Manifestly a Happy School

This is another extract from the letter written to DCC by an ex-headteacher.

I understand that managing long-term issues like falling rolls is extremely difficult given short-term needs to balance annual budgets, but I would ask you to consider a long-term need which is of growing concern in the world of education and which will need to be addressed - namely, the happiness of children.

Any parent or teacher knows that children who are happy learn better than if they are distressed. Please therefore consider carefully not only the huge degree of distress that would be caused to the parents, children and community of Combs by the closure of its vigorously supported Infant School but the fact that it is manifestly a happy school.

In future years, given an unacceptable degree of unhappiness in the nation's school children, educational planners and teachers are going to have to give more thought to what makes children happy. Here at Combs you have a manifestly happy school, indeed the 'flagship' school that one of the parents mentioned. In many ways it could be the model for future infant schools and thought should be given to the notion that were Chapel Primary School smaller, it might well be better.

Balancing the books (and it's not as if a great deal of money is at stake here at Combs) is surely of less importance than the preservation of a school which has the secret of making children happy and wanting to learn. As Ofsted noted, it is a conspicuously successful school and you run the risk, by closing it, of replacing happiness - a rare thing in education - with unhappiness.

Can you really believe that you have picked the right school to close as you search for solutions to falling rolls (generally speaking) in the county?

Just a reminder: if you haven't already told DCC what you think about their plan to close an excellent school, write to them before they meet in October to decide the school's fate. Get involved: find out who to write to.

Dear Mr. Charles ...

A message from a six-year old pupil at Combs Infant School to Cllr. Alan Charles, DCC's Cabinet member for schools.

"I don't want you to close Combs Infant School, because I will lose my friends. This school is a church and people get married. I want my brother to go to this school."

Educationally Wrong Thing To Do

This time, the letter to DCC is from someone in Buxworth.

I understand well the problems of falling rolls, having worked in state secondary schools since 1963 and ending my career as Headteacher of Bramhall High School – one of England’s largest and most successful comprehensive schools.

Though I recognize the difficulties that DCC is under with regard to falling rolls, I accept the arguments so ably put forward at the meeting on 22nd May by the school, its parents and governors, and by those who operate the Methodist Hall as a community facility.

It is evident that anticipated rolls at Combs Infant School are not falling. Presently, far from there being a surplus of places, the school is actually two over its standard number and I am certain that it will continue to be under pressure for places for many years to come. Had there been surplus places the case for closure would have been stronger. As it is – and it makes sense to think of the area of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Whaley Bridge and Chinley as a whole in terms of the provision of education in the area – there is a great deal of building activity at the moment and Whaley Bridge and Chinley schools are already under pressure for places.

Moreover, as the parents demonstrated at the meeting, it is unlikely that the surplus of places at Chapel CE Primary School will be filled by parents who would otherwise have sent their children to Combs. Indeed, some will be tempted to take up places at Kettleshulme Primary School, which will cost DCC to send them to Cheshire.

I am certain that to close it now, for all those reasons which parents, governors and the community of Combs gave at the meeting, would be educationally the wrong thing to do.

There'll be more from this letter, later this week.

MP Leaves Questions Unanswered

Referring to Tom Levitt's letter where he depicted himself as a 'critical friend' to both sides (campaigners and DCC), a Combs resident wrote to him in early August, as follows.

I now understand that you won't be trying to apply any influence on behalf of those of your constituents who are involved in the campaign to save the school.

For you to be the 'critical friend to both sides' that you wish to be, I think you could do more to ensure that accurate information is in the public domain. You repeated the figures that DCC started the closure proposal with, on your web site and in correspondence with people in the area. I'd like to see you correcting that information where it has now been proved to be false - for example, the calculation of per-pupil cost.

I'd also like to know, as I asked in my last message, what you have done to explain the funding arrangement for schools to those people who have complained about 'subsidising' Combs school. As you surely know, that is a view based on a misunderstanding of how the funding is organised.

You would do much to encourage balance if you would make a public correction of some of the key data used by DCC and repeated by you. Will you do that?

Tom Levitt's reply, a month later, left these questions unanswered.

I take exception to your suggestion that I "won't be trying to apply any influence" on behalf of the school in the current process which is being undertaken by Derbyshire County Council.

As I have explained before, I have no influence by virtue of my office and no statutory role in the procedure at all. However, I do believe that by using my status and experience I have succeeded in getting a lot of information into the public domain which is proving valuable to the campaign.

The principle upon which consultations work is that it is the strength of the argument which wins or loses the day rather than undue "influence"

Why Mend What Isn't Broken?

With just a few weeks to go before the Cabinet at DCC considers the report that is being compiled by a DCC officer on the proposed closure of Combs School, it's time to give you more excerpts from the large number of letters sent to DCC.

This letter to DCC is from a Chapel-en-le-Frith resident.

