David Lister School to close early?

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Friday, July 03, 2009
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This is HullandEastRiding

A troubled Hull school may close up to three years earlier than planned, the Mail can reveal.

David Lister School, in Rustenburg Street, east Hull, is currently earmarked to close in 2015 as part of the £400m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) proposals.

But a series of critical reports have led education officials to look at the possibility of closing the school in 2012.

The news comes just a day after it emerged Endeavour High School, in Beverley Road, Hull, has slipped into special measures.

David Lister, which is also in special measure, could be closed early because of lack of parental confidence and falling pupil numbers.

The school, which currently has about 1,250 pupils, was placed in special measures last year by Ofsted after a damning report highlighted a series of failings.

The governing body was then removed and replaced with an interim executive board (IEB).

Judith Harwood, head of learning, leisure and achievement at Hull City Council, said: "Parents and the community are saying 'what are you going to do about this school?'

"So, we have to look at that realistically.

"The numbers on roll are falling and people are asking if there is a better place for their child's education.

"The question for us is, if we keep doing what we are doing and managing the status quo, will that deliver sufficient improvement and the right outcomes for the children?

"We must remove weak schools and we must do that as quickly as possible."

If a decision is taken to close the school early, a formal six-week consultation process will have to take place.

This would almost certainly not take place until September, as it has to be in term time and schools are set to break up for summer in a month.

The council would also have to replace the current statutory closure notice for 2015, which says the last intake of pupils in year seven will be in 2010.

Most pupils would go to Archbishop Sentamu Academy, which by then will be at its new home in Preston Road, east Hull.

Other pupils would go to Malet Lambert and Winifred Holtby, as well as other schools across the city with spaces.

However, all the BSF building work would have to go ahead as planned for there to be sufficient spaces in the schools.

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  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by ethel, hull

    Wednesday, July 15 2009, 9:33PM

    “im a student there now, + to be honest all you people saying there parents need to get off there backsides stop drinking and what ever else, there not all like that thankyou verymuch!
    my mams a police woman, and my dads got a shop and it does very well :) and you make out like the schools really bad the only bad thing about it is the suplys theres to many. I must admit when i have them , i dont do as much work or maybe none at all, but the rest of the teatchers are really good . The school should start focusing on that not bringing stupid rules in about jewlry and stuff its a waste of time because there strickt about it for about a week then it goes out the window! they should be spending more time changing other things about the school not stuff like that. oh and if my spellings wrong sorry ;)”

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    by Jeff, Beverley

    Sunday, July 05 2009, 1:01PM

    “The parents must take most of the blame, too busy being a pretend celebrity or drinking and taking drugs, discipline your kids!
    and James your not the only one who pays tax you know if I had my way you would pay more as the money is obviously needed.”

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    by Ernesto, Hull

    Friday, July 03 2009, 8:16PM

    “re: Jonathan, yes I was more than slightly patronising with comments about those who buy consumer goods on silly credit terms. But I do feel they are too short sighted to realise how they are being conned by capitalism in general. I certainly did not intend to label anyone who has not attended university or is living on a council estate as stupid.

    I used to work as a lab tech at a pharma company about 8 years ago. It is a job that nowadays requires a degree due to the job market saturation of graduate level chemists, although at the time I was on an apprenticeship scheme after getting decent GCSE's and no doubt there are competent children leaving school all over the country who cannot access these schemes which are now closed because of the graduates. I was doing my chemistry qualifications via day release and was paid slightly less than those with full degrees and experience, as would be expected. I was getting 12.5K.

    I went back for 6 months in 2006 after I resigned from an appalling company and took up my old role as a stop gap. I got £7.50 an hour which was about the same as the experienced degree laden lab techs who were almost all different to those I had left behind. In fact there was now an Iranian, an Iraqi, a Pakistani a Nigerian and some Polish. The english were a distinct minority. The techs were great people, very interesting, in fact much more interesting than those that used to work there. They were also all qualified with degrees or masters in science related subjects. They were happy to work for around 14-16K and probably would have took less. They had simply priced the educated English people out of the role. Of course this is no fault of the new techs but simply a very cynical and dirty way of forcing the wages down. At some point it will affect professional roles, and already is in some sectors, almost as much as the traditional working class roles.

    I know people who get paid more packing yeast at a dump of a factory on sutton fields, and the government wonder why people aren't taking science at university!

    So, pupils at Hull schools think hang on! why go to college and then go to UNI, take on loads of debt and then get paid the same as a bus driver at the end of it? The median salary for a gradute starting employment is 24K. But that is a national figure.How many quality companies in Hull do you know that are taking on graduates on a graduate scheme let alone at 24K? Not many, even before the slump.

    The fact is that many kids are savvy and know this. The majority of jobs in Hull, generally speaking are not the kind that require specialist skills, certainly not to the same level as they do elsewhere. Even if all the children in Hull excelled at school and when to university, we would have thousands of heavily in debt young adults sat around depressed that they had wasted the last 6 years of their life. Even if they migrated to other cities then what good is that to Hull and anyway the vast majority would remain unemployed because they would be competing with people from that area. The only other option would be to go abroad and work but again, what good is that to Britain and anyway other countries would soon pull the drawbridge up if they had a flood of highly educated people coming their way.

    What a double whammy for big buisness! Since the fee's were introduced the banks have thousands and thousands of people paying interest for a long time on their student loans and these same banks, and many many other companies get to reduce their wages, due to competition when employing educated people. Now we see the real reason to push evryone through university!

    School needs to be more relevant and teaching children in Hull the same curriculum as those in Oxford is a nonsense. Why not get young people in training at 13 or 14? Create good quality apprenticeships where a child see's the fruit of his/her effort at the end of the week in the form of tangible pound coins.

    True”

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    by Dave, Not in Jail!

    Friday, July 03 2009, 8:04PM

    “I'am ex David Lister, I thought it was a zoo compared to the jr school I left early due to 3 school system becoming 2.

    For me education stopped when I started David Lister & restarted once I started employment.”

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    by John, Hull

    Friday, July 03 2009, 7:45PM

    “The reason why Lister is not doing well and the others are is down to a couple of good factors.

    1. Leadership
    2. The constant negative publicity from HDM
    3Apathy of some of the pupils, NOT all.
    4. Why is it when pupils that go to Lister from the primaries that have confidence and are buzzing, suddenly within 6 months have lost all of the promise. WHAT is going on???”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by John, Hull

    Friday, July 03 2009, 7:40PM

    “OK, what I want to know is this. WHY has not the headteacher been SACKED. Why is Judith (fluffy bunnies) Harewood still in a JOB. Quite clearly the "policies and procedures" that you said were in place ARE NOT!!! and therefore, you should both be removed from your posts with IMMEDIATE effect.

    So, come on HDM, seeing as though you have been relishing in wanting Lister to close for long enough, let have that as a headline, why are these 2 muppets still in a JOB???”

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    by Ex Lister Staff Member., Retired.

    Friday, July 03 2009, 6:22PM

    “I spent 18 years teaching at David Lister prior to re-organisation in 1988, and have to say they were amongst the happiest years I spent in teaching. Many students went on to Further and Higher Education establishments and I can honestly say I enjoyed working with East Hull students. Even now I often meet ex students in Hull and they are always civil and pleasant . MY question is ......... What on earth happened?”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by A Concerned Mother, Here in Hull

    Friday, July 03 2009, 5:39PM

    “My kids go to Lister. I sent them there as they were happier to stay with their friends at the time. With the proposed closure being in 2015 they would both have left school by then, so I was happy that their education would not be affected. Now, yet again, another bombshell drops and the plans are changed. The Education system is not doing anyone any favours. The school is in special measures which means they are doing a lot to improve the situation, so why give up now? I feel sorry for all the pupils who do attend regularly and do want to learn. I am now one worried parent with a very worried daughter and feel very let down by the system.”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by JJ, York

    Friday, July 03 2009, 5:33PM

    “Seems some of the people commenting on this subjest need re-educating....
    And yes it has a lot to do with how these kids are brought up.
    Shame they don't stand a chance !!! .
    Shame the parents are so self centered.
    Thought when you had kids you did your best for them !!
    Seems not.”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Anthony, Hull

    Friday, July 03 2009, 4:39PM

    “Well for sure the other big school near preson road that caters for the kids from the same area as Lister seems to have no problems, why is it that ArchBishop seems to be doing fien and yet Lister is crap.”

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