It seems to me that you are denigrating the very things that make Tomlinscote the school with such an excellent reputation that you and everyone else so desperately wants their child/children to attend. You can't have it both ways. How can you possibly insinuate that a good working relationship between Governors and Mr Ryles is a bad thing? Do you not understand that it is vitally important that the Governors and the Head work hand and hand or nothing would get done?
It is also an insult to suggest that Mr Ryles doesn't have the best interest of Tomlinscote students at heart, it is very fortunate for all students in the area that he is generous enough to think that Tomlinscote is able to give all of them the benefit of a good education by taking over Kings International not just those that are fortunate enough to get into Tomlinscote. You seem to be implying that only your child should have the opportunity to receive an excellent education. Your call for Mr Ryles to step down is an abomination and I think that if you are so unhappy with Tomlinscote with him as the Head, you should take your child out of the school and enroll him in a school that you think will give him a better education, perhaps Gordon's would be more to your liking.
It is also an insult to suggest that Mr Ryles doesn't have the best interest of Tomlinscote students at heart, it is very fortunate for all students in the area that he is generous enough to think that Tomlinscote is able to give all of them the benefit of a good education by taking over Kings International not just those that are fortunate enough to get into Tomlinscote. You seem to be implying that only your child should have the opportunity to receive an excellent education. Your call for Mr Ryles to step down is an abomination and I think that if you are so unhappy with Tomlinscote with him as the Head, you should take your child out of the school and enroll him in a school that you think will give him a better education, perhaps Gordon's would be more to your liking.
I suggested Mr Ryles to step down and take no further part in the "merger" i.e. take "gardening leave" before retirement. I will not discuss this on-line any further and suggest nobody else does either. For anyone who feels strongly on the subject one way or the other, a more appropriate course of action would be to contact the Chairman of the Governors privately.
I think that I was quite glowing about both Mr Ryles' achievements and abilities wrt. Tomlinscote, I will add for the sake of completeness that by all accounts the application of his considerable abilities to Kings has also been effective despite the short / shortened time he has been there.
In terms of his relationship with the governors, the governors are effectively the board of a company. In this case one with many millions of pounds flowing through it and the fate over the years of thousands of childrens educations. The requirement is that the governors prosecute their business in a professional and civil manner, if they enjoy their jobs that is good. It is neither a requirement nor an obstacle if they enjoy each others company but it can be a complication. Friendships within business do not usually cause concern but they can be somewhat divisive when they are placed within the confines of a voting committee. A voting committee is supposed to have "one man one vote" any close relationships that are formed, cliques or groups, perverts this structure.
Mr Ryles has said that he is stepping down because it is only right for the New Head to be in charge of the restructuring project. IF it is true (as we keep on being told) that this is a consultation then surely the New Head should participate in the task of deciding if he thinks a merger is the best idea - then he will be partly responsible for the decision. If the merger is forced through against parents wishes whoever does it is likely to be highly unpopular so it is more convenient that this be someone who does not stay to "face the music".
I'll also answer the other point you make about the educational provision for my child. My child receives an excellent education from the teachers at Tomlinscote, which is 4 minutes walk, if I was 4 minutes walk from Kings I imagine I'd send them there, and by all accounts get some excellent teachers there too.
Nothing in the proposals convinces me that Kings is not capable of being a viable and well respected school, nothing I've seen yet convinces me it needs to close. I believe that a "soft federation" between the schools is good but that an upper and lower school on two sites (separated by a traffic blackspot) raises so many educational difficulties its not in the interests of any of the children. I believe the restructure will cause such chaos that any child setting foot in the combined school in the next 4-5 years will have their education materially affected. Still worse if SurreyCCs own population predictions are true the school will shortly afterward go through ANOTHER period of massive change as it gets bigger.
Send my children to Gordons? If you knew me you'd laugh!
hear Hear!!
ReplyDeleteWould the person who insinuated that only Tomlinscote students have a good education, have the decency to add that Kings students also have a good education! (sent from a T parent!)
ReplyDeleteKings students have an excellent education, which is tailored to their own needs. They are not treated as 'just a number'. Kings cater for the gifted/high achieving students, who have special courses of study, not just in college but also at other establishments like Wellington College, but also the children who have other challenges in life such a special need (physical, mentally or emotionally), English as a foreign language, or would just choose to lose themselves in a larger institution. No student has ever been barred from trying to achieve in a subject, even though their result will not look good in the final statitics. Tina Carney
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