Forum Topic

Is Expanding Durston House School good for everyone?

I should say from the outset I'm very much against private education in principle and would readily accept its prevalence in the UK is divisive and chronically undermines social mobility. However we have the education system that we have and lack the funds to build a perfect one. Therefore we have to consider what is best for everyone. The big argument for private education and the general good is that it takes the cost of education a significant number of children away from the state. The provision of a hundred extra places by Durston House will be one hundred fewer than the rest of us have to pay for. There are good reasons for people in the area around the school to be concerned about extra traffic but most of this is not generated by the school rather it is the result of council policy. Traffic caused by the school will be concentrated into two relatively short and predictable periods each day. Having lived near a school myself I know it is just a matter of avoiding unnecessary travel at these times to ensure the impact on your life is minimal. The current application seems to provide the option of more facilities that will be available to the local community. What people shouldn't forget is that ultimately planning applications are decided on the basis of whether or not they are within planning law not whether they have public support. The land belongs to the school and if expansion is turned down they might consider alternative uses that would be even less welcome.

Dennis O'Shea ● 2196d25 Comments

Durston House School Educational Trust is a  private company limited by guarantee without share capital.
Company No: 01947995
Full financial data is available on the Companies House website.

N V Brooks ● 1916d

What is the corporate structure of Durston House if it is not a PLC?

Mark Evans ● 1916d

Correction: Clifton Lodge (not House).

David Marshall ● 1920d

“First and foremost this [Durston House] is a business.” Durston House is no more or less a business than a state school. For example, Durston House does not generate profits and it does not have shareholders to pay. Surpluses, if there are any, are reinvested in the school. Whether you like Durston House or not, it puts the interests of children first.If we’re talking about schools as businesses, then I would suggest that Clifton House is a much better example. Clifton House is owned by Cognita, which is a private company. Just to be clear: the purpose of Cognita is to make a profit out of educating children. It clearly makes a lot of money out of children, because Cognita changed hands for £2 billion in 2018. The company is currently owned by a private equity firm based in Zurich.

David Marshall ● 1920d

And the message above in favour of the expansion is suddenly removed!  First and foremost this is a business.  It will be good to hear lots more about how they are and will be reducing the deleterious effect this will have on neighbours both during construction and with the extra numbers.

Philippa Bond ● 1920d

Yep, and I also got stitched up on that one myself a few years back, so can completely identify.The Hanson Concrete Plant in the Horn Lane Goods Rail Yard, built WITHOUT Planning Permission (Yes!), retrospectively applied for PP, and on the Planning Committee night a split vote (TWO Labour Members quite rightly "crossed the floor" to vote "Refuse" and ONE idiot Conservative who was away with the fairies voted "Grant"! 😨) and the lovely Labour Chairperson (Oh, we MUST be Politically Correct) couldn't decide "Granted" fast enough just to get it off the agendaIn all my time being involved with the planning shenanigans under this Labour Administration you are 100% right, it is the ONLY time I ever observed Labour even half deeming a Development as inapproriate. EVERYTHING Planning wise sails through under Labour, no questions asked, no consideration for Residents. Whatsoever.You really gotta wonder about what's going on and behind all this dontcha? 😉

Rosco White ● 1921d

It got through because of the casting vote of the Labour Chairman, Shital Manro, who’s never seen an inappropriate development he doesn’t like. The ultimate decision was his.

Judith Jaafar ● 1921d

I was in the event quite surprised to read this application got through as the strength of the arguments against it seemed overwhelming. The article about it isn't clear - there was cross party opposition but did it ultimately get through because of support from the Liberal Democract councillor?

Mark Evans ● 1922d

Message removed at author's request

Gurpreet.Takhar ● 2087d

Have you seen the major new campaign by The Times?  It includes this car ban at drop off and pick up times.  All schools in London are suffering from air quality ehicj fails WHO guidelines.

Philippa Bond ● 2168d

Yes, better planning law indeed, but the existing guidelines and regulations are routinely ignored by Ealing Council. The school uses large commercial coaches to ferry the boys to Swyncombe playing fields and for other outings. Where are these coaches going to be parked? Even turning into the property will be difficult on such a narrow, parked-up road. Just one of these coaches, waiting outside, will block the road.

Judith Jaafar ● 2170d

It is very unfortunate that so many parents insist on driving their children to school.  There are many streets now which are being closed to traffic during school start and end times.  London has far too much pollution.We need less concrete not more and more trees now.We should be campaigning for better planning law.

Philippa Bond ● 2171d

I think the discussion is about building a school, 3 storeys, 600+ pupils, on a narrow, parking-on-both -sides residential street that is already a rat-run between Ealing Broadway and W. Ealing. It doesn’t matter a jot whether it’s state or private, or whether private education is desirable or not. The impact on the local environment and residents would be huge. It’s easy to have philosophical discussions about education when you’re not living across the road from the proposed site, as I am. Durston House has made a big deal about providing sports facilities for locals not during school hours but Sport England has formally objected to the application. There are also serious flood risk issues, as the site is already subject to flooding and with extra building, hard landscaping and the installation of Astro—turf instead of grass things will only get worse. Traffic, parking, congestion and air pollution are all areas of deep concern.

