'Chicken hut' classrooms criticised in East Riding schools report

“Hornsea school had 'chicken huts' when i attended there, i left in '96 so i imagine they'll be well knackered now!!”

“I started to feel concerned about cookinasuit and thought about recommending this contributor a chat with the Samaritans until read down and spotted the complaint about paid union officials. I quickly realised that there was a terrible metaphorical stench which could only emanate from the Taxpayers Alliance. Of course there is one area of public expenditure these slash and burn characters never question - the very large defence budget which sustains regional wars in which hundreds of our fellow citizens get slaughtered (433 and still counting in Afghanistan).”

“Ever since the end of WW2 successive governments have persuaded the population of England that we can have all the nice things in life without having to earn them. Thus we have a disastrously expensive and inefficient NHS, a Dept of Education that has no knowledge of how to manage money, a Dept of Transport that is so bad at its job that our road infrastructure is amongst the worst in western Europe, an energy infrastructure that is falling apart and will not be able to supply our needs in fifteen years time, an MoD that finds even elemental procurement a challenge too far, a National Insurance Contributions Office that now employs 17,000 people to do a job that took less than 3000 when National Insurance was first introduced, and so on and so on.

It is not Osborne's fault that our financial system is in such a mess, although he could be severely criticised for not being ruthless enough in his attempts to slash government expenditure. I could argue that Brown and Blair were the architects of our problems for having continually spent money they did not have in order to keep the masses happy. But no, those two were just symptoms of a ruling class that cannot get their minds around the fact that you should not attempt to spend what you do not have or cannot afford to pay back. If that basic underpinning of financial management is to be considered Dickensian then so be it. It clearly works for Germany and China, the two industrial powerhouses of the world. Instead our country is hamstrung by rules and regulations that constrain our ability to drive forward our money earning sectors of the economy whilst the public sector drains on the economy are given full reign to keep on spending money they should not be spending. In its rawest form the Greek situation spells out what will happen if we continue living as we do now. They have spent 30 years living a life that the Greek economy simply could not afford without borrowing money and then someone turned off the tap!

At a local level it is extraordinary to learn that local authorities around the Humber are spending upwards of £200k every year paying for full time union officials. Whilst that goes on local politicians are becoming almost orgasmic about the possibility of a German company, Seimens, setting up an assembly plant for offshore turbines. These turines only work for an average of 28% of their planned output. Whilst we have politicians that carry on in this manner there is no hope for us getting out of this debt laden straitjacket.

Tu sum up, yet again, we cannot have all the 'nice to haves' without a vigorous and successful private sector which makes things that the rest of the world wants to buy.”

“Dear cookinasuit you have the understanding of modern economics found in a Dickens novel. Osborne followed the same logic and he is soon to admit that even after the full term of this disastrous government there is still a deficit so in the vein of Einstein's definition of madness he will soon announce further cuts. Even his planned borrowings are being exceeded. Ever wondered what the effects on the economy are for reductions in public expenditure or increased taxation or redundant public service workers. Further cuts will prolong the recession and weaken the productivity of industry not to mention the accumulating severe social problems like those in ER schools.”

“Mr. Newman postulates an interesting idea: allow the state to borrow more money thereby adding to the debt that already constitutes 64% of GDP (including all the debt on PF1s, BSFs, PPPs etc,) and the economy will improve. The only way in which UK PLC will improve is when industry produces goods the world wants to buy resulting in inward cashflow and larger tax receipts from those successful companies. China has not become the world's second largest economy in forty years by borrowing money. Their leaders recognised that creating an environment in which the world's innovators and designers could get products produced at a price the world's consumers were able to pay was the only way to deal with the chronic and instutionalised poverty that so badly afflicted that country for centuries. If leaders of the western world, of whatever political colour, do not stop trying to borrow their way out of trouble the problem will just get worse. Unfortunately, so many of the western leaders are weak and vacillating individuals whose sole concern is being re-elected rather than focusing on what needs to be done get these economies back on an even keel.”

