Friends of Moseley School

Aim and Objectives of Moseley School Parents & Community Association

Fresh start for Moseley School.
Traditional, rigorous and demanding curriculum that is valued by universities and employers alike.
High standards of attainment and a culture of high aspirations and can-do.
High standards of behaviour and discipline.
Compliance with all legal requirements and an end to decades of discrimination.

Goodbye and Merry XMAS Les Lawrence!

In the local elections of May 2012, Les Lawrence lost his seat by a few votes. Even if he had won, there was no chance he would have remained as Cabinet Member for Education. His local party did not even bother to produce an election manifesto. No doubt the Secretary of State for Education will be glad to see the back of Les.

Michael Gove has a cunning plan to raise standards and attainment by Balkanising England's state education system by creating self governing schools called Academies and 'Free Schools' that are free of Local Authority control or influence. In this way, fringe elements that have infiltrated the education system over the last seven decades - with their voodoo academic theories on education and social engineering - will be dis-empowered and marginalised as they have constantly undermined successive government policies to raise standards and attainment, to the detriment of England's international standing and to society as a whole.

In the meantime Les Lawrence leaves with another success story to his illustrious career. Another year and yet another inner city school in a deprived ward like Sparkbrook is placed in an OFSTED category. This time it is Montgomery Primary which has been placed in Special Measures. On Les Lawrence's watch, the following schools in Sparkbrook were placed into an OFSTED Category:

2006 - Anderton Park
2007 - Conway
2007 - Percy Shurmer
2009 - Tindal
2009 - Ladypool
2012 - Montgomery

The ironic thing is that some of the most outstanding schools in Birmingham are also in deprived wards like Sparkbrook such as Nelson Mandela, Heath Mount, Clifton which just goes to show attainment has little to do with the background of the child, poverty, deprivation, English as an Additional Language (EAL) and everything to do with the quality of school leadership and teaching and learning; and high aspirations and expectations.

It also begs the question why Les Lawrence did not use his legal powers to issue Statutory Warning Notices (SWN) to the aforementioned failing schools before OFSTED arrived. The answer is because Les Lawrence and his kind are pursuing a completely different agenda that has nothing to do with raising standards and attainment.

Anyway, parents should rejoice that Les Lawrence has been relieved of his post by the electorate; Conway is a fast improving school; and Percy Shurmer, Tindal and Montgomery are scheduled to become Academies, free of Birmingham City Council control, interference and indifference. As new leadership takes over these inner city primary schools to improve the quality of teaching and learning, schools like Moseley can no longer blame low attainment at primary level for poor performance at secondary level.

P.S. A farewell dinner arranged for Les Lawrence at £20 per head at a Balti House in Sparkbrook has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

Goodbye and good riddance to Blunkett's BTECs

On the last day of January 2012, the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove announced the end of mickey mouse vocational courses and qualifications.

Michael Gove: we must not limit young people academically

Thousands of 'dead end' courses axed from school tables

An end to qualifications that have no real value by Professor Alison Wolf

The Moseley School Parents and Community Association (MSPCA) welcomes this development because it means that Moseley School will be required to teach a traditional, rigorous and demanding curriculum that is valued by universities and employers alike. The MSPCA expects to see a drop in the number of complaints from frustrated parents about the school forcing their children to study courses that are not demanding nor even recognised by leading universities as being suitable for admission.

Schools serving pupils from deprived communities promote vocational courses because they are easy to teach and help to boost a school's position in league tables without actually improving the standard and quality of teaching and learning. For instance, in 2011, 44% of pupils at Moseley School passed five GCSE subjects including English and Maths at grades A*-C. However, if the vocational courses are excluded from this measure then the actual pass rate is only 34%. This is a quite a low pass rate compared to similar community schools in Birmingham that serve pupils from deprived areas, which have pass rates in excess of 50%.

Schools that have been promoting vocational qualifications at the expense of a traditional curriculum will now come under increased scrutiny by this change in government policy e.g. Kings Norton High (7%), Frankley (17%), North Birmingham Academy (17%), St. Alban's Academy (17%), Castle Vale (22%), etc.

The Cabinet Member for Education in Birmingham, Cllr. Les Lawrence often claims that Birmingham is making remarkable progress compared to other (low-performing) core cities. Parents should ask him how well Birmingham is performing with its neighbour, Solihull when vocational qualifications are excluded from the league tables. After all, our children are in stiff competition for jobs with children from nearby towns and cities, not with children living in distant parts of the country.

P.S. Tim Boyes wanted to promote Diplomas. What a disaster that would have been for the pupils of Moseley School.

Birmingham City Council's culture of blame, excuses & failure

Extracts from Birmingham City Council's January 2012 report on OFSTED inspections of Birmingham Schools inspected September 2010 to July 2011:

"The Birmingham context around which these inspection judgements are being made

should be recognised. The free school meal entitlement for Birmingham children
aged 5 - 16 is more than 15% higher than the national average at 34.6%. The
number of pupils who speak a home language other than English is 40.4%. Using
the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) just over half of Birmingham pupils age 5-15
live in the most deprived 10% of areas nationally."

and concludes by stating:

"Birmingham schools face significantly more challenge than the average English school
on every measure of deprivation."

But a recent OFSTED report said that poor children are being let down by inadequate schools!

Inspectors said that deprivation continued to be a “significant factor influencing the quality of schools” in England.

In its annual report, the watchdog said that schools serving the poorest 20 per cent of pupils were four times more likely to be “inadequate” than those for the wealthiest 20 per cent.

The report said that children subjected to a poor start in life were much more likely to be trapped in a low-paid job and less likely to climb the social ladder.

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