Forge Valley -Dinner time cut ??

[alchresearch]

Ha - what a load of rubbish. I've been in on numerous school design meetings under PFI and BSF (not mutually exclusive btw) and the school management and staff have always been heavily involved and been the ultimate decision makers.

 

So have I - and staff have not been consulted or given their opinion. In some cases they've not even been allowed into the new build until its been constructed.

 

I've lost count of the number of BSF schools that I've visited which have had to spend money rectifying things which aren't fit for purpose.

[Walkley0 Mum]

The original senior management at Forge Valley were fully involved in all elements of the design process and therein lay the roots of the buildings problems. The final design was the fantasy of a small group of inexperienced people let loose with £40,000,000. There were no checks and counterbalances: Witness the deteriorating £25,000 tree gate, the forlorn “sensory garden”, the business office spaces provided when there wasn’t enough for school staff, the impractical white internal walls, the lack of provision for larger class sizes, the tarmac cycle track etc, etc. The place simply doesn’t function well as a school. The problems with the building have been compounded by the many shoddy decisions of two sets of managers.

I support the current lunch proposal- I just can’t fathom how they made it all by themselves.

 

The school won’t change until the management are replaced by experienced professionals with none of the past failures hanging in there and that won’t change until the dilettante head of the chain departs.

God only knows which bit of DNA he imported from S10 but the evidence suggests it was involved in the development of the bowel.

[The Manager]

Wisewood had no problems at Dinner times;) just thought id add that

[hyper]

The original senior management at Forge Valley were fully involved in all elements of the design process and therein lay the roots of the buildings problems. The final design was the fantasy of a small group of inexperienced people let loose with £40,000,000. There were no checks and counterbalances: Witness the deteriorating £25,000 tree gate, the forlorn “sensory garden”, the business office spaces provided when there wasn’t enough for school staff, the impractical white internal walls, the lack of provision for larger class sizes, the tarmac cycle track etc, etc. The place simply doesn’t function well as a school. The problems with the building have been compounded by the many shoddy decisions of two sets of managers.

I ask these questions respectfully ...

1. You say the mgt were fully involved. But were their requests implemented? I have seen it first hand where local management at the site are on the "build committee" (for want of a better phrase) and their requests are ignored and/or changed by the contractor and any efforts to counter this end up being unanswered emails, the end result being the changes get implemented anyway, bulldozed through by the council and the builders.

2. You seem very clued up with regards to FV management's behaviour and costs of component parts of the build. Are you staff there or a governor perhaps?

[Walkley0 Mum]

I ask these questions respectfully ...

1. You say the mgt were fully involved. But were their requests implemented? I have seen it first hand where local management at the site are on the "build committee" (for want of a better phrase) and their requests are ignored and/or changed by the contractor and any efforts to counter this end up being unanswered emails, the end result being the changes get implemented anyway, bulldozed through by the council and the builders.

2. You seem very clued up with regards to FV management's behaviour and costs of component parts of the build. Are you staff there or a governor perhaps?

 

I had a child at Myers Grove/Forge Valley. I have family and friends who have children there. At the time of the build I was as closely involved as a parent could be, going to all the meetings and trying to be involved in the "Parents Forum". I am not a governor or staff. It was absolutely clear where the decisions were coming from. There was discussion between the various parties but decisions like having office space for businesses and a "tree sculpture" for a gate were hardly likely to have been bulldozed through by council, architects or builders. The school has never been under council control anyway and the cost of the build was in the public domain there for all to see. I think the actual figure quoted at handover was £38,000,000 with, if memory serves, a contingency figure on top of that.

I was told at the time of the planning that the dining room solution was presented as a trade-off. i.e. small dining room more space for other stuff like an atrium vs larger dining room less space for other stuff like a film theatre

Edited June 25, 2015 by Walkley0 Mum

[hyper]

ok, thanks for answering and putting me in the picture

[Evei]

but decisions like having office space for businesses and a "tree sculpture" for a gate were hardly likely to have been bulldozed through by council, architects or builders. The school has never been under council control anyway and the cost of the build was in the public domain there for all to see.

 

I think under the rebuild rules the money is divided into 'packets' so they all got x amount that had to be spent on 'art/ public space'

 

I think a lot of areas, (like science and DT) are expensive to build and maintain so many school cut the number of lab areas they had, which means in most schools science is taught in normal classrooms for at least 1/3 of lessons.

[The Manager]

Has the consultation been done ?? it seems they having trials with the Dinner time cut now ??

Also just a thought if theres no room in dinner hall for the pupils whats up with having tables in the hall at side ??

[Llamado]

FFS. The sun is shining and it's Friday. Have you really nowt better to do then get on here bemoaning how a school organises its day. Move on, peace out

[chocki]

FFS. The sun is shining and it's Friday. Have you really nowt better to do then get on here bemoaning how a school organises its day. Move on, peace out

 

the irony! You're on here!