Riverport Radio Podcast
Latest news, interviews, discussions & what’s happening where in St Ives Cambridgeshire.
Riverport Radio Podcast
Episode 3 - An in depth interview with St Ivo school Principal Tony Meneaugh, an interview with Kathy from St Ives Slimming World & a feature on the New Years Day Hangover Party fundraiser!
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I'm Ron and I'm John and I'm Paul, and not forgetting our award-winning editor, eric the Dog Welcome to Riverport Radio.
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Paul Dodson:Welcome to Riverport Radio's first podcast of 2025. We'd like to start by wishing all our listeners a healthy and happy new year. So what's coming up in this month's podcast?
Paul Dodson:Well, we start with a visit to St Ivo School, where we hold an in-depth interview with the principal, tony Minogue.
Paul Dodson:That's followed by an interview with Cathy from the local Slimming World group for all those looking to lose weight after the festive period. And finally, we have a feature on the New Year's Day Hangover Party. Now in its fifth year, the Hangover Party has become a regular fundraising event in St Ives. And don't forget, as well as listening to the whole podcast, you can just use the individual chapters to listen to the segment that interests you most. So let's get on with the show and head over to St Ives School.
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Ron Westrip:Today, the Riverport team find ourselves at the St Ivo Academy as guests of the Principal, mr Tony Meneaugh. Thanks for inviting us to the school, tony, you're very welcome. Thanks for inviting us to the school, tony, you're very welcome. We should start by making it clear that the three of us here today myself, john and Paul none of us have any connection with the school. None of us have children or grandchildren attend the Ivo. Although John did, we understand his children did come here in the 80s and 90s. Given his age away, john was a governor of the school at the time. Residents have always been very proud of the school and its achievements. Anyway, we're here at the school today to discuss some of the issues that have been reported to the town council, which were featured in the Riverport newspaper. We have a number of questions to ask about the school, but before we start, is there anything you wish to say, tony?
Tony Meneaugh:Yeah, so I'm just very grateful for you to come in to talk to me and give us opportunity to put forward the school's response and schools view. Obviously, the town council meeting was a bit of a surprise to us. We weren't invited to it and obviously I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what was said. I've only got the document which I believe was presented and obviously what you good gentlemen reported.
John Souter:Yeah, I think it wasn't an official meeting of the town council. It was a report given during the public participation part. So, um, there wouldn't have been formal notice of there being a meeting, and that's probably the reason why you weren't aware of it. In fact, I wasn't aware of it. I just happened to be in the town hall at the time with I was presenting something else to the town council, and so I was intrigued as to what was being said, and hence we wrote the report which, apart from a couple of very minor points, was a fair reflection of what was said there and just relating to that, there were some reports of bullying a while ago.
Paul Dodson:Can you tell us what the school have been doing about that? Have you been sort of active have been doing about that? Have you been sort of active about doing something about that?
Tony Meneaugh:So the school's always very active and takes bullying very seriously. We've got to understand. We are a normal comprehensive school. Sometimes children are unkind to each other. I'm not going to sit here and say that unkind behaviours never happen in this school, because they do. Young people are growing up. They make mistakes sometimes and sometimes they're not as kind to each other as they can be. What's really important is that the school takes it seriously, listens to the child, listens to their views about how they want it to be sorted as well, and uses the pastoral team to provide appropriate support, talking to the parents as well, and uses the pastoral team to provide appropriate support. You know, talking to the parents as well about how we've addressed it and how we plan to keep their child safe moving forward, pretty much every case is an individual one and needs the context of that case in order to solve it appropriately okay, so do you feel that you've actually got somewhere with that issue now and it's, it's better?
Tony Meneaugh:our children basically say to us, bullying isn't a huge problem in this school. Obviously that's it. That's gonna have a different perception for the person or the family that are the ones who are experiencing it and it's going to be feel a far larger issue to them, quite understandably. But um, every time our students talk to external people who come in, they are. They were quite clear. It's not really an issue here and if it is, then the teachers deal with it you're listening to riverport radio riverport radio.
Ron Westrip:One of the things we do as the Riverporter. We follow quite closely local social media and what people are saying, much of which is taken as a pinch of salt and wouldn't be published by us. But there was an item knowing that we were going to see you today. There was an item on facebook just before christmas where a lady new to the area apparently just asked a question um, what does anybody give? Can anybody give an honest and current opinion of what they think of the ivo score? The actual results? Responses were absolutely huge about it, a great list of responses, but they varied between it's not a school, it's a prison to the other end of the scale, which said my two girls are doing fine and the teachers are fantastic and all schools are strict. So it's obviously a sort of mixed bag there. But how would you react to that?
Tony Meneaugh:well see, social media is quite interesting, isn't it? Because, um, particularly that group, I don't think we're invited to. So there's, there's no, it's not an open um forum for us to um respond to any of the concerns. What I would say is come in and see the school. Everybody who comes and visits actually sees us truly in action, exactly what happens. It is not a prison. We do have strict rules, but many schools have strict rules. They need boundaries. Students actually like boundaries within their life in order to feel safe, secure and they know what's happening. So that parent I would completely say you know, just come and see what it's like. You can dictate where you want to go in the school. I'm not going to give you a varnished version of it. You'll see it's warts and all. But don't believe, as you say, take things with a pinch of salt in social media.
