INVESTIGATION: Chaos at Shirley Warren Primary School and in Southampton Labour

Investigation

UPDATE (Friday 13/3/26): LABOUR IN REDBRIDGE IN CHAOS, SHIRLEY WARREN PRIMARY IN CHAOS, LABOUR-RUN COUNCIL IN CHAOS

1. We have offered Councillor Sally Goodfellow the right of reply to our article.

2. The claims made by the Labour-run Council do not seem to add up. The Daily Echo is standing by its headline that the Council sacked the governors.

3. The Bridge Education Trust have taken over a week to provide any minutes of the governor meetings, despite promising to get them to us by the end of this week. The Acting Headteacher has promised them to us by the end of Monday 16th March.

4. We have offered the three Shirley Ward councillors the right of reply to our article, and pointed out to the Leader of the Council Alex Winning who is a Shirley ward councillor that his own Cabinet Member and senior officers seem to contradict the Echo headline that the Labour-run Council sacked all governors including Labour Redbridge Councillor Sally Goodfellow.

 

Investigation

 

 

 

 

Another Southampton Redbridge Ward Labour Councillor Removed - First Lee Whitbread Now Sally Goodfellow

 

Redbridge Labour Councillor Sally Goodfellow
Photo: Southampton City Council

Labour Losing One Councillor Is Bad... 

First it was reported by the Daily Echo that Southampton Redbridge Labour Councillor Lee Whitbread has been suspended by the Labour Party. At the time of writing, it is one of the most popular posts on our website. 

And at the time of writing, Whitbread is still listed on the Southampton Labour website as a Labour councillor. Is he or is he not? Will he be standing in the local elections when his seat is up?

The Southampton City Council website lists him as "Independent". As we've said before, he is nothing to do with us. He is nothing but a fake independent and a suspended Labour one at that.

Another Redbridge Labour Councillor Loses A Council Role 

Now, it is reported by the Daily Echo that another Southampton Redbridge Labour Councillor, this time Sally Goodfellow, who is in the news. 

She has been removed as a governor at Shirley Warren Primary School. This school is not in the Redbridge ward. It is in the Shirley ward, where Labour have just lost two by-elections in a row.

Who is Responsible? Labour Councillors

The Leader of the Council at the moment is Councillor Alexander Winning. He is a Shirley ward councillor and is up for election in May 2026. The Cabinet Member for Children and Learning is Councillor Amanda Barnes-Andrews, a Bitterne Park ward councillor who is up for election in May 2027. Under collective responsibility at least, they would have both had to agree the removal of the governors.

UPDATE: A response has been received from Councillor Barnes-Andrews. She says that Cabinet did not make the decision. Her response will be communicated in a future article. 

Who Else Was A Governor? 

Councillor Goodfellow has been removed, along with all other governors, including the Chair Andy McHugh who is mentioned in the Echo article. The register of interests document on the school's website shows the following list of governors was in place:

• Zoe Newton, the now ex-headteacher and Governor
• Andy McHugh, Trust Governor, with interest registered as Shirley Warren Action Church
• Sophia Ship, Deputy headteacher and Trust Governor, with interest registered as Southampton City Council
• Aby Adekoya, Co-opted Governor, no interests registered
• Sally Spicer, Co-opted Governor, with interest registered as Southampton City Council. Spicer is Goodfellow's married name. In the Echo report, she is quoted as being "angry".
• Shannon Wannell, Parent Governor, no interests registered
• there are four blank rows in the register of interests, one parent governor, one Council governor, one staff governor, one co-opted governor 

All of these governors have been removed by the Labour-run Southampton City Council.

What Have Southampton Independents Done On Behalf of Parents and Residents? 

Southampton Independents has written to the Bridge Education Trust to express its concern about the situation and ask a set of questions on behalf of parents and the taxpayer. 

We have a response, to which we have also expressed further concern. So we await a further response. The Bridge Education Trust is also responsible for other schools in Southampton.

Southampton Independents has also written to Councillor Amanda Barnes-Andrews with a set of questions on behalf of parents and the taxpayer, and also to Councillor Alex Winning.

 

 

 

Southampton Schools: The Uncomfortable Truth

Will Brexit fix schools?

We have written about the failures of the Tory Government to provide sufficient school funding, class sizes increasing and pressures being put on school budgets.

We have written about the failures of the Labour Council to provide sufficient school funding, and their removal of funding from schools that they had previously promised.

Sadly like many things, it's yet another case of Labour or Tory, same old story.

Southampton Independents try to be balanced, including in our criticism. We owe it to Southampton's parents and pupils to get to the bottom of the reasons for problems in our schools.

