Shropshire schools axe ‘unavoidable’
Friday 23rd July 2010, 11:30AM BST.
School closures in Shropshire will be “unavoidable” in the face of multi-million pound public spending cuts, the authority’s chief executive has warned.
Shirehall boss Kim Ryley told a meeting that the council was fighting to balance the books as it prepares to save an estimated £60 million over the next three years.
He told the Ellesmere Local Joint Committee some smaller schools across Shropshire could once again be at risk as a result.
News of the cost-cutting measure comes just two years after the last threat of school closures sparked huge public protests.
Asked by a member of the public if school closures were looming because of cuts and falling pupil numbers Mr Ryley said last night: “We are looking at ways to sustain smaller schools to make them more extensive community resources with more services, making them more cost effective.
“These are ways of keeping some smaller schools open when they would otherwise be threatened with closure.
“We want to demonstrate we have looked at all the alternatives first but some school closures are going to be unavoidable. With falling pupil numbers it gets harder to justify keeping every school because it’s taking money away from other frontline services.”
The council is in the “early stages” of planning its budget so no precise details about how many schools might be under threat are available, he added. It has been consulting widely on a draft vision for the future of school organisation, which has been drawn up by members, officers, headteachers and parent governors and sets out the criteria seen as necessary for a school to be successful.
In 2008 the old county council backed down in the face of public anger and opted to merge some smaller schools instead of about 20 outright closures.
Mr Ryley told last night’s meeting the council was ready to embrace David Cameron’s “Big Society” blueprint in a bid to ease education chiefs’ big funding headache.
Community groups and not-for-profit social enterprises will be encouraged to help deliver some local services like libraries, parks and leisure centres.
By Tom Johannsen
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Small rural schools are closing due to young families being pushed from the villages . Yet another reason why affordable homes must be built in our villages.
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Well they can all jolly well club together and do it themselves ala the Big Society, you want houses, build them yourself, run a village pub, post office etc, because the condems and uncle dave says so.
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Well with regards the houses yes it is going to happen and we will be able to by pass local council. As for village shops we can live with out them as with the post office we can live with out them .
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Agree with this, more affordable homes together with improved transport should be a priority for rural areas. Encourage the young to stay in the villages and then see these school numbers rise. Village schools are often at the heart of a community. Once closed it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to bring them back.
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fair point, they should cluster together under one head its rediculous to have a whole school in a village just for 40 odd pupils, we need economies of scale with less but larger and better resourced schools, we are spread to thin at the moment there are about 200 schools in shropshire, thats unsustainable
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cut the LEA and the “advisors” NOT THE SCHOOLS AND REAL JOBS LIKE HARD WORKING TEACHERS
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Every chance to say how hard teachers work hey? , enough already we know most do.
Facts are if more homes for the young were built in villages we would not have low numbers in the schools and ALL schools would be viable.
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Well said Mark, there is too many managers at the councils education department and this alone could fund more school places let alone all the other rubbish the council does like that art work by the river
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thats not true – its a political decision what to cut and councillors could choose to cut schools or cut back on other waste like gold plated pensions, public art, management overheads and that ugly incinerator, there is no NEED for this is CONDEM cuts and the local councillors voting on what they choose to cut, i would be appauled to see rural primary schools closed when there is so much waste in the council management and admininstration
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Well, they still haven’t cancelled a £3m project for a new primary at Ashford Carbonell for (their estimate) 90 pupils, and rolls falling. Surely the money could be better spent improving other urban primaries? The Commission they set up recommended less rural and more urban expenditure per pupil.
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id rather mergers and federations so the little schools stay open but without there own head/caretaker/kitchen etc,they can be satellite schools managed and run by the largest secondary / college in the district
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this guy is on 180 k a year and says we must cut rural schools with like a couple of teachers on 20k each running them, thats disgusting he obviously is a townie
he should do the honourable thing and resign saving enough in one fell swoop to keep a small school open
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The whole issue of small schools has been totally mishandled by SC. As a political manouver it backfired and cost the former leader his job. Despite policy reviews and reports this issue has not yet been cohesively resolved to promote the best facilities and education for our children. It is an obvious fact that despite being small these schools have all the problems ,indeed in some cases greater issues; of that of larger bespoke educational campus. Consider that some of these small schools are actually victorian in origin. The financial cost of such schools is in some cases unjustifiable when you take into account the demographic location and pupil requiste. Consider there are some small schools predominantly filled with children who reside in another neighbouring Borough , a bourough which this year will open a new five million £ 200 place primary school that shall more than accomodate SC’s provision some mile and a half away.The issues are complex and need a comprehensive strategy to resolve.
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this is just privatisation again, of course the business is now a “social” business but they are still making money out of public sector – how can that be more efficient
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it doesnt have to be this way, we could get rid of the tories and vote for a progressive government who values eduction instead
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Re: “Vote for a progressive government who values eduction instead”.
“Who values”? Hmmm…
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there is the big society option, let retired OAPs and unemployed people volunteer to teach for free and get rid of the national curriculum teach what the like like creationism and then we can abolished crb checks because they’re beaurocratic so any old paedophile can volunteer to teach and theres no buildings budget so they’ll rent empty woolworth shops in the town centre
thats the tory way, great hey ?
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no no no
that is tory rhetoric, there are alternatives to cuts only george osbourne wants them to be seen as inevitable, the pace and scale of cuts is a tory choice based on ideology of the market (which caused all this) being great
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i agree the rural areas need to accept that the facilities will be in the town, the councils role should focuse on sustainable transportation to these services and doing more online etc, then there is no need for a library in the sticks near wales or a school on top of the long mynd etc etc
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he’s right – the rural primaries are uneconomic they must focus on core villages on bus routes and commuter routes its more economic, the down side is the commute / traffic / school run, so what i’d like to see proposed is to revisit the us yellow bus service, free for kids, funded by the savings on closing some of the least economic rural primary schools
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It’s a sorry state of affairs when budgets for education are slashed while spending for a nuclear deterrent increases. Are we really a civilized country? I’m starting to wonder.
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