John Souter:Interestingly, that was one of the comments that someone had made. They recommended that the lady came to the school and came to see you in person. So it wasn't all negative. No, no, no, quite a lot of. It was quite positive.
Ron Westrip:So one of the issues that's been amongst those comments as well has been the sort of disciplinarian sort of approach of the school towards one of the ones which seemed a little trivial, but the actual students being reprimanded for having their shirts hanging out.
Tony Meneaugh:Is this something you recognise? So obviously we want students to look smart. You know. A smart dress, smart mind. It's your approach to your learning and your approach to your school. Do students get detentions for having their shirts tucked out? Yes, if it's blatant, it's all the way out, you know, but if you've got a little bit untucked, you don't you just say can you talk that in for me please? You know we're reasonable people. Yeah, we want students to get things right and we will just remind them verbally. But anybody who just um takes it too far, then they need a sanction. That's not an accident, that's done on purpose, and we make it really clear that our sanctions are not for accidental situations. They are for making a deliberate choice.
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Ron Westrip:Something that sort of intrigues me. I never had a chance to ask this of a school principal. I actually taught myself for some years at the University of Hertfordshire and Hertford Regional College as a tutor. One of the biggest things we had was students and telephones they would sit. The advent of smartphones and the ability to be able to text stuff from under the table without actually showing the teacher what they're doing became very prevalent and classes were disrupted something dreadful and they were all sort of it was a major issue. What policy do you have? This must be an issue with kids bringing phones in see.
Tony Meneaugh:So we don't really have a problem with it because and it's not a prison but we do have a strict rule with it that if you're seen with your phone, there's no argument, it will just be confiscated on site and your parents will have to come and collect it. Students now, don't mess about with it. We have far fewer phones confiscated than many of the schools that I've ever worked in. So it's the rule. They can't bring a phone. So you can bring a phone and it shouldn't be switched off. It shouldn't be in your bag, because some students need it for safety to get home with. We understand that, but you cannot use it from the start of the day to the end of the day.
Tony Meneaugh:That's our rule. If you're seen with it, it's confiscated immediately and because it's that certainty of the sanction that will happen, the consequence will happen. Every student knows it. There's no getting away with it. It just doesn't happen anymore. So it now becomes a non-issue. In the same way you were talking about the shirts, we have to give far fewer now detentions for shirts being non-talked because nobody does it anymore.
John Souter:So are you saying that you're happy with the disciplinary procedures that you have in place at the school now?
Tony Meneaugh:I am. I think the behaviour policy is very robust, don't get me wrong and it is rigorously applied. But that's actually a good thing because students know then it's going to be fairly applied to all. They know what the boundaries are, they know what the rules are and they don't want to break them or try and get away with it. So we can just move on Now, like the conversation with the shirts, it's not a talking point anymore. Conversation with the phones we don't have to talk about it really anymore because it's no longer an issue for us. We don't have disruption and lessons with phones. Has it never happened? Of course it happens occasionally, but it's not the same issue that I feel that some schools up and down the country are facing with the use of phones in school, the disruption, the distraction that it causes. Then you bring the social media aspect of it, our students photographing each other, recording each other, the bullying that come side. Pulling from that.
Ron Westrip:We don't have that we found that HE level. Um, after all, as smartphones became more prevalent, we actually included them in the class. We made the students use them as they would a laptop, OK. We'd actually sit them in the class and sort of say to them there's something you've got to research here. Get your phones out, this is what you're looking for and set them about tasks using their phones. And we thought, if nothing else, at least they're learning how to use the phone so creatively as, rather than just text their mates on the what time the pubs open you're listening to Riverport radio.
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Tony Meneaugh:I think it's a bit of a difference, though, isn't there, which is quite interesting, between the older students and the younger ones, who we have to safeguard because when they're on the phones, we would have no idea what they're accessing, and we're still responsible for them during school days.
Ron Westrip:Quite right, we had a huge difference between FE and AG as well. Quite right, we had a huge difference between FE and AG as well.
John Souter:Can we touch on one of the main issues that came up at the Town Hall, which was the sixth form, which I can recall having over 400 pupils in the sixth form and my children here and I think we're down to about 107 now in the sixth form. And that's here, and I think we're down to about 107 now in the sixth form. That's quite a massive drop, isn't it?
Tony Meneaugh:so we have 107 in year 13 and we have got 38 in year 12 and you know I've been really honest about this. Yeah, this is that isn't a situation we would want to have. This is worrying to us. That is obviously the community, because we are a community school.
John Souter:We're the only sixth form provision, second provision in the town and it's really important that the community, our children, have the opportunity to study locally yeah, so why is it then that all the other schools in the area Hinchinbrook, ramsey are going up and the Ivo and other Astria schools are going down Long Sands and Cottonham, I believe their sixth form numbers are down.
Tony Meneaugh:So, just for clarity, cottonham don't have a sixth form. Long Sands have gone down as well, and you know there are a variety of reasons why our sixth form stands have come down as well, and you know there are a variety of reasons why our sixth form numbers have gone down, some of which I put in the newsletter because you know you need to be honest and open about it, especially with the parent engagement evenings as well. Some of it is the choice of subjects, some of it is the combinations that people want to do. Some of it is for that year 11 group. They've gone through an awful lot of change within the school. Some of it they've not always agreed with and they wanted a fresh start. They wanted to try something new somewhere else.
