gap in achievement between these schools and the rest, which is why we must keep increasing investment in education - and making sure that investment brings results.

The Ashcroft Technology Academy off West Hill did best of the "State" schools, while John Paul II School in Victoria Drive posted some worryingly low results. Elliott School in Pullman Gardens did pretty well - the best of the entirely non-selective schools in the borough with Southfields Community College a little way behind.

Wandsworth Council doesn't do very well as an education authority: despite being one of the more affluent London boroughs our GCSE results are only on par with the national average, and lag badly behind comparable neighbouring boroughs like Hammersmith & Fulham.

No small reason for the gulf between ourselves and Hammersmith & Fulham is that Wandsworth Conservatives underfund education by 8 million a year, whereas our northern neighbour, at least until recently, spent the maximum it was allowed to on schooling. So while I congratulate our schools for the efforts they make while being massively underfunded by Wandsworth Council, to the Conservative Council I say: must try harder.

Click here for the league table, courtesy of the BBC. The green and pink shaded rows denote Putney schools; the cream ones are other Wandsworth secondaries. The interactive BBC tables are here. My analysis of the Primary League tables, published last month, can be found here.

Pupils and buses

Another story that caught my eye in this week's Wandsworth Guardian was a complaint by the Deputy Head of Southfields Community College that 156 bus drivers haven't been stopping near the college at home times.

He makes the not-unreasonable point that by refusing to pick up groups of schoolkids, the group only grows even larger and more rowdy. On the other hand, being a passenger (and I'm sure a driver too) when large groups of noisy, boisterous pupils surge onto a bus, shouting, jostling and often behaving aggressively and thoughtlessly is not a pleasant experience.

What would help no end would, I suggest, be the College - and our other secondary schools too - sending a staff member out to the bus stops at home time to make sure that the pupils behave themselves while waiting for their buses. In such circumstances, other than when buses are already full to bursting, there would be no excuse whatsoever for 156s not to stop. The Guardian story is here.

Putney Primaries shine in school league tables

Yesterday the Government published the Primary School league tables, which analyse pupils' key stage 2 (10 and 11 year olds) results in English, Maths and Science. And I'm pleased to say that schools in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields fared particularly well.

The government publishes the results in two forms: the unadjusted data and also an "added value" measurement - which attempts to measure how much schools help pupils achieve beyond what peers from similar social and economic backgrounds would be expected to achieve.

Especially in this value-added group Putney schools did very well, taking five of the top ten places - particular congratulations to St Mary's Primary in Felsham Road; St Michael's Primary in Granville Road, Hotham Primary in Hotham Road and Roehampton Church Primary, Ponsonby Road for their success. St Mary's, St Michael's and Hotham also finished near the top of the unadjusted tables too, while Roehampton Church adds a remarkable amount of value to their pupils' education. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Our Lady of Victories School in Clarendon Drive tops the unadjusted tables and is one of the Sunday Times' top 20 primary schools in England - it scored a perfect 300.

There are also some real challenges for schools in the constituency. I know both Alton School and Heathmere which are located in Roehampton's Alton Estate are struggling to cope with a growing number of pupils for whom English is not their first language - Roehampton in particular has large and growing Eastern European communities on top of the other challenges of teaching in one of the borough's least affluent areas, so again I'd like to single these schools out for their remarkable efforts.

I've pulled the tables for Wandsworth borough off the BBC News website - for the unadjusted figures click here; and for the value-added table click here. Or click here for the link to the BBC interactive tables, where you can get more information about how the figures are calculated.

Roehampton students' blood donors campaign

Students at Roehampton University have been campaigning in recent weeks for the antiquated and discriminatory ban on gay men being blood donors to be scrapped - a campaign I support.

This is a crazy ban that shouldn't have survived the dawn of the millennium. The NHS blood banks are hardly overwhelmed with donors; and from time to time, especially during the Winter, there are often reports that stocks are perilously low.

The National Blood Service argues that even with screening there is a small risk that infection may get through. But it is unjust and silly to assume that all homosexual blood will be infected while all heterosexual blood is safe; especially given that HIV infection (to name but one) is now proportionally higher in the heterosexual than the gay community.

All I know is that if a relative or friend of mine needed a blood transfusion, the only thing I'd care about was that the blood was safe. Whether it was donated by a man or woman, black or white, gay or straight is utterly immaterial. How the National Blood Service can believe different in this day and age is extraordinary.

Child Trust Fund follow-up

I've had a really great response from local schools to my letter encouraging parents to sign up for the Child Trust Fund (see my post on 24 September for more).

As a result, getting on for a thousand parents have received information from me explaining how to claim their children's Trusts, worth up to 500 - one of Labour's landmark achievements for supporting families.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank the schools that responded to my letter: this is exactly the sort of strong working relationship across the community that will be the norm with me as MP for our area.

If you haven't received my letter it may be because your school hasn't responded to me. You can either contact me direct - email stuart.king@putneylabour.org.uk, or ask your school about it: I wrote to all State nursery and Primary schools in the constituency and several that are privately-run too.

This is free money with no strings for your child when they reach 18 - why not claim it?

Free money - no catch: why not claim for your kids?!

Today I'm launching a campaign calling on all eligible Putney, Roehampton and Southfields parents to set up Child Trust Fund accounts for their children and build a nest egg for their future.

I've written to parents of nursery school-aged children all over the constituency to mark the fifth anniversary of the Child Trust Fund, established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2002.
The Child Trust Fund is a great way of saving for a childs future. All parents with children born since September 2002 should have received a voucher worth at least 250 to get an account started. For families on lower incomes its worth 500, and there will be further top-ups when children reach the age of 7 and during Secondary School.

I'm pleased that over 3,000 parents in Putney have already opened an account for their child, but I want to encourage everyone eligible to open an account and get friends, family, grandparents and the whole family involved. Every child in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields should start their adult life with a nest egg whether thats to help to go to university or to start a business or to put a deposit down on a house.

Figures show that in Putney, 4,644 Child Trust Fund vouchers have been issued. 3,300 savings accounts have already been opened by parents themselves. But 1,314 are still to be opened thats 1 in 4 children missing out. Trusts are automatically opened by HM Revenue & Customs if the vouchers are not used after 12 months, but its best if parents open them so they get the right account for their child.

For further information on the Child Trust Fund, please call the helpline on 0845 302 1470.