Closure Recommended for Other Schools

At the DCC Cabinet meeting today, the future of the other schools that have undergone a public consultation will be discussed. (Agenda for the meeting)

DCC's web site has the news stories (and the reports being presented to Cabinet):

	Apperknowle Primary	News	Report
	Castle Gresley Infant	News	Report
	Highfield Primary	News	Report

Education officers have recommended to the politicians that the schools be closed. In response to the concerns of campaigners at each of the schools, it is said that "Councillors will be told that education officers believe these concerns can be addressed".

If this meeting acts on the recommendations of the education officers, formal notices of closure will be published.

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UPDATE 16 Oct, 18:20
The recommendations were unopposed by anyone on the Cabinet, and barely even questioned. As we suspected earlier, it did appear that they weren't bothered.

DCC will now proceed with the formal closure procedure for the three schools.

UPDATE 17 Oct, 11:30
The presentation of the recommendations was said by observers to have contained "trivia", "contradictions" and "cheap shots". We'll post a link to the minutes of the meeting when they're posted on the DCC site, so that you can make up your own mind about that.

A Little More History

Do you know when this photograph was taken outside Combs School, or the identity of the children pictured? Please let us know if you do.

We've talked about the long history of Combs School before on this web site, to put into proper context what DCC proposes to bring to an untimely end.

Here's a little more history: the following is an extract from the book 'The Story of My Village' written and published by Marguerite A. Life Bellhouse in 1968.

Both the Sunday and Day School are now held in the Wesleyan Chapel, which was built in 1864. Prior to this, the Sunday School was held in a cottage near the Chapel, for some years, but at one time, both schools were held in the Reading Room at Rye Flatt.

1721	John Wright of Baghouses, by Will, gave a rent charged of £2 per annum, "for the encouragement of a Schoolmaster into Combs Edge", providing the neighbours in the Edge would make up more within 12 months". The neighbours did not respond.*
1861	The Day School was held at Ivy Cottage, and was kept by Miss H. Morten assisted by Mary Ann Fox. Miss Morten, who was to have been married, fell ill and decided it was not fair to her fiancé to wait for her recovery, which might not happen. Adam Fox encouraged her to start this school, which was very successful. Ivy Cottage, near the Bee Hive, has been enlarged (there were two then), and is now called "Little Corner"**.
1881	The School was at the Wesleyan Chapel, and the Teacher was Miss Jackson, with a salary of £35 per annum.
1882	The Teacher was Miss Bebbington.
1883	The Teacher was Miss Goldstraw, and according to Mr. Jim Lomas, who was a pupil at the Chapel, she was the "best writer in Combs". His brother and sister went to "Ivy Cottage" School.
1886	The Teacher was Miss Washington.
1887-94	The Teachers were Miss Proctor and Miss White, the latter came from Leicester, and lodged with Mrs. Bagshawe at Smithy Cottages.
1894-97	The Teacher was Miss Muir, who lodged at Smithy Cottages. One of the older girls, Abigail Clayton, held the post of pupil teacher to the infants. At this time, there were 42 pupils at the School, all taught by Miss Muir, until she had an assistant. Children came from the remote farm "Moss House", which is nearer Buxton than Combs, perhaps more than three miles distant. After Miss Muir came Miss Hetty Mortin, Mrs Shilton, Miss Voles and Mrs Coates.
1900	The Sunday School was kept by Mrs Ollerenshaw.
1907	(Dec 21st) "A meeting, which may prove to historical, was held in the little hamlet of Combs on Thursday, December 12th. It was the first meeting of the Managers of the recently established Combs Council School, which hitherto, had been a Wesleyan School. The Managers are Mr. J. E. Lomas, Mr. Thomas Yates, Mr James Brocklehurst, Mr. Francis Bramwell, Mr. John Fallows and Mr. J. Hague. There followed a list of Teachers, and a discussion ensued about new chairs, desks and books."
1914	Mrs. Shilton, of Lane End Cottages, taught here for some years around this time.

* Hmmm...not an easy start!
** Which happens to be the current home of this campaign's webmaster.

Report Due on 23 October

Mark your diary for 23 October. We expect to get the report compiled by DCC on that day, and make it available on this site.

We'll want to know what people think of the report, so you might want to look at this post, which describes how to add your comments to posts on this blog.

Learning from Experience

Is education not all about widening horizons, broadening the mind? Certainly, in large part, it is. Through the eyes and ears of their head teacher, Avis Curry, the pupils of Combs Infant School have a window on Africa in their small reception hall in the heart of the Peak District. This area of the reception is frequently used for displays of the children’s work but, for now, it is an ‘interactive’ corner of Africa, a learning experience for all.

Mrs Curry has written eloquently about her time in Rwanda in an earlier post. It is well worth a read and puts us to shame in a number of areas – from the Rwandan attitude to plastic bags and recycling to the smiles on their faces despite suffering years of horror and hardship.

The children at Combs school smile a lot too. Not because they are smug and know how lucky they are, but simply because they are happy. They enjoy learning. Their teachers make it fun. They have a wonderful environment in which to develop a love of learning which they will hopefully carry with them through the rest of their lives. A lot of children in large, urban schools leave with quite another attitude. They are the ‘lost’ children of our education system. Victims of over-large classes, poor discipline, bullying and no natural beauty around them to inspire and energise them.

Small schools are like a large family. They share experiences together and they learn from them. They talk about things, they help each other. Mrs Curry was able to go to Rwanda confident in her team to look after the children she was leaving behind – and confident that the children wouldn’t let her down or misbehave in her absence. This sort of school is a blueprint for society. It would be a crime to shut it down – and extremely short-sighted.

Date Finally Set for Cabinet Review

The report on the proposed closure of Combs Infant School will go before DCC's Cabinet on 30 October 2007. A copy of the final report will be available to the campaigners on 23 October.

