{"id":808,"date":"2018-11-08T19:46:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T19:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=808"},"modified":"2018-11-22T20:11:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T20:11:21","slug":"how-to-get-the-answer-you-want-a-consultation-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/11\/08\/how-to-get-the-answer-you-want-a-consultation-masterclass\/","title":{"rendered":"HOW TO GET THE ANSWER YOU WANT – A CONSULTATION MASTERCLASS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lancashire’s schools used to be a mostly academy-free zone. The previous Labour-led administration at County Hall were strongly against them, and even devised a cunning plan to employ if the government ordered them to ‘academise’ every school in the county. This would involve establishing a wholly-owned but technically arms-length company to act as an ‘academy chain in name only’.<\/span><\/p>\n

How things change. It’s likely that, by the end of 2018, there will be no more local authority controlled mainstream secondary schools in the Lancaster district. In the last 12 months, Heysham High has been taken over by Star Academies (prop. Tauheedul in Blackburn), Carnforth High has been taken over by the Bay Education Trust (prop. Ripley St Thomas) and now the last two, Morecambe High and Central Lancaster High, seem likely to join the Bay Education Trust also.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Morecambe’s case, this is happening against its will – if you do badly in an Ofsted inspection, you must suffer – but Central’s bid for conversion, which has not yet been confirmed, is voluntary, led by the head and (most of) the governors. An extraordinary meeting of the governing body on Wednesday 21 November will make the final decision, taking the views of parents, teachers and the local community into account.<\/span><\/p>\n

In theory. Looking at the consultation documents, in particular the formal letter sent to parents by the head on 5 October, subtext predicts a strong majority in favour of conversion. Why? Naturally the letter is careful not to show any bias on the part of its author: ‘Working together […] will enable teachers to share resources and training […]; we hope to make all three of the strong schools in the Trust even better!’ And the response form is a masterpiece of even-handed data gathering, as parents are asked to choose from options 1, 2 and 3:<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Option 1 – I have a number of comments I would personally like to make and I attach a letter for consideration of the Governing Body.’<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Option 2 – I would like to know more about the proposals and would be interested in attending a short meeting on 17th October with other parents to ask further questions for clarification.’<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Option 3 – I am quite happy with the proposals and I don’t need more information.’<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, if you just tick the box, we’ll leave you alone; but if you don’t share our vision, you need to tell us WHY, and we want DETAILS, and we want to hear from you PERSONALLY. And if you want to just say you aren’t happy – well, that’s not on the list.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lancashire’s schools used to be a mostly academy-free zone. The previous Labour-led administration at County Hall were strongly against them, and even devised a cunning plan to employ if the government ordered them to ‘academise’ every school in the county. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[420,423,408,421,422],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-academies","tag-central-high-school","tag-issue-182","tag-schools","tag-secondary-education"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-d2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":818,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/11\/08\/subtext-182-better-late-than-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":808,"position":0},"title":"subtext 182 – \u2018better late than ever\u2019","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 8 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details: http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, staff survey, unions, lusu, fascists, academies, musicians' co-op, all workers are men, fire, offshoring, buses, widden, eating, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL In days gone by vice-chancellors used to boast about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":215,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/consultancy-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":808,"position":1},"title":"CONSULTANCY NEWS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Some colleagues in Leadership and Management, facing the imminent dissolution of their department and their transfer - if they're lucky! - to Organisation, Work & Technology or Entrepreneurship, Strategy & Innovation, have expressed disappointment at what they see as the thin business case presented by the Dean of LUMS, Prof\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1483,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/02\/19\/inglorious-partnerships\/","url_meta":{"origin":808,"position":2},"title":"Inglorious Partnerships","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed article Lancaster University's penchant for entering into partnerships on vague promises of internationalisation, i.e. how to increase overseas tuition fees, is well known (see subtexts passim ad nauseam). One doesn't need to be reminded of COMSATS, or Goenka, or indeed several other partnerships that didn't live to see the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":524,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/spawt-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":808,"position":3},"title":"SPAWT!","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 26 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"SALFORD QUEASE When asked if Gary Neville had 'shopped around' other universities before settling on Lancaster as his business partner, the Vice-Chancellor didn't 'believe' this to be the case. It turns out that this actually was the case, and that Gary had had extensive talks with Salford University about a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":260,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/immovable-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":808,"position":4},"title":"IMMOVABLE TYPE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 7 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And another thing about that lowercase Law School sign... Lancaster seems to have long had an unwritten rule (see what we did there?) that buildings should not have department names engraved on them, not least because there seems to be a tip in the 'Modern VC's Playbook for Keeping Departments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1108,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/12\/13\/tiers-4-fears\/","url_meta":{"origin":808,"position":5},"title":"TIERS 4 FEARS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 13 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed article Many have found fault with the recent efforts of the Student Registry to track postgraduate research (PGR) students' attendance by 'provision in Moodle PGR Records to record supervisory meetings' (email to supervisors, 16.10.19). This new online system of recording all meetings between PGR students and their supervisors is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}