“Again not an issue confined to ER and no doubt BSF could have been better managed but it did do a lot of good which is now rubbished by Gove and his Lib Dem co-conspirators. I cannot think of a better way of reviving the economy than a programme of investing in improved or new education facilities (possible exception is building more council houses). This will not happen while George (Micawber) Osborne stays in charge of the national counting house.
This is another policy in which the Lib Dems are proving completely impotent.”

“Wherever you go in Britain you will find schools in varying stages of disrepair. The levels of disrepair are not dependent on the political makeup of the local authority. I have seen some of the worst schools in the Labour heartlands of Wales and the North West of England. What lies at the heart of this reckless disregard for the maintenance of schools is that they are managed by people, (councillors, governors and Heads) who are so scared of speaking out about the condition of their schools because to do so would almost certainly lead to dismissal. It is very noticeable that government owned buildings in other areas of the public sector are not in bad condition at all. This is because the departmental heads of these ministries will be held personally responsible for any breaches of Health and Safety and they certainly do not want any aggravation with public sector trades unions. Thus, money is always found to make sure that building fabric is maintained in a proper manner. Schools have no such overt pressures placed upon them. As a consequence when councillors across the country need to save money they will not seek to reduce the £100k plus salaries of senior managers or the extraordinarily generous allowances of councillors. Instead, they will turn to the education departments and strip away maintenance budgets (other departments such as highways also suffer). This is easy to do because parents only remain interested in a school for as long as they have children there and councillors and governors know they will eventually lose their seats at an election or are forced to resign. By the time these three groups of key people have moved on it is too late for the school.

Schools are also forced to live with the utterly ridiculous Treasury rules. This means that if schools do not spend their budgets by the end of the financial year the unspent money is taken from them. This particular example of Treasury madness means that schools, in common with other parts of the state infrastructure, are not able to set aside sums for what is known as 'Lifecycle maintenance'. Until this stupidity is done away with the Lifecycle issue will not improve.

The BSF scheme has produced some good results but from the many schemes I have seen I have concluded that the schools that have been built, have not been designed with pupils and teachers in mind, but to satisfy commercial parameters set by people who have never taught in a school. In one case, in Peterborough, three schools were condensed on to one site. This created such an acute concentration of children that there is virtually no way that individual space can be respected and the 250 seater dining room has to cater for nearly 2000 pupils. To do this the restaurant has to open at 11:30 and close at 14:30! The other two schools, complete with their playing fields, were sold off to housing developers.

Finally,I entirely agree with the comments suggesting that ERYC is complicit in the attempt to destroy large areas of open land. The flagrant bullying that is being brought to bear on councillors by certain senior managers in the council is a disgrace. Especially so when the future health and safety of thousands of people will be at stake.”

“I think the majority of staff at the school are Jehovah's witnesses, it's admirable how that
community build there own kingdom halls and they are certainly not "chicken hutches".
perhaps they could put in a tender or something. I tell you something, you'll never see a
dirty window at the school if they win the refurb contract.”

“An excuse to sell off school playing fields for housing. Nice to see ERYC got into the Olympic spirit and are going to encourage future Olympians...”

“I wonder how often Call Me Dave, Gideon Osborne and Cleggover were taught in rusting portakabins or 'chicken huts'. I suspect that the answer is never - not at at their schools: Eton, St Paul's, Westminster. Meanwhile, the incompetent and irritating Gove tells teachers and pupils that they're worse than useless and that exam results are worthless - well done Govey!

'But hey...' (to quote a former PM), ...which political party is responsible for ERYC schools and their upkeep? Please remind me: is it NewLab? No? The LibDems? No, they don't run anything - except a mile from difficult challenges. Oh, surely it couldn't be true-blue OldCon - could it? No, no, OldCon is deeply committed to improving educational standards - and, as any decent employer knows, good working conditions improve output.”