It will be posted on this site as soon as we get it. Remember to come back and look for it.

Do you want to attend the Cabinet meeting?
The Cabinet meeting will be in Matlock on 30 October, from 10:30am, for two or three hours. If you want to show your support for Combs School, Village Hall and Chapel, you might want to be there, to look the Cabinet up and down as they make their decision. If so, please e-mail the Webmaster, as soon as possible, to be added to the list. DCC needs to know how many people will attend.

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P.S. We understand that the other three schools slated for closure will be considered by the Cabinet on 16 October, and that the first version of the report on Combs had to be redrafted before Cabinet could review it. We're trying to find out why.

UPDATE 04 October
The information we received was incorrect. The report sent to Alan Charles by David Humphrey was not a full Cabinet report, but a report on the consultation and the issues involved. It did not contain a recommendation. The full report for Cabinet is being worked on now, and will contain a recommendation for what action should be taken.

Reflections On Rwanda

Let's take a break from the long wait for DCC to make up their mind about the closure of our school, and find out what headteacher Avis Curry got up to in Rwanda.

Remember the goodbye messages that the children gave her, back in May? Here are Avis' reflections on Rwanda.

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My time in Rwanda was an experience that I shall never forget. It was challenging, thought provoking, exciting, exhausting, fascinating and sad, all at the same time. So why did I go? After such a successful Ofsted report at Combs, as well as enjoying the moment, you ask yourself ‘what next?’ Some head teachers might look to ‘move on’, but I really enjoy what I do at Combs. So I saw this as an opportunity to refresh and revitalise my role as a school leader by revisiting my vision and values, whilst developing my leadership and management skills.

I was able to positively engage with capacity building at a strategic level whilst reflecting on my own current practice. Enriching the curriculum at Combs with my experiences as well as contributing to the global perspective, both at Combs and our cluster schools will be another benefit. So after all the excitement it is wonderful to return to Combs and carry on leading the teaching and learning here.

The curriculum in Rwanda is not too dissimilar to our own and amazingly it is delivered without basic resources. The school to which I was attached had neither electricity nor running water, yet taught all subjects (except ICT!). From the age of about 8, all subject teaching is done through the country’s second language, French. All children from the age of 6 were taught 3 languages, English, French and Kinyrwanda (local dialect). They had few text books or pictures, no paints, crayons (etc), no formal music, but the sound and sight of the children singing, drumming and dancing was just wonderful. PE was football, volleyball or marching. Football is very big in Rwanda and English clubs are avidly followed, with the favourites being Manchester United and Arsenal. The children could tell me more about the players names and positions than I knew.

My remit was vast and unrealistic, but one of the foci was to improve the capacity of the school to improve, and yes, Rwanda also uses exam results to ‘league table’ their schools! Some of the problems faced were very reminiscent of the UK many years ago and from this aspect I felt most helpful as I could stop another head teacher from having to ‘re-invent the wheel’! Other areas of involvement were working with the parents and the community to improve the educational outcome for the children, training the teachers in current teaching methodology and starting up self-help cluster groups of schools, both within their own districts and across the country. So I was kept fairly busy!

I worked with my head teacher to introduce him to the computer and the internet. He now has an internet account and is keeping in touch through e-mail. Now he desperately wants a computer! It is amazing to think that in the middle of a very poor country, which is still recovering from the genocide, with an underfed and unemployed population, that you can find 2 or 3 internet cafes in the middle of a town. Where there is no electricity, people are using solar cells! The only bad thing about these cafes is that there was no protection against unsuitable sites and I often found children accessing explicit pornography and no one seemed to care, not even when I made an issue of it and threatened the police.

Living in Rwanda has made me realise that everybody doesn’t need to jump through the same hoops to develop. For instance Rwanda is very ‘green’. If you are lucky enough to have light bulbs then they are always low wattage. No plastic bags are allowed in the country, and just about anything you can think of is recycled or reused. Everyone grows food in any and every available space without pesticides (even if it is for the wrong reason - that they cannot afford them), and mobile phones are the norm. I don’t know that they will ever totally replace the landline grid and mobiles also double up as watches. It was worrying to observe the teachers picking up their mobiles in class and looking at them until I realised they were looking to see if it was time to change lessons.

The worst part of living in Rwanda was the feeling of inadequacy experienced when people talked of their experiences during the genocide and the thousands of children that have been left with absolutely no one to look after them. The lucky ones are orphans living with a relative, but for so many all the relatives were also killed and they are totally alone. So many children also have Aids and are not expected to become adults, so therefore are largely totally ignored.

Having lived in Rwanda I now really appreciate being able to turn on a tap and have a drink or a wash, and a hot shower is still a treat! Food was also a problem, as even when you could buy it I never quite mastered the kerosene stove, which repeatedly turned myself and the food black!

What I miss about Rwanda are the smiling faces; they have relatively little to smile about but a smile is always there. Perhaps I’d better not dwell on the warm sunny weather also (although it could be quite chilly morning and night.)

Avis Curry
October 2007

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In case you're wondering, no-one from Rwanda has visited this blog yet. Of the 35 countries where visitors have come from, only three are in Africa: Morocco, Egypt and South Africa. There's lots of information on the web about education in Rwanda, so if you want to know more, start here.

Uncertainty Over Decision Day

During the consultation period, which closed on 6 July, we were told that DCC would review the results of the consultation and make a decision on what happens next by the end of September.

That became an expected date of mid October for a DCC Cabinet meeting. The reason we were given for the delay was that there was a large amount of documents and letters for DCC to process, and compile into a report.

But now we've learned that the DCC Cabinet members have not been able to set a date on which they will have finished 'gathering views' and will decide the fate of Combs Infant School, