The Reg Smeeton Memorial Community Engagement Thread

[Red Frog]

Yes. I'm not sure you understand the nature of how education is currently conducting in the English system.

Well I work for the biggest British education company in the world, and have been in the education industry for 35 years, but please feel free to patronise me.

Oh, and I know how English verbs are conjugated. 

[Reg Smeeton]

Well I work for the biggest British education company in the world, and have been in the education industry for 35 years, but please feel free to patronise me.

Oh, and I know how English verbs are conjugated. 

Presumably private sector then.... literally a world away from the English state sector.

[Red Frog]

Presumably private sector then.... literally a world away from the English state sector.

Well, the company is deeply engaged in the state sector and regulated by government, but wtf. I’ll bow out here, since as so often, this has become an ad hominem, rather than a discussion of why the club shouldn’t be engaging with local schools.

I’m generally pretty patient with you, but I’ve actually had a skinful of you for a bit. Get fucked, Reg.

[BambooToTheFuture]

It's as if the goalposts have been moved, yet again.

Stick to the point in case. The club HAVE engaged. We continually validate this even though we don't need to. You genuinely are behaving like an odious cunt. Everyone is on a fairly good bloody wave at the moment and we know that doesn't last long.

Scrutiny where it is warranted is fine but I really don't understand this continual pissing on your own doorstep Reg?

[Reg Smeeton]

Well, the company is deeply engaged in the state sector and regulated by government, but wtf. I’ll bow out here, since as so often, this has become an ad hominem, rather than a discussion of why the club shouldn’t be engaging with local schools.

I’m generally pretty patient with you, but I’ve actually had a skinful of you for a bit. Get fucked, Reg.

Then you should know about the creeping privatisation of education for the benefit of academy chains etc. this produces a very prescriptive curriculum.

Any involvement by the club into schools has to be set against this background of educational context.... loosely of what educational benefit in terms of the national curriculum has the club to offer the school.

Using the example of the old Study Centre of a close link betwen club and Drove as the old head was a Trustee of the CS, it could provide computing, film making, animation, robotics and control technology.  This is the sort of thing which is justifiable and desirable, but expensive.... hence why the Tories closed it.

[BambooToTheFuture]

"Community Engagement". Not Educational engagement. Stop. Moving. The. Goalposts.

[pauld]

The point is the club cannot do this unless it is done in a proper educational context

And yet they do. Because the club do have links with Drove Primary School, who's children continue to come to games and enjoy them, as evidenced by the school's twitter account, thus building the community links you are so desperate to deny. Bafflingly.

[Reg Smeeton]

It's as if the goalposts have been moved, yet again.

Stick to the point in case. The club HAVE engaged. We continually validate this even though we don't need to. You genuinely are behaving like an odious cunt. Everyone is on a fairly good bloody wave at the moment and we know that doesn't last long.

Scrutiny where it is warranted is fine but I really don't understand this continual pissing on your own doorstep Reg?

Groan. It does get tedious, but the substantive point is about links between the club and schools. TBF to Wellens at no stage did he say his staff etc would be engaging in a big way with schools that's something dreamt up by Davis... he said they would do some work with Junior FC's. We have FiTC which has worked with schools since 91, and continues to do so FiTC isn't STFC they are separate entities.

STFC was more engaged with the old Study Centre until it had to sever many of its links when the 00 admin crisis kicked in, but the SC carried on by becoming a charitable trust. This was proper engagement with schools and young people, even those excluded. 

It's not so much that something like that isn't desirable, but rather it isn't going to happen.

Nowt wrong in shipping a few feebie out to local schools in Swindon and District, but it isn't in any way shape or form what would be understood by previous examples of close co-operation.

[Mother Brown]

Whats a feebie ?

[BambooToTheFuture]

Yes it does get bloody tedious...

So by your own admission, this IS "Community Engagement", is it not? Surely after a period of possibly zero, some is a good start and a pathway to continued engagement in the future?

"Proper engagement" is purely an opinion, relative to one's expectations (like me saying Town should be an upper L1 (Div3) club). You of course can gage where "proper" might be, based on past exploits but the current incumbents can't change the past - yet they can (and are) making steps to influence an engaged future.

The importance of the clubs social media plays a bigger role in this than many might appreciate. It is integral to marketing today and those who adapt to change often are the ones who succeed. Those who stand still to newer angles and potential innovation get left behind. A simple example would be "Goal GIFs" (look them up). Many hated them at first but a lot of kids love them. GIFs are increasingly being used to communicate more than emojis/smileys. You can agree/disagree with this concept but I revert back to the ability to accept change.

However, engagement in a stand alone is happening and we are seeing small notches of progress from it. Long may it continue and good to see you do acknowledge it, even if in a somewhat passive and negative way.

[Reg Smeeton]

"Community Engagement". Not Educational engagement. Stop. Moving. The. Goalposts.

Schools are a part of the community, tasked with education. If the club wishes to engage closely with schools it has to be justified educationally.

It is possible... FiTC do it, the club has done it in the past but it requires funding.  Not the same as giving out a few freebies.

[theakston2k]

He’s really hating us doing well both on and off the pitch isn’t he....

[@mwooly63]

There may well be a separation of sorts between STFC and FiTC but FiTC wouldn't exist without the club.
The 2 interact on many levels.
FiTC may well be taking the lead in contacting schools, running courses etc but it's the club supplying playing staff to visit these schools/courses and supplying the free tickets.

Aside from that the fan engagement thru social media is obvious to all to see, even if you arent on those platforms. Been linked to many times.

Honestly think Reg is holding out for a fans forum or an invite to a Q&A/tea with Power.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Reg seems to detest the club from top to bottom.

[Reg Smeeton]

He’s really hating us doing well both on and off the pitch isn’t he....

I do dislike inaccuracy.... sometimes it can be simply down to the interpretation of words, so needs to be batted about to find a context. In the latest case it appears to hinge on definition of closeness of links to schools.... for me that suggests some sort of formality costing probably hundreds of thousands, which may provide educational courses or at least educational experiences. To others on here it seems to be giving out a few tickets.

By way of an example of a close link, I'd offer this.... between FiTC and CWeal

https://www.commonweal.co.uk/sixth-form/football-education-programme/

Been running some years now by FiTC in conjunction with CWeal 6th form.  STFC get a rub off because the students wear Town logos on their kit, but it's nothing to do with the club.

Of course the funding for such close links comes from a variety of sources including the EU.