£477, 500 will help Year 7 pupils who didn’t reach the expected level
in literacy and maths when they finished primary school across
Hertfordshire catch up with their classmates who did.

Schools will today (Thursday) receive £500 per pupil who didn’t reach
the expected level to help them through catch-up classes and
individual tuition.

Evidence shows only five per cent of pupils who don’t achieve Level 4
in both English and maths at Key Stage 2 go on to achieve five GCSEs
at A* to C, including English and maths.

This extra money, announced by Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy
Prime Minister, Nick Clegg in September at Liberal Democrat Autumn
Conference, is to help these children catch up with their classmates.

Schools will have freedom to decide how best to use the catch-up
premium, but examples could include:

•       Small-group tuition supported by new classroom materials and
resources, which could take place at lunchtimes or after school;
•       Holiday support to deliver intensive catch-up over a short period.
•       Additional services and materials to add to those provided by the
school, such as tutor services or proven computer-based learning or
online support.

Commenting, Councillor Nick Hollinghurst (Tring and The Villages,
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group) said:

“No pupil should be left behind in our schools, to ensure that
everyone has a fair chance to get on in life. To achieve this it is
hugely important that every child has a strong grasp of maths and a
good reading ability when they start at secondary school.

“Catch-up classes and personal tuition are targeted at those who need
a helping hand, so their chances of success are increased rather than
letting them fall behind further.

Note from Herts County Council

Consultation on nursery class intake policy for September 2013

Hertfordshire County Council is consulting on the proposal to end the two intake policy (September and January) for admission to nursery class and wants to hear your views.

An offer of a place at a nursery class or nursery school is made to parents in April and it is currently Hertfordshire County Council’s policy that children are admitted to nursery through 2 intakes:
* September intake – children who will become 4 years old between 1 September and 28 February of the academic year
* January intake – children who will become 4 years old between 1 March and 31 August of the academic year.

The free place entitlement is a national scheme that offers every child 570 hours a year of free early education. This is usually offered as 5 x 3 hour sessions a week in a nursery class, nursery school, day nursery or pre-school.

Parents can choose the style of delivery they prefer, or the provider who offers the hours, location and additional services that best meet their child and family’s needs.

Removing the two intake policy would allow schools to determine the intake policy that best suits the local community. It also extends the choice for parents as they can access the free place entitlement with any type of provider from the term after their child’s third birthday.

Please respond online at: www.hertsdirect.org/consultations

The consultation is open from Monday 16th April until Friday 1st June.

Parents anxious about whether their child’s school is open today after the weekend’s snow will find no help from the county council: the website is not responding.

Chris commented: ‘In many cases schools have update their own websites very clearly. But this is not universal and those parents who cannot find out from the school will discover that the county council’s own site is often failing to load. When it does load it tells parents to contact schools.

‘It is sadly typical for the County Council to fail to provide adequate information on snow days or strike days.’

Attempts to prevent 12 staff from being made redundant to save just £41,000 were scuppered this week after the Conservatives voted to get rid of the Schools Library Service.

During the debate on the cabinet decision at a scrutiny meeting on Wednesday 25th January, the Liberal Democrat group highlighted that the closure of the service had been agreed without any reference to the County’s own Education and Skills Cabinet Panel, despite the service being used exclusively by Hertfordshire’s schools.

Lib Dem Councillor Allan Witherick, who had called for the redundancies to be reviewed, said afterwards:

‘The Conservative-run County Council maintain that they can’t continue a loss-making service, yet they don’t seem to have made any effort to promote it. Instead, to save a comparatively tiny sum of money, they’ve decided to make a dozen people redundant and dispose of a service that a number of schools had found valuable.

‘We know schools found it valuable; otherwise, why else would they have been paying enough to cover what effectively amounts to the pay of 11 of the 12 staff?’

The vote was narrowly lost 4 to 6, with Labour failing to show up and a number of Conservatives showing indifference and abstaining.

