Letters: November 19, 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Reality check letter

I AM writing in response to the Ofsted regional director’s public letter regarding the poor performance of Swindon’s schools.

This letter called on Swindon Borough Council, Swindon’s two Conservative MPs and other leaders of Swindon’s education provision.

In his letter, the Ofsted director voiced his concerns about Swindon’s declining local education provision, with fewer than 50 per cent of Swindon’s secondary school students now being taught in good schools and performance in many areas at all age groups below the national average.

This letter is the most damning we have seen on the performance of Swindon’s education in 15 years.

Both the Conservative administration on Swindon Council and the Conservative Government in Westminster should be taking full responsibility for the problems in our town’s education.

What has particularly concerned me is the fact that Ofsted’s director felt he had to make his letter public to make parents in Swindon aware of the scale of the problem.

He states he wrote to the council three times voicing concerns about Swindon’s education system and the council ignored these calls, forcing him to go public with his views.

In the interests of transparency I shall be asking him to share these letters with parents too.

The real problem, as I see it, is that the Conservative administration in its response, does not agree more needs to be done to improve our local education provision or acknowledge the scale of the problem.

Given, as the Ofsted director makes clear, that fewer than 50 per cent of our secondary school pupils attend good or better schools, how can the council believe that there is not a problem?

The fact Swindon’s education system has declined over the last six years also tells us that the Government’s academies-for-all education system has also failed Swindon.

And I would like to see Swindon’s two MPs feeding through Swindon’s education failures to Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, and demanding action.

The council leader, David Renard, says that the Ofsted director’s letter to teachers will be demotivating to teachers.

However, this letter was not about attacking our town’s very hardworking teachers.

Instead it was about giving a reality check to the leaders of Swindon’s education system.

It is time for Swindon’s leaders in education to start to rebuild our underperforming education system.

COUN CAROL SHELLEY

Labour spokesman for Education

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Late developers

I FEEL the report on Swindon schools was unfair. It is extremely difficult to judge a child’s progress and potential.

My own case is undoubtedly exceptional but not unrepresentative. Development goes in stages. The backward can leap forward.

I am now 80. At eight I could neither read nor write. Until I was 14, I was the bottom of every class.

Aged 18 I won a scholarship to Oxford and then took a formal first class degree and won my year’s prize scholarship, as Harold Wilson did in his time.

I have had an academic, political, journalist, financial adviser career as a writer. I am still writing.

Looking back now I can explain this. First, I was, and remain, highlydyslectic dyslexic.

I still can’t spell, which is no longer a problem with spell checks.

Secondly, I am very deaf and suspect I always had a problem with hearing, hence my original inability to read or write.

My great leap forward came when suddenly I could be understood. I went from bottom to top of class in less than a year.

The issue is not a snapshot of where different age cohorts are at a point in time. The test is following an age group to see how they progress. That is the test of a good or bad education.

Some backward will leap forward. Some forward will slow down. Some backward will remain backward.

Swindon schools may be bad or good, but a snapshot is not a reliable way to measure them. See how they progress.

BRIAN READING

Surbiton

Surrey

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We were not alone

THOSE national newspapers who support Brexit print a particular theme, that Britain stood alone in world wars against evil nationalistic dictators, and therefore, we should now isolate ourselves from all those many nations who had made united common cause with us.

Nothing could be further from the historical truth of past generations.

From all across the globe, people of many nations and colour, came to sacrifice their lives in our defence in that just cause, because they shared our beliefs and determination to create a better world of nations working together.

Nationalism becomes insane when it rejects the known historical facts of foreign soldiers coming, in both world wars, from every continent, for no other reason than their courage and commitment, to share our danger.

Every Briton still owes a debt which we can never repay, and these are the values we should live by.

Allies were essential in war, as they will always be in peace.

Our stupid nationalism always produces resentful nationalism in other countries.

Many modern British citizens prefer to live a life which has no such sense of gratitude for past sacrifices, nor obligation to ethical principles which bind us all, into the future.

These citizens do not understand what they have rejected, which enriches the lives of others.

British Brexit isolation is completely opposed to every detail of co-operation between allied nations, for which all those foreigners, and many Brits, gave their lives.

In death and in the cause for which they died, they are united, and we should learn from them.

CN WESTERMAN

Meadow Rise

Brynna

Mid Glam

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Value of nothing

AS WINTER closes in, and more of us suffer from colds and coughs, the Government has urged us to consult our pharmacists rather than our pressurised GPs.

Except that, at the same time, Government has announced a drastic and immediate cut in funding for pharmacies, based on measurable activity rather than time spent giving advice.

This eight per cent cut over the next 18 months threatens the existence of some valuable local services here in Wiltshire.

Once again this demonstrates that Conservatives know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Liberal Democrat policy is to look at health and social care in the round, which means planning ahead in terms of training and service provision, not just taking the axe to well-regarded and highly-needed services.

HELEN BELCHER

Lib Dem PPC for Chippenham

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Make plans for Nigel

HAROLD Wilson once said a week is a long time in politics. I think both the British referendum to leave the European Union and the triumph of Donald Trump clearly illustrates that statement.

No matter what you think of Nigel Farage you cannot deny his resilience.

He fought for years to release us from this corrupt cabal of failed politicians and chancers who were lining their pockets at the taxpayers’ expense.

Juncker is a perfect example. He is a two-bit politician from the small state of Luxembourg dictating to the British Prime Minister and the British nation.

Against all the odds Nigel forced David Cameron’s hand on the referendum or we would have been wrapped in the disunion’s tentacles until, in my opinion, it eventually collapsed.

He fought most of the British establishment on the referendum, as well as the delusional bleeding heart showbusiness brigade.

I still await the moment when one of them takes in a refugee.

He led the UKIP to almost four million votes at the General Election and his MEPs swept the board.

I am not a gambling man but I am told you study form before you place a bet.

Theresa May wants to think very carefully about washing her hands of Nigel and giving him what the Americans call the bum’s rush.

He is now a favourite of the President Elect of the United States of America – who is soon to be the most powerful man on the planet earth.

The Prime Minister’s duty is to do what is best for Britain.

Surely someone with Nigel’s track record of success against all the odds deserves an honour? Surely his years dealing with the disunion deserves a seat at the table in the Brexit negotiations?

Or is Theresa May going to put petty political differences before the best interests of our nation and then fall on her sword, as David Cameron did?

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way

Covingham

Swindon