Harwich: school under fire by council leader (From Gazette)

Harwich: school under fire by council leader

4:11pm Wednesday 11th February 2009 in Search By Frances Leate

PARENTS, teachers and community leaders have reacted with anger after a council chief described a secondary school as the worst in Essex.

Lord Hanningfield, leader of Essex County Council, made the claim about The Harwich School, in Hall Lane, Dovercourt, after an inspection of schools in the Essex area.

During a full council meeting on Tuesday***Feb10***, Mr Hanningfield said: "The Harwich School was the worse school I have been to of the lot. There was sewerage coming out of the floor."

Now, people from within the Harwich community, have branded the comments as “rash” and “unhelpful”.

Harwich Town councillor, Steven Henderson, said: “If Lord Hanningfield wanted to demoralise staff and pupils then he has gone the right way about it.

“He could have sat down with staff, governors, parents and perhaps even residents and discussed the issues that needed addressing rather than doing it in public.

“Then he could come out and make a statement about how much he was planning to put in to the school.

“Even though we all know the school has its problems it isn’t very helpful to come out with rash statements like that.”

One parent, whose teenage daughters attend the school, said she thought Lord Hanningfield’s comments were “harsh” and “untrue”.

She said: “To say it is one of the worst in Essex is just not true. His comment seems harsh because all schools have their problems and there have been a lot of improvements there, particularly in the last few years.”

Headteacher at the Harwich School, Nigel Mountford, said he was determined to make the school “the envy of the region” but admitted the school itself needed urgent attention.

He said: “My aim as Headteacher is to make The Harwich School a highly successful organisation that is the envy of the region.

“Our results continue to improve but our students are working, in some cases, in poor physical conditions.

“Over the last two years we have invested heavily in internal developments and cosmetic improvements but the structure of our buildings is in desperate need of significant investment.”

The county council school inspection was conducted earlier this year as part of a scheme to give schools in Essex a £10 Million cash boost.

Mr Mountford said that the refurbishment of new toilets for pupils had been put on hold after problems with drainage.

He said: “In one block we are funding the refurbishment of our second set of student toilets, however this is on hold because of some problems with drainage in this teaching block.

“Building surveyors have identified the reasons for this which in part is a consequence of some earlier work commissioned by the Local Authority.

“Unfortunately this has led to one incident of sewage overflowing from an internal manhole cover. I am confident that this problem will be rectified very shortly.”