Tony Meneaugh:Now that's interesting for them because some, unfortunately, are now doing two-hour trips each day, which they probably hadn't figured the impact that that would have on their lives to study, that extra time they could be studying, whereas actually they've got a brilliant 6-4 locally which they could attend. So I'm not I'm not going to say there is there's one single reason why the numbers have gone down and I think I've said previously, it's almost like a perfect storm of things that have happened which the school has had to take account of, have to say some of it is our own doing and we're going to have to take responsibility for that, reflect on it and make some changes, make some promises, build up the trust again with the local community and our current year 11s so that they do see us as the natural place where they would continue, because we want our students to think of us as an 11 to 18 school. You know, you come here for seven years, you're successful and then you go to university or whatever it is you want to do afterwards.
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John Souter:So I noticed that you've announced the upgrading of the sixth form in Hunt's post with following the visit of Ben Abisieti, the MP. We had a meeting with him in Astria Academy, at Principles I think, and it was announced that you were going to do an upgrade. I mean, do you think that's one of the issues then?
Tony Meneaugh:I think we have to be competitive with the other facilities that other places have got. You know, northstow opens just this year and that's a beautiful building. So inspirational facilities can make people want to go there and, if I'm going to be honest, ours looks a little bit tired at the moment. You know the students want to know that we're willing to invest in them, that we feel that the sixth form is so important that actually that's where the money needs to go to give them the facilities that make them want to stay with us. Just to touch on the timeline, it is something that we had already started previous to the MP coming, so we can't put it at his door then I his
Tony Meneaugh:door then? No, but he wasn't the catalyst. It was great to meet him and to hear his concerns and work with him and talk about how we can work together to address the concerns of the community. But no, this is something that we've identified pretty early that needs to be addressed. So we talked to the sixth form, as they will say. Mrs Minow started getting us the sofas quite early on in the autumn term to try and improve the situation. Unfortunately, the school budget only goes so far, which is why we've got the benefit of being a part of a trust, because I can draw then on the central finances. It doesn't have to come out my budget to give the the brilliant facilities which I think we're going to have.
John Souter:So the way I look at this issue is that that is, to a degree, window dressing. The real issue is the pupils can't do the subjects they want to do. That's largely why many of them have gone to another school, and that relies on your sixth form offer being available, rather, because I think you said that at some point we're not running, that we haven't had enough. Take it, take us up on that. Well, that's that's difficult for students to handle, isn't it? They want to know that, when they're going to go to a sixth form, that what they want to do is available. So isn't that a bigger issue for you? How are you going to suddenly provide the classes that are required for?
Tony Meneaugh:students who want to go on to university. So we've changed the way we've done things this year. So you're quite right, for September 2024, that intake there were some subjects that were quite low uptake which we had to let the students know that it couldn't run. Ultimately, there is only so much money in a school's budget and you have to, to a certain extent, be financially viable within the sixth form to make sure it is cost-effective for the school. But I do take your point that we need to provide for students' futures as well.
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Tony Meneaugh:So we've expanded the number of blocks that students can choose from. So there's five blocks now, rather than four, which they choose the three subjects from, which gives them a greater choice. We talk to students right at the start of this academic year about okay, so what sort of combinations are you interested in? Before we set up the blocks? Um, so that we could almost guarantee the vast majority of those who wanted to come to us would get the combinations that they were interested in, and then then we put the blocks together in order to facilitate that, so that when they apply which is finishing next week, on the 14th in my choice 16 and they have the breadth and the possibility of the combinations that they want so are you confident that next year, then, that the intake will be greater because you, the students, will be able to get the courses they want?
Tony Meneaugh:I think we've done everything we possibly can now to increase the offer that we've got for students, to make them, make it possible for them to have the combinations that they want. Yes, I do want, we have to have the student body increase.
John Souter:Yes, we want to be a popular sixth form, we want to do everything we can. I'm going to play devil's advocate now because I mean, obviously this is an issue that's been going around and we hear lots of different opinions, and one opinion is that Astria generally have been trying to run down sixth forms because they're more costly to run.
Tony Meneaugh:Right? No, that's not the case, absolutely not the case. No, why would you want a sixth form in your school?
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Tony Meneaugh:I'm asking. We've got fabulous staff here who want to teach to the highest level in secondary education that they can of their subject, that passion about their subject. We desperately want to have a viable sixth form here. No, I don't want it to go ever so, neither does the trust either.
John Souter:Are you so that, hand in hand with that? You've mentioned it. The staff I mean good teachers want to teach at the highest level. Indeed, the best schools have the teachers that will come because they can teach sixth form standard, but that bounces back through the whole school. You end up with the best. Are you struggling to get teachers to come to the ivo now?
Tony Meneaugh:I think we so. Obviously there's a a national shortage and issue with recruitment for all schools. Do we have it as bad as any other in the country? No, actually, our recruitment is pretty good. We don't have many long-term supply within the school at all, whereas some schools are really struggling for certain subjects. And we do have a sixth form. We do have a wide sixth form offer and I've published as well that the offer will be wider and I guarantee that those subjects will be happening next year no matter what. So anybody joining us has got that reassurance not just the students but also the staff that they will still have the opportunity to teach at that really exciting high level in their subject so will you be offering foreign languages in the sixth form then?