Ours is a farming area, and children have by tradition been cared for in small schools until old enough to undertake longer journeys. There is also the question of facing large numbers of children in school, when their own environments are fairly enclosed or even isolated. These infants have shown, by the awards they have won, that this system works for them.

They have excelled at this little country school. So why mend it, when it isn't broken?

Please think again about the effects the closure of this little school will have on our local community. Please consider its excellent track record, and leave it open for my grandson to find - he will NEED it.

Petition Still Gathering Names

194 people, whose names appear below, have signed the online petition to save Combs School. If you're one of them, thank you.

Before DCC considers the report on Combs School, Village Hall and Chapel, there's still time for more names to be added. We'll be letting DCC know the final tally in early October.

Do you know anyone who would like to add their name? Tell them to sign the petition.

Stephen Lyons	Jane Alexander	Karl Ardern	Maria Gannon
Farhat Yasmin	Chris Parkinson	Simon Byrd	Suzie Denton
Hugh Barton	Jayne Watkins	Steven Fawkes	Helen Bessell
Chris Wood	John Hargreaves	Diana Guthrie	Jeremy Briggs
Melvyn Hale	Simon Bessell	A A.Wilkinson	Monika Briggs
Richard Parker	Greger Scholander	Philip Horner	Sophie Baker
Jenny Parker	Paul Duddy	Malcolm Hough	Tim Stenton
Dianne Campbell	Naomi Parkinson	Paul Evans	Petula Solomon
Carah Boden	Rachel White	Jenny Hill	Gordon Hay
Tim Millar	Dave Quinn	John Hepplestone	Carol Herbert
Amanda Johnson	Lauren Dougherty	Cassandra Valter	Steve Decker
Thomas Monaghan	Chloe Walker	Angela Tellier	Jayne Stephens
Michael Evanson	Chris Magee	Olivia Rigby	Anne Jones
Claire Campbell	K George	Marcia Pollock	Lloyd Martin
Jillian Leopold	Andrew Parkinson	Pat Salt	Brenda Clarkson
Jenny Curtin	Mark Hargreaves	Colin Hardwick	Margaret Read
Frances Barton	Sarah Ottaway	Caroline Hardwick	Michelle Gunter
Joanne Lloyd	Freda Jackson	Paul Everard	Chris Mcmahon
Elizabeth Millar	Amanda Novacki	Terry Fullagar	Ian Read
Josephine King	Catherine Darbyshire	Paul Sanders	Simon Godwin
Catherine Eastwood	Charlene Cannon	Judith Dubrawski	Karen Grimshaw
Adele Moores	Alistair Macdonald	Helen Varey	Cynthia Burton
Andrew Jones	John Hanmer	Susan Beatty	Judy Brown
Donal Cairns	Susan Cox	Stuart Prior	Tim Lambert
Brian Lavalette	Louise Price	Jane Mckie	Christopher Hargreaves
Bernadette Stiell	Carole Burton	Edward Watts	Andy Johnson
Ann Norman	Andrew Hargreaves	Helen Notman	Bethan Smith
David Norman	Christopher Sellors	John Mills	Claire Dorrington
Jean Evanson	Gareth Cox	Christine Horner	Gee Macrory
Philippa Kyle	Charles Dorrington	Joanne Miller	Joanne Mimnagh
Jeremy Thatcher	Timothy Betts	Joanan Reyers	John Samuel
Gordon Millar	Tina Lowes	Julie Glynn	Charlotte Mellor
Charlotte Millar	David Rigby	Paul Dancer	Zoe Lingard
Amanda Barton	Wendy Knowles	Angela Mclachlan	Stuart Barker
Karen Roberts	Peter Knowles	Elaine Smth	Michael Barton
Paul Denton	Andrew Knowles	Caroline Pullin	Hayden Mellor
Kerry Byrne	David Knowles	Sue Miller	Mark Gadd
Angela Smith	Carolyn Parkinson	Judith Irwin	Jacqueline Gadd
Tracey Middleton	William Musk	Nye Rowlands	Sally Barnett
Annabel Williamson	Michael Knowles	Ann Barnes	Gareth Wain
Gary Motteram	Ludovica Serratrice	Marilyn Hunt	Paul Graham
David Spendlove	Wayne Little	Alexander Parkinson	Tamsin Critchlow
John Blake	L Baker	Sue Shaw	Ali Davies
Joanna Bragg	Sue Ardern	Carol Cunningham	Matthew Goldsbrough
Carol Kelly	Dale Smith	Susie Miles
David Hall	Jenny Knowles	Steve Wood
John Jenkins	Shirley Jackson	Jane Hargreaves
Nalini Boodhoo	Tony Roden	Kathryn Brown
Ben Palmer	Graham Jackson	Louise Nash
Diane Slaouti	Lesley Morten	Zoe Lynch

D-Day in Fight for Infant School

Today's Buxton Advertiser reported on Fun Day and the delay in decision-making by DCC.