Judith Jaafar ● 2173d

https://fnf.org.uk/fnf-call-for-parental-alienation-trainingAt the time of the above workshop only 2.5% of the CAFCASS workers had watched/done the training that the CAFCASS CEO says they had available for them to do.

Philippa Bond ● 2175d

Interesting to see that this is at last getting  more attention.The UN says that children have the right to two parents but the closed Family Court and the social workers, lawyers, and judges aren't necessarily up to speed on this.  Despite info being available to them many have not  read it.

Philippa Bond ● 2176d

It's a shame that so many teachers also have to spend  so much time acting as social workers.  I do agree that parents need to do a lot more talking and reading to their children so that they can listen, understand and follow instructions.  Too much stuff and too much screentime doesn't seem to help them to concentrate.  Giving time to children is very valuable!

Philippa Bond ● 2188d

Andy - Your first and last sentences contradict each other!  Not all teachers have/have had the opportunity to learn the benefits of teaching in a multi-sensory way and how to ignore/deal with fidgetty children without yelling.  Some people learn better when moving and doing practical experiments/tasks.

Philippa Bond ● 2188d

We aren't talking about fidgety kids here and you shouldn't try and blame teachers. The problem is those that are so disruptive a lesson effectively ceases. It happened sometimes when I was at school but teachers had more sanctions at their disposal and it wasn't the norm. Talking to my own kids about their experiences it now seems to be commonplace and they did not go to schools which had a particularly bad reputation for failed lessons.It is wishful thinking to believe it is possible to structure lessons around the needs of individual children. Ultimately if you have 30+ kids in a classroom a base requirement is that they can all sit still and listen.

Andy Jones ● 2189d

Sometimes teaching isn't multi-sensory and so geared to suit all learners.  If the way a teacher teaches doesn't suit learners of a particular type then they won't be able to learn.  There are some teachers who just sort of chuck information at pupils and hope that it will stick.  Others who inspire pupils to think, participate and learn.I've seen pupils who fidget and swing their legs but the fidgeting irritates the teachers more than the other pupils who can and do just ignore it.  The pupils find the teacher yelling at the fidgeting pupil much more disruptive.

Philippa Bond ● 2189d

Suspensions are a difficult issue and the problem has become more acute since many pupil referral centres were closed. That leaves us with a choice. Do we allow disruptive pupils to stay in the classroom and render lessons ineffective for other children who want to learn or do we take them out possibly with no alternative provision? My own view is that the latter is the best of two unpalatable options. Some state schools suffer from an unacceptably high number of disrupted lessons. This isn't tolerated in the private system and you can see why parents feel forced to choose to pay.

Gordon Southwell ● 2190d

Yes, but then isn't it the worst examples which are so noticeable?  They can't hide in parliament any more.Your very last sentence is interesting. Are those children there because in the private system they would have been expelled?  Sport is important and there isn't always enough in the state system.  There was a time when a lot of private schools did not recognise any special needs because they were more interested in league tables. Children are suspended from school in the state system - far too many permanently suspended - and this is probably one of the reasons that we have so many problems on our streets.

Philippa Bond ● 2194d

Don't you think you are stereotyping here? I have lots of friends and colleagues who were privately educated and they are mostly perfectly well balanced, decent individuals with a range of different outlooks. Having been through the state system myself and seen my kids go through it as well I'm not prepared to claim that it offers a better preparation for life than private education. Ideally there would be no need for anyone to pay and high quality schooling would be available to all. The problem as I see it is that many state schools prioritise keeping as many children as possible in lessons no matter how disruptive they are to the determent of the others who really would like to learn.

Andy Jones ● 2194d

Wouldn't it be good if all our schools were as good as each other?  The class system in this country is one of our biggest problems and it is promulgated by private schooling.Naturally the majority will choose what they think is best, what is available and what they can afford at the time their children are school-age.  Hence all the problems with expensive ordinary houses in catchment areas for good state schools.Listening in or watching live parliament sessions just shows how puerile the public schooled can be with their public school in-jokes treating the House of Commons like a school debating society.  I wouldn't even say 6th form.We are paying these people large amounts of money and large pensions to make important decisions on OUR behalf.  I'm not sure that some of them have any idea of any life outside of their privileged upbringing.

Philippa Bond ● 2194d

There was an article in one of the papers yesterday with a claim that private education saves the taxpayer £20 billion a year. This is disputed by some which says the number is £3billion. Even at the lower end of the scale this is a significant number.

Andy Jones ● 2194d

Your argument would have more weight if the money saved by parents opting to to put their children into private schools was reinvested back into state education. What actually happens is that it goes elsewhere - currently it is being spent on bribing the DUP and no deal Brexit preparations. In pure education terms it would be far better to retain more potentially high achieving children from relatively well-off families in the state education system.

Mark Evans ● 2196d