Q1: Oldham’s Brexit Preparations

Boris Johnson plans to take us out of the European Union and will implement his deal if he wins the General Election.

Oldham Borough has received and continues to receive thousands of pounds in EU funding.  

We still wait for any clarity on the ‘Prosperity Fund’ which is supposed to replace all EU funding. 

There is a real fear despite the promises that the ‘cake will be smaller’ and places like Oldham will lose out.

The UK Government has also paid Oldham Council £315,000 for so called “Brexit Preparations”.

Our future is now less clear and more uncertain, so we must prepare and prepare for the worst.

Of the £315,000 of UK Brexit preparation money, Oldham Council has currently spent £35,000 in total.

£20,000 has gone on foodbanks and £15,000 making sure that European child nationals in care receive settled status before the deadline of 31st of October.

So, that leaves a rather substantial pot of money £280,000 to be exact.

I am most interested to know what this Council has planned to do with the money.

I hope there are already measures in place, however if there are no detailed plans, can I be advised what the timeframe for release of the funds and a spending plan be put forward.

Q2: Progress 8 in Oldham Schools

The relatively new accountability measure for Secondary Schools, is called Progress 8.

Progress 8 tracks how pupils make progress from the end of Primary school to the final stages of High school.

Schools used to be judged on performance, whereas now this measure is based on pupil progression.

Once again in Oldham, as with other education matters, our score is below the nation average. 

Regrettably our Progress 8 score is also behind the national average.

What is even more concerning, is that four of our secondary schools fall into the well below average category.

To put this into perspective, those same four schools are in the bottom 12% of all schools, nationally.

This year, four out of 13 schools locally are well below average and five out of 13 are below average.

This is worse than last year; we have not improved; the direction of travel is in the wrong direction!

We are performing much worse than the national average, but also worse than our neighbours in Rochdale and Manchester.

Now credit where credit is due, Waterhead Academy is the only school that shows improved performance, others are deteriorating.

We have seen an overhaul of the SEN provision locally after Oldham Borough received a damming report by OFSTED in 2018.

Despite this, Oldham Borough persistently fails to give the standard of results that parents and pupils want and expect.

How will your administration address this perpetual underperformance in our Secondary Schools?

The situation is getting worse and not better.

I am interested to know when the Labour Council will reverse the stagnation or decline in standards that have plagued our local education system since 2011.