It's fair to say many Croydon secondary school heads aren't very fond of the Advertiser at the moment.
In fact, one person in the know said the general feeling at their recent conference in Brighton was that they wanted to lynch me and the Advertiser reporting team.
The flippant answer would be that if pupils spent more time studying and less time happy-slapping and stabbing each other around the clock then we wouldn't be writing about them in the first place.
The more considered response would be that yes, I do appreciate their concerns over recent coverage - and their fears that their school could be next to receive negative publicity.
But stories don't just fall into our laps by chance.
The recent articles have all been brought to our attention by people closely connected to the schools at all kinds of levels, and it would be a slippery slope if we held back on stories to avoid upsetting people.
Which brings me onto today's splash about the four schools facing closure in the council's long-awaited education review.
At this point the proposals are just that - suggestions put forward for consultation.
But I've been through quite a few 'consultations' myself, and rarely does the outcome differ from the initial suggestion, so I'm pretty confident the schools in question will be shut down.
I should point out the news was supposed to be released in a press briefing next week, in order for parents and staff to receive official notification first, and the review goes much further than just the four potential closures. So far as I can tell, the council is doing all it can to manage a period of great change in the best manner.
So is it the right thing to do? Well, given the stories I've mentioned above, it would be hypocritical for the Advertiser not to give a guarded welcome to the plans.
The education system in Croydon is obviously in need of radical surgery, and there is no point tinkering around the edges in a situation like this.
It will be fasincating to see how it develops, and is likely to be the current administration's definining moment.
2 comments:
yes, far better to just shut things down when they are not going great. Radical surgery to the Advertiser a few years ago would have been the right thing to do. Just shut it down, its not worth the bother to improve it...
Oh no, hard work and many hours unpaid overtime actually does pay dividends and the Advertiser lives to see another day!
These closures amount to the privatisation of Croydon's schools.
No doubt another extremist religious group like the Oasis Trust will be found by Maria Gatland to run the new schools.
This is an example of the Tory council failure to manage the borough's schools in a constructive way.
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