Tony Meneaugh:Yes, it's on the block. I said if anybody, even one person, wants to do it, it will run. Now we'll be honest with that person and say you know you might end up being in the class of one person with one teacher and that's not everybody's cup of tea.
John Souter:Well, it's certainly not the school's cup of tea.
Tony Meneaugh:If money's tight. That's the issue, isn't it? Yeah, but so it is financially expensive to do that, but the financial expense that we're going to outweigh for that is, I think, worthwhile to build back the trust of the community and the students that they have some reassurance that nobody's going to like pull the Rook from them when it comes to September. That I want to go to st Ivo six form. I want to do this subject. I know, even if I'm the only person in there, they are gonna run it from me, guaranteed. I've put it black and white out there, shouted it from the hilltops, so there's no growing back that I can possibly do without. Well, not now. We're going to put it out there on the radio.
John Souter:So that's probably good news, isn't it? In a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, in a.
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Ron Westrip:Can I ask, as they complete sixth form, do you track where they go from there? Do you have any idea where they move on to?
Tony Meneaugh:Yes, so we do have destinations, data that comes out later of whether they go to university, apprenticeship etc. And that's actually published on the form tables right nationally any particular courses that they tend to gravitate towards it's generally different each year for the particular interests of students.
Ron Westrip:so I would say no one cohort is exactly the same as the next and something which was a constant issue for me at the time to get into sixth form in the first place. But government some years ago now made it that level two English and maths particularly had to be achieved before you could get to move on. Is that still the case?
Tony Meneaugh:So we do ask students to get a grade five in English maths, not in maths for all subjects. So one of the other things we did this year is we tweaked the entry criteria so that some subjects that don't particularly need the maths part of it wouldn't need that five, for example art. I don't mean any disservice to art, but the writing part of it is really important for english, but not necessarily the mathematical part of it for art.
Ron Westrip:So they have a law range requirement for the maths components we had fe students that were looking to get onto apprenticeships, which, uh, being denied to them because they hadn't actually come out of school with level two english and maths. And it's exactly as you say. In some cases it was quite irrelevant whether they had it or not, but they were. They were blocked from doing it.
Tony Meneaugh:That's not caused you a trouble in recent times there is always some students who fall short of an entry requirement, if we're going to be honest.
Tony Meneaugh:But what we do is we look, especially the day before we get the results, before the students do, to see how close students are to the boundary. So anybody who is a few marks off getting a five, for example, getting a five, for example, well, in my mind a student who misses the grade five by three marks isn't that much worse than a student who gets the grade five by three marks. Their ability isn't particularly different. So why would I put a barrier in place for them to come into our sixth form? We have a discretionary amount which we work by each year to still enable students to come to us, even if they narrowly miss. They can do the resets when they come to us, but it's almost an assumption that when they get here they were so close they might as well admit them, give them another go at it when they're doing their A-levels as well, where they thought that they're probably going to get it the second time around.
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John Souter:Right. Well, as we've touched on sort of students' attainments and things, can I mention Progress 8 8 score to you? You can, because I believe that the I just need to explain this to some of the listeners what the Progress 8 score is. It's basically a measure of a pupil's progress between the ages of 11 and 16, and it's a way of measuring a school's performance. You agree with that?
John Souter:yeah that's that's what the data says on the, on the government's website anyway. So basically a zero score is there's no change. That's that's the standard, uh. And if a if. If you've got a score of one, that means you've gone up a whole grade improvement, etc.
Tony Meneaugh:A zero means your students are making similar progress to students nationally.
John Souter:Correct. So they're not gaining, they're not losing, they're not doing any better than other schools. They're doing what is predicted.
Tony Meneaugh:They're doing the same as what is predicted. So not quite what was predicted, because it's always different every year. Because you're measuring against that whole cohort.
John Souter:Yes, yes, yes, yes, so it's measured against their cohort, which is the important thing. And I just want to ask you, because in 23 your measurement was 0.23, which meant there was a slight grade. The most recent one is 0.14, so it's actually gone down and also on your website it's still at the 0.23, so that's not really giving an accurate picture.
Tony Meneaugh:So the website does have a link, though, to the performance tables, which we have to do to make it quite clear what our performance is. We are, though, positive 0.14. Our students do get more progress than other students nationally.
John Souter:But I can also know that in committee meetings and minutes that you were aiming for a 1.37, so you've gone quite a long way down from what you were aiming for.
Tony Meneaugh:We're always aiming to get the best possible progress for our students.
John Souter:We have high expectations of them, so we set targets very high for the students to try the best to achieve because we want everybody to get disappointing that instead of going or staying the same and going up, it's gone down there well what's the factors for that.
Tony Meneaugh:So progress is quite interesting because even for example, it was 0.23 and it went down to 0.22, the way it's calculated doesn't necessarily mean that that's a drop. You think about it more as the overall category of whether it's statistically significant. So we were 0.23, which is above average. If you get higher than that, then you're called significantly above average when you fit into a new band. But once you're than that year, then you're called a significantly above average because you fit into a new band. But once you're in that band, moving between it isn't actually a statistically significant change. Going from one band to the next is a statistically significant change. Moving within the band doesn't necessarily mean an improvement or a decrease because you're not comparing one year to the next. You're always only comparing within one year you're listening to Riverport Radio.
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Tony Meneaugh:Riverport Radio don't get me wrong. I want the best progress score possible. I would love to see it going up and up and up, but sometimes it may not and we have to then look back at it. We see where there may be any issues or may have been any areas.
