South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | July | 22
From the Gazette, first published Friday 22nd Jul 2005.
WORRIED parents, pupils and staff at Yate and Chipping Sodbury's three secondary schools have flooded the education authority with letters and questionnaires pleading for a rethink on changes to the future of secondary school provision.
Others voted with their feet to display messages of dissatisfaction with the consultation review into the future of Brimsham Green, Chipping Sodbury and King Edmund Schools, by turning up to numerous public meetings and this afternoon marching to South Gloucestershire Council's offices.
Today marks the deadline for responses to the council's four options it has laid on the table in reply to falling pupils numbers at two of the schools and exam results deemed "simply not good enough" by the authority's education chief Therese Gillespie.
Yate town councillors this week joined the campaign to ensure that King Edmund School, earmarked for closure in three of the options, remains open and that sixth form and vocational education is offered to teenagers. At a special meeting on Tuesday night they agreed a formal four-page resolution which has been now sent to the council.
Cllr Chris Willmore said: "The town council is saddened by the divisive nature of much of the consultation.
"People have inevitably been sticking up for their own school but the LEA's starting question was wrong. It should have been: how can we provide the best education possible for local young people?"
Councillors slammed reports put together by South Gloucestershire Council officers for concentrating on financial benefits not educational ones and resolved to fight for all three schools, which they agreed reflect the diversity of young people across both towns and provides parents with a choice.
Cllr Arthur Adams told the meeting: "This consultation stems from a knee-jerk reaction to one year's admission figures."
Yate's mayor Cllr Margaret Marshall, whose children went to King Edmund School, said: "A lot of the children in our area have the capacity to do very well and I do not want to see that opportunity snatched from them."
Liz Shawhulme, King Edmund School's outgoing headteacher, addressed the meeting asking for the council's support.
A decision on the future of the schools is due to be made by South Gloucestershire Council's ruling cabinet in October.
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