That's because Southampton's pupils deserve the best education possible.

Below is a graph of the number of Year R (Reception) places in Southampton from 2007 to 2016. The source of the data is Southampton City Council.

It shows that the number of places has increased by 46% during a decade.

How can school funding ever keep pace with this massive increase?

The Tories claim that they are putting in more money than ever. But it still isn't enough, because the number of pupils has increased so much.

Is it due to mass immigration?

Is it due to an increase in birth rates in our country?

Is it solely due to Eastern European immigration since 2004?

Labour failed to predict the numbers of migrants, failed to stem mass immigration, and then the Tories and Lib Dems also failed to deal with it. It's been going on for 13 years.

You can see in the graph that the number of "White British" pupils has increased, as well as those who are of "White Other" ethnicity.

If these figures from the Council are correct, it appears that the birth rate has increased overall and not just for Eastern European migrants. But the data could be inaccurate.

If it is accurate, you can see that the number of "White Other" pupils has increased by a massive 318%, whereas the number of "White British" pupils has increased by one-tenth of that, 27%. However, because the "White British" pupils are already a much larger group, there has still been a substantial increase of 432 pupils, whereas the increase of "White Other" has been fewer pupils, 296.

In any case, will Brexit mean that all of these children will leave the UK? It is unlikely. And people who are committed to our country should be able to stay.

A solution needs to be found. It is imperative that the constant and massive flow of new people into our country, so-called net migration, needs to be controlled and reduced. Our schools can't cope.

Labour's Wilted Rose

Andrew Pope, our candidate to be the next MP for Southampton Test, says:

"Immigration needs to be controlled if Southampton is going to get a grip on class sizes and the funding crisis. It isn't an opinion. It is a simple fact. 

All of this time, Alan Whitehead has been the Labour MP for Southampton Test. What has he done about it? Very little and if he has done anything, the schools are still struggling.

People tell us that it is time for Alan Whitehead to go. He has had plenty of opportunities to fix Southampton's schools. But he has flunked the examination over 20 years. Alan Whitehead even voted against Brexit. How is that going to fix our schools? 

The Tory candidate Paul Holmes says he was Cabinet Member for schools, back at the beginning of this decade. Did he fix the crisis? No. Where has he been since then? In London.

Please vote for me to replace Alan Whitehead and be your Southampton Independents MP. I will get to the bottom of the schools problems and fight effectively to sort them out."

We ask you to please Vote Andrew Pope Southampton Independents. He will listen to you. He will work for you. He will stand up for you on schools.

Southampton Schools: More Labour Lies

Labour's wilted rose

Southampton Independents know the history of the Labour Party and the unions.

The Labour Party and the unions were once honourable.

The Labour Party and the unions once stood up for working people.

The Labour Party and the unions fought for the rights of working people.

But they lost their way.

Southampton Independents are not anti-union. But we are against the unions not representing their members properly and deceiving members and the public about their motives.

The Labour Party and the unions are now frequently about sustaining the Labour Party and the unions. And not about what they are supposed to be.

The film Made in Dagenham shows how unions can behave very badly. The union officials in that film were about supporting themselves, not the members and not the women fighting for equal pay. That film was set in the early 1970s. Some of the unions haven't moved on since then.

You only need to look at the Southampton Fair Funding for All Schools (SFFAS) campaign to see how they have lost their way.

We have provided comment on this website and in the Daily Echo to show how parents feel misled by that campaign.

We have showed how the SFFAS poses as a parent-led campaign but is in fact a barely-concealed con.

It is a union and Labour campaign. They should be honest about that. Instead, they have drawn in parents by pretending they are something they are not.

When questioned by parents about the campaign's funding and who was behind it, at one of the public meetings, the SFFAS organisers withheld information about the fact that it is a union campaign and the fact that many of the parents at that meeting, and otherwise involved in the campaign, are also union activists.

Parents are going to be angry when they find out the truth.

And SFFAS is not politically neutral. It criticises the Tory Government, claiming that the Government claims are misleading, but it does not criticise the Labour Southampton City Council.

That is misleading. It is also not balanced.

The SFFAS campaign is another in a long line of Labour fronts.

They pretend to be for the people. Instead, they are about the Labour Party.

It is more Labour lies, used to deceive parents. That is unforgivable.

And this adds to the lies that the Labour council and Labour councillors about Southampton's bins. Year after year Labour councillors said they would "keep weekly bin collections".

Don't forget, in February 2017, they voted to make your bins collected fortnightly. They even tried to spin it as "Alternate Weekly Collections".

Labour lies to keep itself going, using its union-funded lie machine.

Labour put the party, not people, first.

We are publishing the truth about schools funding. 