John Souter:So have there been any issues then, and what's the school doing about that?
Tony Meneaugh:So the English grades were slightly lower this year than they were previous year and English gets double weighted within the Progress 8, so that's something that we're looking at and working with our staff. The maths was around about the same and the subjects in our open bucket increased a little bit, but it's not as good as what the EBAC figures are or the maths figures, for example.
John Souter:Many people have mentioned to us that they think the school itself is okay, they think the teachers are okay, they're very unhappy with the academy, with the Astrea Trust Academy. It seems to them that the Astrea Academy is pulling all the strings, as it were. And I mean this is I'm only giving you comments that we've had here. I spoke with a well-respected teacher a little while ago about academies generally and he sort of said that there were two types of academies. He sort of said that there were two types of academies. One was the relatively benign sort of academy which is like a critical friend, offering advice and respecting each school is different. And then there's the other sort of academy, where it's more about conformity and uniformity and where the schools and the teachers have to follow the same rules regardless. And that's been something that's been mentioned to me on more than one occasion about the Ivo school. So which category does the Ivo and the Astria come into?
Tony Meneaugh:I've always said that we are a community school and we're not a cookie cutter sort of organisation. So what happens here is not the same as what happens in Long Sands or O'Neill or any of the South Yorkshire schools. We do have our own character, our own slight nuances on how we do things, but there are also agreed ways that we all think actually, you know, that's a good idea, it's something that we can replicate quite easily in all the schools. So why wouldn't you, why wouldn't you, um say, reinventing the wheel, when actually you can draw on the good experience that's happening or good practice that's happening elsewhere? Now are there certain things that we agree. Yeah, we're going to do, and you know the heads of all the secondaries get together regularly with the Australia Central team to discuss about our way forward. It happens once every term, so it's not always a top-down approach. Some of the times it is a bottom-up approach as well.
John Souter:Well, that's good. Yeah, the it's also good you know you don't.
Tony Meneaugh:You don't join the trust to get no support whatsoever or just get on with your own thing. You know you join the trust, or you're part of your trust, because you want to get the expertise and the support of people who have done this job before and have seen improvements in other schools before. So, for example, for our trust they've moved from only one school, I believe in the secondaries was good 12 months ago to eight out of the nine are now good.
Tony Meneaugh:You don't get that sort of um improvement if you're doing something wrong right, you're listening to riverport radio riverport radio well, people might not always agree with the way we're doing it and obviously you know everybody's entitled to their opinion.
John Souter:I I think that raises two issues. First of all is the accountability of academies. As I mentioned right at the beginning, I was a governor of the school, but long before academies were on the scene and the governing body was the ultimate body that you, as a headmaster, would be responsible for. Now it's an academy trust. The governing body, seemingly, is less powerful. The governing body, for instance, can't decide that Ivo could leave the academy. It's impossible. The only way that Ivo could leave the academy is the Secretary of State to say it in effect, and I don't think any school has ever left an academy, but that's by the by.
John Souter:The issue for me is the accountability rests with an academy trust committee, and that's quite a long way removed from the individual schools, isn't it? And it means that it can be quite frustrating for an individual school.
Tony Meneaugh:But the Academy Trust has a central team which they rely on of educational experience experts, if you will, to support that academy. So, even though it feels a long way away, there are many, many people who support the school in between them and advise them as well, because they're not necessarily educationists either. In the same way as local governors were yes, some were- some weren't.
John Souter:Yeah, exactly.
Tony Meneaugh:We're really lucky because we've got a very active local governance committee who work passionately with us to support school and challenge the school as well. So, even though they do have an advisory role, we definitely take that advice on board.
John Souter:So you also mentioned the fact that you've gone up to good. Yeah, I assume you're talking about Ofsted. Yeah, sorry, yeah, so that was another point I wanted to cover, because it's a pretty well-known fact that when you were being Ofsteded, teachers came in from other academy schools and then, vice versa, when you were being Ofsteded, teachers came in from other academy schools and then vice versa.
Tony Meneaugh:So my only question is that ethical? Yeah, because that's what all academy trusts do. It's also sort of expected by Ofsted. They have quite a gruelling schedule for the two days. They've got to get through a very large school, 1,500 students' school, see a number of members of staff, see several departments, and in order for us to free up those members of staff, somebody has to do their duties. You know a lot of it happens over lunch, happens over lunch, happens over break with senior leaders. Well, senior leaders are the people who duty the school at lunch. Somebody's got to come in in order to do that role and the beauty of being in part of a trust is we can support each other with that. What we didn't do is put any of those external people in front of Ofsted and we have to, as part of the process, declare everybody who's in the building.
John Souter:So it's full transparency but it doesn't give you a true feel for how the school is in a normal day. Part of the reason for Ofsted is, in effect, to try and gauge exactly what the school's really like.
Tony Meneaugh:So I would disagree because actually at lunchtime I would be stood out at the canteen queue rather than talking to an Austin inspector. Well, actually somebody else is in my place. There's no extra people, it's just another person there where I would be while I'm in this office having a grilling, having a conversation about the school.
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John Souter:I understand the point. I'm not convinced myself that that is a fair use of Ofsted. But there we go.
Tony Meneaugh:It used to be different quite a few years ago because it used to come in for five days and it was a completely different process, but now it's really condensed how long do they come in for?
