Big School update

Right. There is now a local petition, being organised by someone who as far as I can tell is a local LibDem (he stood and lost the (safe Tory) Park ward on Peterborough City Council for them in 2002), and therefore is quite likely to be the sort of organised type who will turn out local opposition if it is there. The online petition now has 375 signatures, although there are a few people up there who don't live in Peterborough (apparently "Hugh Jaas" lives in Peterborough, who knew?) and quite a few duplicates, so I am not sure how seriously to take it. I think that Bill Wright's petition is going to be the definitive one; I'll keep tabs on the Peterborough Evening Telegraph (a man's got to have a hobby) to see a) what happens to it, in terms of how much local opposition there is to Alan McMurdo's plans for the school day and b) if there is a lot of opposition, what the response is. I will reinvest the credibility points I won from the BNP election result forecast in this one; I'll put 4 of them on "local opposition not that great" (a speculative punt with not much evidence; Alan McMurdo claims that the parents have always known about this but he would wouldn't he), and the remaining 16 on "if there is a lot of opposition, which I would count as 1500 signatures (assuming he is collecting adult signatures; more obviously if under-18s are being collected) or more, then there will be some material adjustment to the school day plan".

PS: misanthropic cynic that I am, I think McMurdo is being wildly optimistic if he thinks that the "enrichment/enhancement" periods will be filled with children constructively pursuing their extracurricular interests. A combination of two parts scheduling problems to three parts staff inertia means that these will end up as off-the-books playtimes. Which is a shame; I went to the electronics club and was in a band at school[1] and I don't really look back and wish I'd spent more time mooching round the playground.

[1]For about five minutes; I was a really shitty bass guitar player. Thereafter, I just kind of hung around, which is also a character-building experience in its own way.