And we will try to be balanced, as Southampton Independents always try to be.

City College "Requires Improvement" Says OFSTED

Andrew Pope

Southampton Independents Emblem

Responding to the OFSTED "Further education and skills inspection report" Andrew Pope, Southampton Independents Councillor for Redbridge and Parliamentary Candidate for Southampton Test said:

"The problems at City College are another case of Labour or Tory, same old story.

Instead of bickering at Westminster or in the Council about who is at fault, they should be getting to the root of the problems. That's what Southampton Independents do. We listen and act.

As a former college student myself in IT, I understand the importance of vocational education to the development of young people and Southampton's economy.

Funding has been cut by the Tory Government, but the Labour Council has not been making the right decisions on education, removing funding previously promised from schools, which impacts on the ability to achieve at college level. 

Labour and Tory councillors have voted for millions to be spent on the "Arts Complex" but education is more important. They have the wrong priorities.

And last year's Council Scrutiny Panel of Labour and Tory councillors that looked at City College, seems to have made no difference whatsoever. Labour and Tory councillors put their party, not the people first, so how can they scrutinise themselves?

The Labour Council has failed its statutory duty to Southampton's young people and families, as has the Labour MP for 20 years Alan Whitehead. Mr Whitehead has failed Southampton's young people too. But the Tory Government has failed also.

The OFSTED report is clear that the Labour Council and Tory Government are failing, with unemployment 'higher then regional and national averages'. Totton College, like City College, has experienced similar problems. I intervened there back in 2015. Further education in Southampton is in trouble.

Both Labour and the Tories are more concerned with covering up, instead of moving pupils up, when it comes to education.

Like Southampton Independents said about Labour and Tory failings on school education, pupils and families deserve the best."

Labour Council Blames Tory Government For Its Own Failures

Southampton Independents campaigner Denise Wyatt wrote the following letter to the Daily Echo.

The online version is here, with links to other Echo articles on the funding of schools.

The original version of Denise's letter is below.

"I read today's Echo with interest, as I and my Southampton Independent colleague Councillor Andrew Pope had been contacted by parents and the headteachers of schools across Southampton. We met with those parents and headteachers.
The problems are not limited to just SEN schools.
As the Echo has reported at February Full Council, mainstream schools had their funding changed - not by the Conservative Government but by the Labour-run Council. Schools were told one thing by the Council and then the Council did another. They are furious with the Council.
Prior to that, the SEN provision in the City had not been properly forecast by the Council. And massive unplanned expenditure of millions of pounds resulted.
It seems that the Council doesn't have a grip on its schools, or on their funding, just like it doesn't have a grip on the safeguarding of children.
This is unsurprising perhaps when the current Chief Executive Ms Baxendale has presided over several Directors of Children Services and Labour has changed the Cabinet members for education and safeguarding many times over the last five years. The latest incumbent Labour Councillor Paffey doesn't have a grip, as neither did his predecessor former Cllr Jeffrey.
And no wonder OFSTED came back recently to inspect Southampton City Council. The Tories were no better when they were "in charge" of the Council.
It's just another case or Labour or Tory, same old story.
And it's one blaming the other, rather than parents and children getting the education and facilities they deserve - the best.
Best wishes,
Denise Wyatt
Southampton Independents"

Brexit Must Halt Mass Immigration

During the EU Referendum campaign, we campaigned for Brexit.

We did this because we listened to the views of people across Hampshire.

They told us they wanted to vote for Brexit.

And they told us why:

"Immigration"

"too many immigrants"

"immigration is too much"

"we don't mind people coming here, but it is too many".

And they voted to Leave in their droves.

They turned up to vote, unlike in most local council elections where turnout is under half what it was in the EU Referendum.

They saw the effect of mass immigration on their daily lives.

For example, Southampton's schools have been impacted by an increased birth rate brought in largely due to mass immigration.

Southampton City Council had to expand the number of school places in 2012. I was at the Scrutiny meeting where councillors were asking questions about it. I particularly wanted to know whether there was any truth to the claim that immigration was putting pressure on the schools.

And the evidence that was provided by Council officers was clear.

Roll forward to 2016, and I asked Council officers for an update.

The pressure had not been alleviated and the percentage of school places taken by immigrants had gone up while school places taken by British nationals had gone down.

This should be no surprise - successive governments, whether Labour, Tory or Coalition, had failed to control mass immigration.

This is just one example - public services across local government and national government have been put under strain.

Brexit must halt mass immigration and the Government must control immigration to sustainable numbers.

That is what people voted for on 23rd June.

Now it is the Government's job to deliver.

Best wishes,
Councillor Andrew Pope