Tony Meneaugh:they're only in for two days and a lot of what they so most of the observations etc. Would happen on the first day. Then there'll be other meetings happening on the second day, depending on what they find out on the first day. So it's a lot to do when you're looking at probably four subjects in depth by the inspectors and you don't have an awful lot of inspectors coming in, are you?
Ron Westrip:Yeah, On two occasions I have been the observed tutor and it's more than slightly raises the stress.
Tony Meneaugh:Yes, it can be quite a diverse heart attack.
John Souter:That's when I kind of changed my view on things. Well, I only got one more question, which I suppose is a bit naughty really, but I'm going to ask it anyway. So I think the overall impression from quite a number of people in the community is concern as to who is the Ivo now serving. Are you serving the academy, the Astri Academy, or are you serving the people of St Ives? I mean, is it more about doing right by the academy or doing right for the education of St Ives? I mean, is it more about doing right by the Academy or doing right for the education of the children?
Tony Meneaugh:I think we are. I know we are committed to the education of our children in this community. What is the point in serving a trust? The trust don't want us to serve them. They want us to give the best education possible for the young people in St Ives, that's our whole purpose, right?
John Souter:So what do you think is going to happen over the next year or two then? Do you think your reputation is going to rebound, do you think, and become better than it has been of late?
Tony Meneaugh:I would hope so. That's my aim. I'm doing my most that I can to get out into the community. What I'm really interested in is how we can bring the community into the school as well, to rebuild those links and for people to see truly what we're about and to be able to trust as well. Moving forward, we are a big organisation in the town. It's really important that we do this right for the current students, but for the future students as well.
Paul Dodson:Do you have any specific plans? You talk about getting out into the community, inviting people in. Do you have any specific plans, for example, this year? Anything that you're going to be doing to do that?
Tony Meneaugh:So I've been trying to contact as many people as possible. So I've already talked to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. They've come in, they've seen students, talked to students, talked to staff as well, because I think it's important that we build those links with the Town Council. I'm going out as well to the primary schools in the local area to understand the joint educational challenges and commonalities that we have. I'm very interested in building in our work placement process and work related learning where to get businesses involved. So if there's anybody listening who's a local business in the community, please contact us because we really would like to talk to you about how you can support our year 10s when they are doing their work-related learning and give them advice moving forward.
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Ron Westrip:You caught me there because I was about to ask that because employer engagement, I think, is quite a key issue. Once you start getting to sixth form areas, to be teaching what local employers were looking for really gives the students a huge step up at that point.
John Souter:I know we spoke on another matter, wearing a town team hat, about the 600th anniversary of the bridge this year. Yes, on the phone, we've got this massive big event happening in July. So a letter will be coming to you shortly explaining what's happening and I'm hoping that the IVO will get involved in some way with that. The English Civil War Society, who we are engaging to put on this event, will come to the schools and do a session on the history of the English Civil War. So if you're up for that, please let us know.
Tony Meneaugh:I think that's absolutely amazing. Definitely count us in. I would love to see them in and that engagement of a national organisation, but also the local context as well, and for our students to see that definitely we'll hold you to that yeah, too right, thank you.
John Souter:Have you got anything else?
Ron Westrip:lads. No, to sum up, really, I'd just like to thank Tony very much for again coming and talking to us today. Let's hope we can put the record straight over a few things and go from strength to strength, but thank you for today thank you, too, as well.
Tony Meneaugh:I've really enjoyed this. It's a great opportunity. I'm always open. I try to be transparent.
John Souter:I don't mind people coming in and challenging me well, I thought you were very brave to offer it to us over here, but it's fine on behalf of Riverport Radio, we'd like to just wish you and all your staff here Happy New Year and we wish you well for 2025.
Ron Westrip:Thank you, please. If you've got stories or you've got things to tell us or something humorous or something serious, whatever you've got, please do write to editor at theriverporteruk. Let us know what's going on and we will attempt to chat about it on occasions here with Riverport Radio.
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Paul Dodson:Next up, we interview Cathy from the local Slimming World group.
John Souter:Good afternoon, catherine. Hello, we're here with Catherine Riley, who runs Slimming World in the area and has been a constant contributor to the Rural Port newspaper, and we thought it would be very apt to ask Catherine how particularly Ron and me could lose some weight now, following the Christmas binge that we've all been on.
Katy from Slimmimng World:Well, good afternoon and it's nice to meet you, but please call me Cathy. If you call me Catherine, I think I'm about to get her out.
Music from Hangover Party:And yeah.
Katy from Slimmimng World:I am a Slimming World Consultant in St Ives, but there are a team of us, I'm not just the only one.
John Souter:How many are there of you then?
Katy from Slimmimng World:There's four of us in the area now. There's two of us working in St Ives, one in Fenton, stanton and one over in Saversham, so business is good.
Katy from Slimmimng World:Business is good. Yes, it is, but still there are a lot of people you know, like yourselves, that are coming out of Christmas that possibly haven't ever heard of Sliven World. It's really strange because, having done this for so long, I can't believe that people don't know we're here, but people don't all right, yeah, so you find, find people that come along and it's the first time they've heard about it.