Note from the county council

Parents, carers, schools and community groups are being invited to have their say on Hertfordshire County Council’s school admission arrangements for September 2013.

The consultation on Hertfordshire school admissions arrangements for 2013/14 opens on 3 January 2012.

The key proposal is to allow an increase in the number of school preferences from three to four. This means parents would be able to apply to four schools, rather than three as is current practice.

Local authorities can allow parents to express preferences for between three and six schools. Most of Hertfordshire’s neighbouring authorities allow more than three preferences. This has increasingly led to the belief that children living in a neighbouring authority may have a greater opportunity to gain a place at a preferred school than a Hertfordshire child.

The county council believes that increasing Hertfordshire’s preferences from three to four will reduce the perceived unfairness and also allow parents to include a ’safety net’ preference.

As a result of the draft School Admissions Code, published on 2 November, views are also being sought on the following proposals:
– a rule to prioritise children of school staff
– the treatment of twins/multiple birth children
– in year admissions

The county council is also seeking views on proposals to amend its priority area rules and “nearest” school definitions.

Full details of the proposals include:
– nursery admissions oversubscription criteria
– admission arrangements and oversubscription criteria for all community and voluntary-controlled schools
– schemes of co-ordination for primary and secondary schools and academies and in year admissions
– sixth-form admission arrangements
– published admission numbers

The consultation runs from 3 January to 29 February 2012.

The admissions arrangements for all Hertfordshire schools, together with the full consultation document are available to view online at: www.hertsdirect.org/admissions2013

Herts County Council’s Schools Library Service is to be axed. The service, which provides staff support to the County’s school libraries, will close from next April.

At the Libraries Cabinet Panel yesterday (7th December), 8 Conservatives voted to end the contract on 31 March 2012, while the Panel’s 3 Lib Dems voted against. Labour’s representative on the Panel did not attend and did not even send apologies.

Paul Goggins, leading for the LibDems, accused the Tories of ‘giving up far too easily and too soon’. While acknowledging that there had been a small fall in demand from schools, the Lib Dems proposed that a scaled-down service should be run for another year.

‘We could have reduced the current number of staff – 12 – and made every effort to persuade more schools to buy into the service,’ said Paul. ‘The estimated loss this year was £41,000 – less than a sixth of the staff costs. We could have lost two staff but kept the other ten positions, as well as keeping the service. Once a valued service like this closes, it never re-opens.’

Chris White, Herts Lib Dem Group Leader, said: ‘I’m hugely disappointed by the Conservatives’ decision to axe the Schools Library Service. There are 4 million children across the country who don’t own a book – we should be giving Hertfordshire’s children more access to books, not taking it away.’

This is the current state of play but it is expected that many more will be added.

Strike closure list

If your child will be starting at secondary or upper school in September 2012 you must make an application to Hertfordshire County Council by 31 October 2011. (more…)

Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats have welcomed the allocation of an extra £8.5m for Hertfordshire’s schools via the Pupil Premium.

The original plans for an extra £430 per pupil have been boosted by £100m, meaning that every school in Hertfordshire will now get nearly £500 for every child on Free School Meals.

Schools across Hertfordshire are already planning more support for their disadvantaged pupils.

Liberal Democrat Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, recently announced that the total Pupil Premium funding for next year will rise to £1.25bn, double the amount in 2011-12.

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats in government, the money allocated to the pupil premium will rise again each year until 2014-15, when it will be worth £2.5bn.

Cllr Mark Watkin, Herts Lib Dem Group spokesperson for Education and Skills, said:

‘It is a sad fact that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds often start from a lower position than their more well-off classmates and if not addressed this gap grows over time.

‘That is why the Liberal Democrats have ensured that there is extra money to reverse this tragic trend that continued unchecked under the previous Labour government.

‘Locally, we have been working to ensure that Hertfordshire’s pupils benefit as much as possible from this extra money by ensuring it is spent on what it is intended. We will continue working with our schools to help overcome the barriers to achievement that many of the pupils in our community still face.”