COMMENT: Troubled school must be stripped back to the core

9:00am Thursday 7th February 2013 in News

FROM the outside it appears Bicester Community College has been ripping itself apart since it fell into special measures.

The blame game is in full swing and it seems that murmurings we’ve heard for more than a year may have had substance to them.

It is a pity, perhaps, those whispering last year were not prepared to go on the record then and force various issues into the public arena so they could be exposed and tackled at an earlier opportunity.

But now this failing school must be fixed and that can only happen by stripping everything back to the bare bones.

And that cannot be compromised by protecting reputations or careers.

Bicester, a town of dynamic growth, cannot have half of its secondary school children being failed.

No-one – be they governor, teacher, local education official or parent – should obstruct Bicester Community College being put back on its feet.

Comments (2)

1:23pm Thu 7 Feb 13

veryangryparent says...

Re: 'no one should obstruct...' agreed, and yet you missed out the biggest group of all: students.

As I understand it, well-mannered students who are eager to learn are not the ones who stop teaching in its tracks. It is the ones who disrupt at a low level EVERY lesson that stop teaching.

And yet the school leadership can only respond with a Friday detention, where the same 20 - 50 faces appear week in, week out. I understand this has been their only initiative for dealing with behaviour for two plus years.

How can students be expected to be given excellent lessons, when the troublemakers are simply recycled and put back into the same classes?

I just don't believe there is a single teacher or parent who would willfully obstruct the school's recovery from this pitiful position that it has been steered into. I don't have the confidence the same can be said of all the students.

The OFSTED report is right - behaviour round the school is generally sensible. This is not the case in the classrooms.
Re: 'no one should obstruct...' agreed, and yet you missed out the biggest group of all: students. As I understand it, well-mannered students who are eager to learn are not the ones who stop teaching in its tracks. It is the ones who disrupt at a low level EVERY lesson that stop teaching. And yet the school leadership can only respond with a Friday detention, where the same 20 - 50 faces appear week in, week out. I understand this has been their only initiative for dealing with behaviour for two plus years. How can students be expected to be given excellent lessons, when the troublemakers are simply recycled and put back into the same classes? I just don't believe there is a single teacher or parent who would willfully obstruct the school's recovery from this pitiful position that it has been steered into. I don't have the confidence the same can be said of all the students. The OFSTED report is right - behaviour round the school is generally sensible. This is not the case in the classrooms. veryangryparent

10:22am Sat 16 Feb 13

ConcernedParent12 says...

As a parent of one of those 'troublemakers' - may I remind you that some children become 'troublemakers' due to the poor standard of teaching. Children who are bright and very capable are not being pushed enough and become bored and disengaged, as well as those who struggle academically are are not able to access the National Curriculum. It is for this reason that Statements of Educational Need exist. To enable children to access the curriculum and learn. The OFSTED report was very clear that this is one area that have particularly failed at BCC - what else is a child who is unable to learn from the poor teaching to do, except become bored, disengaged and ultimately make mischief?

There are some super teachers at the school, sadly these seem to be in the minority.
As a parent of one of those 'troublemakers' - may I remind you that some children become 'troublemakers' due to the poor standard of teaching. Children who are bright and very capable are not being pushed enough and become bored and disengaged, as well as those who struggle academically are are not able to access the National Curriculum. It is for this reason that Statements of Educational Need exist. To enable children to access the curriculum and learn. The OFSTED report was very clear that this is one area that have particularly failed at BCC - what else is a child who is unable to learn from the poor teaching to do, except become bored, disengaged and ultimately make mischief? There are some super teachers at the school, sadly these seem to be in the minority. ConcernedParent12

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