Katy from Slimmimng World:Yeah, definitely I presume they've heard about it in the river port obviously yeah, it's the first time they've heard about swimming world and by the times that people get to us they they are desperate. They've tried everything to to lose weight and I was one of those people. My joint swimming world because I didn't like how unhealthy I was. I tried various diets. They didn't work and I must admit, the first meeting I went to I thought the woman was lying. I couldn't believe that she was encouraging me to eat normal everyday foods. It's around healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle. So it's not just about the food, it's understanding the psychology of it and also building in some activity, if you can.
John Souter:So your classes involve activity? No, they don't. No, they don't Not at all. We leave that down to you.
Katy from Slimmimng World:What we do is give you the tools for healthier eating. We have that group experience it's called image therapy, individual motivation and group experience. It's called image therapy, individual motivation and group experience where we talk about food. We talk about solutions, the problems that people come up against when they're going out to eat or when family come around, and things like this, and we give you the tools to create a better eating plan for yourself. We don't give you anything apart from the basic tools, because it's your plan. You decide what to eat. And then we also talk about the habit changing, because that's the big thing. No matter how you're trying to lose weight, you need to change your habits. So you'd sit there, you'd join in the conversation if you wanted to, and then I'd have a brief chat with you afterwards and, um, hopefully you would join so so this habit changing would stop me, for instance, eating a pound of cheese just before I go to bed?
Katy from Slimmimng World:yes, yes, it would. Um, you could still have your cheese. I mean, the way the plan is is put together is to keep you as full as possible, so there are groups of foods that you can eat as much as you like, or things that are low in calorie but that will fill you up. So things like pasta, rice, potatoes, lean meats, fish, that type of thing, things that, for their weight, are very low in calories. Then you've got a group of foods where you would get your calcium and your fibre. To make sure that you're getting all the nutrients that you need, yeah, but they would need to be measured so that you are having them in a healthy amount. And then there's the bit for everything else the chips fully loaded chips the fully loaded chips the alcohol and things like this.
Katy from Slimmimng World:So you would still have those foods in your eating plan, but possibly not as much, because you've been measuring and counting those as well. But it takes away that feeling of being deprived and that you're on a diet, because it's not a diet, it's you changing your habits for the rest of your life well, I was going to say that this obviously is a crucial time of the year for you, when people have started to think of new year resolutions.
John Souter:even though they might not keep them, they will come to you. So do you have?
Paul Dodson:set evenings that you meet, or how does it work?
Katy from Slimmimng World:Yes, we do. Vicky runs a group at 5.30 on a Thursday evening.
Paul Dodson:And where does this take place?
Katy from Slimmimng World:In the Burley Hills Centre. All the St Ives groups are in the Burley Hills Centre and then I'm there on a Friday morning at 9.30 and a Saturday morning at 8 o'clock and 9.30. Then over in Fenton Stanton, Lorraine is in the United Reformed Church and she runs on a Tuesday night at 5.30 and 7. And Vicky opened last week in Summation Primary School and she runs at 7 o'clock on a Thursday.
John Souter:So is that a new one? That's a new one, yes, and how was attendance?
Katy from Slimmimng World:it was very, very good. She's worked really hard, vicky. Vicky was one of my members and it was lovely to see her sort of blossom into the person she was last thursday when she was welcoming everybody to group. So yeah, the numbers were good. Um, and of course, more this week, now that the kids have gone back to school and everything we'll. We'll see more members coming through the door now, because life is returning to normal after christmas and what about uh facebook?
Paul Dodson:do you have a facebook page?
Katy from Slimmimng World:yes, um, we've got it. We all have our individual business pages, but the main one for saint ives is saint ives swimming world groups.
Paul Dodson:Okay, yeah, okay, excellent, just so our listeners can yeah, can reference that.
Katy from Slimmimng World:That's good, yeah and, of course, look out for the outfit in the Riverport.
John Souter:And we've got all our telephone numbers on there. We've got one in Friday's issue. We do, yes.
Katy from Slimmimng World:And the other thing is I mean people talk about the cost of losing weight as well. We're really lucky that Healthy you have joined with us to do a referral scheme and that's recently been opened up again where potential members can go to their GP or just ring Healthy you and they could be eligible for a free 12-week membership of Slimming. World 12 weeks. That's pretty impressive isn't it.
Katy from Slimmimng World:I must be honest. The GPs in St Ives are really, really supportive of this scheme and we do get a lot of members because people waiting for operations, people wanting to improve their health Pre-diabetes is a big thing at the moment, I've noticed, so that's an easy way for them to get that Excellent.
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Paul Dodson:And finally, we join our intrepid roving reporters, Ronnie and Eric, who are on their way to the New Year's Day hangover party.
Ron Westrip:Well, here I am, me and Eric. We're wandering around. We're just coming down Bridge Street at the moment it's New Year's Day and, surprisingly, there's quite a lot of people in Bridge Street actually walking into the town. Perhaps they're all coming down to see Paul at his hangover party. The hangover party has become a bit of a tradition now in town, and this happens every New Year's Day. The the party in the night before, everybody gets together in the nelson's and paul entertains everybody in the name of a named charity this year, I believe it's for mcmillan, but paul will tell us all about that now. He's not expecting me to turn up today, so we're going to catch him and see what we can say. Right, right, well, I've just arrived into the Nelsons now. I've just this minute come in and Paul's standing here in the doorway looking very poised and ready to go. So what's it all about then? Paul, tell us a bit more.
Paul Dodson:Hello, ronnie, lovely to see you, mate, and Happy New Year to you, happy.
