URGENT: Southend Admissions

To the parents who expressed concern that Southend Admissions Team did not offer them a place at The Deanes:

If you applied for a place at the Deanes over the last few years and were not offered this choice, please contact Mr McKeown at the schhol as soon as possible. They need the facts and evidence so they can challenge Southend. This is a key element of the case to save the school. 

Also, if you know of somebody who this applies to, please ask them to get in touch.

Please email Mr McKeown at: dmckeown@thedeanes.essex.sch.uk.

Give your views

Another way we can get our message across is by giving our opinions of The Deanes School on the Ofsted Parent View website.

Log in and give your views now.

http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/

Castle Point Cabinet meeting 19th June

The Cabinet meeting last night proved a great success! We have an overwhelming amount of support which is invaluable. 

If you missed the meeting, you should soon be able to watch it online via this link:

http://www.castlepoint.public-i.tv/core/ 

Did you know?

As if any of you needed any more inspiration or ammunition for Thursday...

Did you know:

•   The Deanes School is the hub-site for the Castle Point and Rochford School Sport Partnership, we work with all schools, including the 51 Primary Schools. 

•   The Deanes Sports Centre – open to the community mainly evenings and weekends, have 3900 members, a mixture of coaching, lettings and a school holiday programme of sport which attracts approximately 130 children per day

•   The Deanes Tennis Club – affiliated to the LTA, 400 members

•   The Deanes School is an important part of The BATIC Trust, a charitable Trust made up of 16 local schools to create opportunities for young people (is the only Secondary School in it)

•   Is home to 22 community sports clubs including archery, trampolining and gymnastics

•   Achieved “good” with the capacity to be outstanding in the 2012 Ofsted inspection

•   The Deanes School has now broadened its specialism to include music, dance and drama

•   The School is a major employer for Castle Point, in excess of 300 people work either at the Deanes School or for The Deanes School related Projects, over 50 staff work in the School Sport and Community Sport alone

Preparation for 20th June

The first public meeting is less than a week away and we need to do our best to make sure we are prepared. 

While our emotional ties to the school are strong, and each of us could provide countless stories of what The Deanes School means to us, we have been advised that this is will not be our strongest approach. Tim Coulson is expecting a crowd emotional people that he can silence with facts and figures.

WE NEED TO PROVE HIM WRONG! 

It is vital therefore that we continue to work together and start to develop a list of appropriate, fact based questions to fire at Tim Coulson that he will have a hard time trying to answer!

We think it is important that we keep these questions off of Facebook/twitter/anything online. We do not want to provide the opposition with any chance to prepare for what is to come.

Can you please email your questions to deanesactiongroup@gmail.com so we can begin to compile a list. If you want to bounce ideas off of each other can we please ask you to do it through some form of private communication rather than the Facebook page. Also feel free to message Rebecca Howard or Chris Hurrell if you need any advice.

The Deanes School Website

Please remember to visit The Deanes School website for up to date information.

There is a survey from the school that they would really appreciate all parents to complete. Follow the link on the page below to complete the survey online. (There is also a  printable version should you prefer it.)

http://www.deanesschool.co.uk/page/?title=Future+of+Deanes&pid=166

A case for educational neglect?

We have reason to believe that parents of pupils in years 9, 10 & 11 may have reasonable grounds to sue Essex County Council's education department for educational neglect.

One of our parents has spoken with a solicitor who is a specialist in educational law who has informed us that if the currant years 9 and 10 who will be starting their GCSE's and options have a disrupted, disjointed and quite frankly unpleasant school experience, due to the actions of ECC, we have grounds to sue.

We are currently looking into the logistics of this but believe it could be a possibility.

For the time being, please show your support by emailing rosemary.prince@essex.gov.uk, stating your intentions to join with other parents of children at The Deanes School to sue ECC for educational neglect.