Wakeman pupils vow to fight
Thursday 10th February 2011, 11:42AM GMT.
PUPILS ARE planning to confront Shirehall leaders in a bid to save their Shropshire secondary school from the axe – and today vowed their protest would be “loud”.
The Wakeman in Shrewsbury is threatened with closure under Shropshire Council plans to tackle falling pupil numbers and funding shortages.
Wakeman head girl Gemma Exelby, 15, today said pupils were upset and angry at moves to close the school in 2013.
“We are going to take action and have already had two meetings to discuss what we can do,” said Gemma. “We are not going to let this school close.”
She said students hoped to attend next Tuesday’s council cabinet meeting at which proposals to close nine schools will be presented, to voice their opposition to the Wakeman plan.
Gemma said pupils would also be on the “Stop the Cuts” march and rally in Shrewsbury on February 19 to protest at public sector cutbacks.
“We are going to do everything we can to publicise and save our school,” she added.
“It is going to be a loud campaign.”
Two Facebook campaigns to save the Wakeman are running and so far more than 600 people have given their support.
Gemma said Wakeman pupils were very proud of their school. “It is small but that’s not a bad thing. It has a friendly, inclusive atmosphere,” she said.
Her mother, parent governor Ruth Exelby, said: “We are all passionate about this school. The plans to close it are nonsensical. It will not be allowed to close.”
Under the proposals pupils will transfer to Meole Brace School.
A report to cabinet says the Wakeman has 406 pupils on roll in a building with 675 places. Pupil numbers, it is claimed, are “reducing rapidly” year on year as larger groups leave and are replaced by smaller intakes.
Meole Brace School, says the report, has 997 pupils in a building with 1,215 places.
Aggie Ceasar-Homden, cabinet member for children and young people’s services, has stressed that no decisions have been made at this stage.
A further public consultation is planned from February 28 which will last six weeks.
By Education Correspondent Dave Morris
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Presumably the Students absences from lessons to attend the cabinet meeting will be marked as “unauthorised” unless of course the school management intends to collude with such blatant flouting of the education laws.
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What a petty-minded and mean-spirited comment! It stands in total contrast to the public-spiritedness of the Year Eleven students prepared to fight for the younger pupils in the school even though the school closure will happen after they have left the school. I am proud of them, and gratified to see them standing up for what is right, and acting responsibly as active citizens when faced with an injustice. Well done Year Eleven, and good luck with your campaign!
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rick do you expect these students to do nothink…. what about the poor students who will have their school years EDUCATION disrupted…
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Rick
Your statement is exactly what is wrong with this country, in other words lie down and give up without a fight. Pupils and staff have every right to fight and protest these actions and in fact it’s also a good learning experience for the pupils about democracy and protecting what we/they currently have. This talk about unauthorised absence is rather a silly statement really isn’t it?
Redboy
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I always thought that democracy was a two-way street,it seems all in all that if you strive for value for money and want to cut costs then you are the devil incarnate.
There also appears to be a move to belittle anyone who has the gall to say anything about the Wakeman that doesn’t conform with their own views.
Blimey, it ain’t ‘alf hot down here!
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Well said redboy. Good for these students acting in such a mature manner. We can’t allow this school to close and we all must do what is necessary to save it.
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I quite agree. Rick, that’s nonsense. That kind of attitude is serving to wreck this country. I would like to encourage as many people as possible with a view on the proposed closure to attend that council meeting. Make your feelings known. Once its gone its gone. Spread the word.
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I feel that as a member of the Wakeman school it infuriates me that people may still have such a shallow view of us. The standards over the past year in particular have been raised, our school has improved dramatically and I would not have traded in my 4 years at this school for anywhere else.
I really hope others will help to support us.
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I think it’s great that all the students are prepared to get involved. Perhaps they should ask the education department to come to speak them. Then they should listen, put aside their natural sentiment for their own school, and think about what they would do if they were the councillors who were facing increasingly expensive schools with reducing rolls, school funding which reduces faster than school budgets reduce with pupil numbers and which has been frozen in real terms when inflation is running at4%.
It’s called citizenship education and its what the school management should be promoting, not using pupils (including their own children) as media fodder
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The subsidy from the Council to Theatre Severn last year was £500,000 – the amount of money that the Wakeman School costs to run. Get your priorities right, chaps. A well rounded education for our children is more important than cultural events for the more monied amongst us.
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will be a great school wasted an sadly missed dont live in shrewsbury anymore but hope the old place is kept open like it should be to many people love that place
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It will be such a shame to lose the Wakeman. Myself, my younger sister and two older brothers went there – as well as my Mum in the 60s!! I personally loved school life at Wakeman.
However, I have heard that year 7 and 8 numbers are drastically low (with only 13 applying for the next Year 7 term!). When I was there, there was 5 forms all holding at least 30 students each.
Whilst I’d hate to see it go, they need to do something about encouraging more students back to the school if they plan to save it!
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yes change the way people parents have the choice should have to go where you live stop waisting all that petrol etc
year 7 and 8 are low because of the talk of threat of closing down
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Pardon Kathy?
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The problem is parents have been put off sending their children to The Wakeman because of the rumours of closure.
The school should not be allowed to close.Every parent needs to write to their councillors to protest at the proposed closure, it is still a proposal at the moment.
Unless we show we how important the Wakeman is , they will vote to close the school.
Jules.
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Rumours fueled by, among others, staff at neighbouring secondary schools at their open days for parents of prospective Year 7s – shame on them
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Parents and pupils at these small and under subscribed schools should take a look around them. They are clearly costing a lot more per head than other more popular schools. Surely in the birthplace of Darwin we can appreciate that you have to develop and evolve if we wish to survive and flourish. Relocate the kids, sell the building and invest some of the money/savings (if there is any left in the pot)in schools that are growing and succeeding.
Parents are complaining because ‘local’ schools with 30 odd pupils are closing, when we have primary intakes of 60 per year who have to share one set of toilets between them. If you truly care about education and children stop focusing on your own narrow perspective and take a more utilitarian view.
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