School land

My daughter attended a private school which it cost me an arm and a leg to keep her at. I considered it worth every penny. However, just before she was due to leave they decided to go state funded. I fought tooth and nail at every meeting to stop them but i could not make them believe that they would be forced to seel off the orchards, the play land, the hockey and netball pitches etc. No one listened and the motion was passed. Not long after my daughter left they were forced to sell the first of the orchards.

Further more, the pass mark for entrance exam used to be 80%. Now they have been forced to bring the entrance pass mark down to 45%.

@kent f OBE wrote:

Of course I wouldn’t want children to be taught in bad conditions Panda. But it just goes to show what certain establishments are made to sacrifice just to get by. I was quite shocked.

I agree with you kent – I think it’s out of order as well.

But it’s nothing new – my school in the late 1980s started selling off their playing fields for housing.

But we live in a divided society – the haves and the have nots.

I can’t see Eton ever having to sell of their lands to raise funds.

@mrs_teapot wrote:

Most of the school sports fields (think its about 230 in total) were sold off during the period of Labour government. Schools are now only allowed to sell up to half an acre without Ministerial approval. Astro Turf areas used to be assessed as part of pupil play area, however research has proven that children do not play in the same way on sterile surfaces.

I was involved in some of this research and I have yet to meet a single person who agreed with raising money in this way… still it happened even though in Labours manifesto they vowed it would not.

Teapot

It started under the Tories back in the 1980s and you cannot say that most were sold off under Labour. In fact, Labour introduced legislation:

“Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 was introduced on 1 October 1998 to stop the indiscriminate sale of school playing fields that occurred in the 1980s and early to mid 1990s. There are no central records of how many school playing fields were sold before October 1998.”

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subpage.cfm?action=collections.displaycollection&i_collectionID=158

@mrs_teapot wrote:

In total whilst Labour was in power 203 pitches were lost. In its 1997 General Election manifesto, Labour pledged to bring the then Tory government’s ‘policy of forcing schools to sell off playing fields to an end’. Ha!

As well as the playing fields, more than 1,000 other smaller pieces of school land were sold off.

The fact that more than 200 pitches were sold with direct ministerial approval shows Labour’s commitment was an empty promise. Their actions simply did not match the rhetoric.’

If you wish to verify these figures just google, its there for all to see

Teapot

Indeed those figures under Labour are there for all to see. But as I said before, it all started under the Tories in the 1980s but alas there are no figures to show the Tories impact.

If you want to knock the govt whose policy it was in the first place at least get the right govt.

Also, up to June 2005:

“Since October 1998 there have been 164 applications to dispose of school playing fields, (i.e. land that can be used for grass sports pitches). Of these, 158 have been approved, 2 rejected and 6 are still under consideration. Of the 158 approved, 66 were in respect of closed or closing schools.”

So, in fact, 42% of those approved were approved as the schools were closing or due to be closed anyway so they had no need for the land, which means your figures aren’t quite so hard hitting or condeming of Labour as you think or are trying to make out, Teapot.

So, Ha! :roll: