Former MP Tom Brake used to brag about the quality of Sutton’s secondary schools like Wallington Boys, Wilsons, Wallington Girls, Sutton Grammar etc – but are they filled with Sutton children.
The answer is no and for real pride you nee to look at Greenshaw, Glenthorne, Carshalton Sports College and others who truly produce excellence – Tim Foster’s son “failed” the entrance exams to Wilsons and Wallington Boys yet achieved excellent GCSE and A levels and has a BSc in Psychology from Sheffield University – thank you Carshalton Sports College!
Tom Brake’s “pride” is as fatuous as politicians in Slough celebrating the achievements at Eton. After a brief interlude with Elliott Colburn as MP, we have sadly been saddled with a political wannabe in Bobby Dean MP who seems cemented in St Helier Car Park
But the mess that this administration has made of mainstream education is but nothing compared with their appalling record on Special Needs (SEN) education.
The record has been poor for a long time – back when the Council ran the Carew Manor School, they were reported as poor by OFSTED and Orchard Hill came to their rescue and took over the school.
When in 2016, the Liberal Democrat Administration formed a company, Cognus, to run educational services, you could almost sense that things would not go to plan. And they didn’t because any company is established to make a profit and clearly performance on SEN came second to a strong balance sheet and once again Sutton was on OFSTED’s naughty step.
By this time, there were two separate parent pressure groups concerned about the difficulty of obtaining an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP for their children. Cognus had one of the highest rejection rates on applications in the country.
They are more stable financially and reduced costs of transport for SN pupils but with a massive deficit in the budget on the high needs block and changes coming from Central Government, the jury is out regarding the strategy of an arm’s length company controlling such a vital part of community life in Sutton
SEN education must be an urgent priority for parents and Councillors.