Music from Hangover Party:New Year.
Paul Dodson:This is all about raising as much as we can for Macmillan Cancer Relief and, yeah, we do it every year. We've been doing it for about the last four or five years and we've raised thousands of pounds for Macmillan and we hope to raise a lot more today. So we kick off about 3.30. And, yeah, really looking forward to it.
Ron Westrip:I'm really looking forward to it at all. Even Eric's come round. It's an excellent turnout, as it always is. The Nelson's Head here is really crowded. A little bit of standing room available at the front here, but generally a really good turnout. So let's hope they all put their hand in their pockets and actually support Macmillan Trust, which is the chosen charity for this year. Are we nursing a? Few hangovers, lewis. Okay, lynn, what about you?
Paul Dodson:A little bit of a hangover, I think Well the idea today is obviously apart from having a good time is to raise as much money as we can for Macmillan Cancer Support. That's the charity we're fundraising today, for I'll be playing for nothing for the next three hours and there will be some lovely ladies coming amongst you with flashing headbands and that will denote the fact that they are fundraising and collecting for Macmillan, we'll get on with the show and nice to see you all.
Paul Dodson:The idea is to ease you in gently and then we'll sort of pick it up when you've had a couple of beers and you're ready to start partying again before you all fade away into obscurity by about half a six. So let's get on with the show. This is the song I started with just on the sound check. This is called the Piano man. I'm called the Piano man, so it's kind of fitting that we start with this one. Here we go.
Music from Hangover Party:And three hours later the hangover party is reaching its climax. Happy birthday, chug chug chug chug chug. Chug chug chug chug chug chug. Chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug, chug, chug chug chug chug chug chug chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug chug chug ch. Thank you so much, thank you.
The Pianoman (Paul Dodson):Thank you so much. See you next time. Thanks a lot, thank you. Thank you, lovely to see you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Ron Westrip:Well, that was this year's hangover party, and what an amazing, huge success. The best party yet. Full, full house, record-breaking donations, just absolutely amazing atmosphere through the afternoon. Paul returned to the nelson's head on sunday to announce the incredible amount raised.
Paul Dodson:The charity this year was for macmillan cancer support, and here's what paul had to say the point of the New Year's Day hangover party, of course, is that we, apart from having a good time, we raise a lot of money for charity, and many of you will be wondering how much we raise.
Music from Hangover Party:How much?
Paul Dodson:Thank you very much, thank you. And the donations are still flooding in, which is fantastic.
Paul Dodson:So if I can just sort of recap a little bit we've been doing on the New Year's Day. It's our fifth New Year's Day Hangover Party, this one just gone For the British Heart Foundation, which was before the Macmillan. We have raised, well, you have donated, and we've raised over six thousand pounds. We want you to make them and we've done them just on the New Year's Day, hang them up, up in the back of the singles, whatever We've all donated to that, which is fantastic. So thank you to all of those people I don't know about. And now the amount we raised this year, I'll have to check. It's going up all the time. Well, I'm not going to change it now. So, drumroll, where's the drummer when you leave? Where's the drummer?
Paul Dodson:Yeah, the amount we raised on this New Year's Day Hangover Party. This drumroll was £1,236.25. With £1,236, which is amazing, and that piece lost his total by a couple of hundred quid, so it's quite amazing. So thank you so much for all those who came and enjoyed the day and all those who donated. And if there's anyone who hasn't donated but would like to donate to this wonderful cause, um, I'm, I'm here, I can say cash payments, I can take card payments, anything to get more money to macmillan. Um, so thank you all for that. Um, thank you, and I'd also like to thank andrew for hosting it and the bar staff for keeping us hydrated on the day.
Music from Hangover Party:Thank Andrew for hosting it and the bar staff for keeping us hydrated on the day, and my lovely ladies who help with all the fundraising ladies.
Paul Dodson:And yeah, thank you, darling. Thank you very much. Thanks all so much for your generous demonstrations on New Year's Day. Thank you.
Paul Dodson:You're listening to Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio.
Riverport Radio Jingle:Riverport Radio.
Paul Dodson:Well, that just about wraps up our first Riverport Radio podcast of 2025. And, on behalf of the Riverport Radio podcast team, I'd like to wish you a healthy and happy new year. To finish off, I'm going to play you out with some music from this year's Hangover Party. Thanks for listening and we'll see you again next time here on Riverport Radio.
Music from Hangover Party:Do I love you? Do I love you? Here on Riverport Radio Tonight, I'm a little afraid of the moon and tide. We're both dancing tomorrow night. Sword out there, burning storm in bed. We can dance with the holy sky. She was just 17. You know what I mean and the way she looks she's pretty beyond compare what I mean. Don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me. Don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me. Don't stop me. Don't stop me, don't stop me. Have a good time, good time. Don't stop me, don't stop me. Don't stop me, don't stop me. Don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me.
Music from Hangover Party:Don La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la la la, la, la, la, la la la, la, la, la, la, la la la, la la la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la la Floating around in ecstasy. So don't stop me. Don't stop me, Cause I'm having a good time. Don't wanna stop my oh.
The Pianoman (Paul Dodson):Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much. See you next time thanks a lot, thank you. Thank you, lovely to see you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now I've got to go St. John's Ambulance is waiting outside for me With a deep rib, so I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that's it Thank you very much, thank you.
