WAYNE HEYS
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Response to Mrs Peacock's Letter to the GazetteDear Sir,
Mrs Peacock asks why the Marton School Action Group has pledged to fight on. I am surprised she has to ask, when we have made it quite clear why we are fighting. We are fighting to save our school: to return it to what it was before Mrs Coupe took over the leadership; to return it to the school that was harmonious, caring and a pleasure to be in. In fact, to “get it back on target” as Mrs Peacock herself says. The fact of the matter is that the school WAS on target when Mrs Lancaster was Head!
I would like to take issue with Mrs Peacock’s views on some of the so called improvements:
· Children are now at their desks on time. Does Mrs Peacock realise that Mrs Coupe has altered the time that children are now given a late mark? That used to be 9.10. It is now 9.30, which of course means that fewer children are now statistically late – simple isn’t it? That’s one way to get the statistics you want!
· School is trying hard to form links within the local community. Since Marton School was opened, there have always been very strong links with the local community. That’s certainly nothing new. Every year we had carol services, harvest festivals, musical productions, Industry Day, Health Week, Book Week etc., to which members of the local community were invited.
· Weekly newsletter. This would be useful – IF we could trust its content. From past experience we can’t.
· Attendance is up. Correct – it went DOWN after Mrs Coupe’s arrival, and has now come up again to the level it was under Mrs Lancaster.
· Mrs Peacock’s daughter’s work has become more challenging. That’s fine, but for eight years my children’s work was ALWAYS challenging, under Mrs Lancaster’s leadership.
Perhaps most of the parents that Mrs Peacock speaks to ARE happy with school. She obviously hasn’t managed to catch those parents who have removed their children from Marton (over sixty to date). They weren’t very happy.
Mrs Peacock accuses MSAG of giving a biased account of the HMI report. She has obviously taken it at face value, unlike those of us who have looked into it a little more deeply:
· If she looks more carefully at the 2005 Year 6 SATs results she will see there was a massive drop in the Maths results.
· I’m glad she is happy with a “satisfactory” for improved teaching. Under Mrs Lancaster, in the previous Ofsted, the teaching was classed as “good”. I know which I prefer.
· If Mrs Peacock would like to do some research into the curriculum pre-September 2004 she will find that most of the changes made by Mrs Coupe were to put back what she had removed in the first place – those things which had worked so well in the past.
· Mrs Peacock states that Mrs Coupe has a clear vision of what is needed to improve standards. All I can say to that is, I have a clear vision of how Blackpool Football Club could win the League – that doesn’t mean I could achieve it!
Finally Mrs Peacock asks if the MSAG will now stop its campaign. The simple answer is, no. We believe there are problems; we believe there is a solution. We will continue to strive to achieve that solution, however many slammed doors we encounter along the way, and however long it takes.
Yours Sincerely,
Wayne Heys
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