A member of an education watchdog group today warned of an “unmanageable bloodbath” among Shropshire schools if the county council agrees a new policy for tackling falling pupil numbers.Steve Barras says parents and governors feel ignored and abused by the county council and will cause chaos in the schools system by fighting the plan.
The full council will decide tomorrow whether or not to adopt the draft policy which could lead to the closure of 20 primaries and the amalgamation of 10 more.
Before the start of the meeting, protesters will gather outside the Shirehall with a mock coffin as a symbol of what they claim will be the death of a great swathe of rural primary schools.
Mr Barras is a co-opted member of the council’s children and young people’s services scrutiny panel and represents primary and special school parent governors.
He said no “robust financial analysis” had been completed of costs and savings resulting from the policy.
No assessment had been made of the community impact of school closures and no alternative solutions to the policy had been properly explored.
“My view of the draft policy is that it is so full of holes you’d be better going fishing with it rather than taking it as a serious attempt to address the county’s primary education challenges,” Mr Barras said.
“If passed, we will soon move into the period of review and consultation on individual schools and as the council and officers have failed to take the public with them, it will turn into an unmanageable bloodbath.”
In five years’ time 3,400 fewer places will be needed in county council primary schools compared with 2001 and education chiefs say action must be taken to manage falling numbers and safeguard millions of pounds of Government grant.
A report to council tomorrow says the net savings produced by the policy will be £1.834 million a year. It says the policy provides good value by reducing the number of “very small” schools with high per-pupil costs and will enable all schools to better meet challenges of falling numbers without suffering significant budget cuts.
By Dave Morris
11 Comments
Why not close them all down and have them replaced with four large schools, in the North, South, East and West of the county?
They could be run by a new council department called Mega School Support System or MESS, for short…
After all, Shropshire Counmty Council has been making a mess of education for at least 50 years, so they may as well make a real MESS of it…
unfortunately similar things are happening in wales. gwynedd council are proposing the closure of 4 perfectly good schools and the building of a new school in bryncrug near towyn the result will mean young children as young as 4 being bussed to school so beware shropshire parents
surely the original population forecasts have been thrown out of the window because of the immigration from eastern europe which was not anticipated about a year ago.
The use of the term ‘unmanageable bloodbath’ implies that it is possible to manage a bloodbath. Advice on how to manage a bloodbath would be gratefully received at Shropshire County Council. An unfortunate choice of words.
All flippancy aside, the loss of Shropshire’s smaller primary schools would be a serious blow to village communities, and closure propsals should be strenuously opposed by us all.
This is the problem class sizes go down and we all know it will go back up a few more years down the line, but what does this guv do they close good quality schools down and create large schools where we keep hearing the teachers cant cope due to the sizes of the classes etc etc , we have loads of teaching assistants doing the teachers jobs , just like cso’s doing the policemans jobs? , so we will have a country full of wannabees ie would be teachers would be cops being paid peanuts and doing the jobs there not qualified to do .
the slippery slope in village life. the school closes then the post office, then the pub. what is left. fight these education planners with all your might
Exactly who is going to be killed in this man’s bloodbath?
Does his tastless statement relate to the guerilla tactics called for elsewhere- and can it be the same man who was parading a coffin this morning outside the inquest into a police officer shot on duty- oh so tasteful.
Did the Shropshire Star challenge this man and his dangerous promises? In what way is this approach putting children first?
The issue is that Council and its officers have failed to take the public with them. Many HT and Governors have felt unable to talk about the consequences of the vote for fear of creating panic regarding individual schools future resulting in an exodus of parents. When parents become fully aware of the consequences (including those at schools which will receive the displaced children) there will unfortunately be a back lash and we will have at least a couple of years of chaos in primary education all of which could have been avoided.
I would like to arrange a meeting in the new year of parents (ideally with some one from each primary school attending) so that the best way forward can be discussed. If any one would be interested please email me steve@sbarras.wanadoo.co.uk
If Mr Barras had read the whole report on the Council Web Site, he would have found reports of three meetings, with virtually every head teacher and chair of governors in Shropshire, and many positive comments.
Unions aren’t afraid of speaking their mind. How many school staff union leaders were in his pathetic demonstration with his coffin outside the policeman’s inquest on Friday?
There are only a few people, Steve Barras and 13 Liberal Democrat Councillors amongst them, who want to create a bloodbath, and that’s for political reasons. The rest of the County want an open debate to find the best solution, whatever that is.
I’m not a member of any political party and it was not my coffin.
I’m a parent governor and was recently elected as Parent Governor Representative for Primary and Special Schools in the County. What I’m saying probably isn’t popular with some but as the real consequence of this vote become clear parents staff and Unions will not be happy. I’ve read every report and attended most meetings. 97% of all comments received were not supportive of the policy. Equally the scrutiny panel unanimously voted to ask Cabinet to relook at their decision on the basis that there were concerns about the financial case, no community or economic impact assessment had been done, and there were issues with the consultation process. This was effectively ignored. The vote will result in the closure or merger of 30 schools which will effect well in excess of 1500 children and 30 communities as well as leading to the loss of some jobs. I’ve had conversations with many parents and teachers who are just not aware of the full impact this change will have and I believe they will be very angry. The Council needed to take the people with them and I fear along with many other ordinary parents and governors that they have failed to do so.
By the way shropspy it is too late for the ‘open debate’ you are looking forward. The Policy was approved on friday. Schools of 4 or 7 classes of at least 23 pupils (except where ‘geographically isolated’) is now the policy. The process of confidentially reviewing schools which do not fit this and then moving forward with formal closure procedures will start in the new year. Or did you perhaps not realise the consequences of the decision made on Friday?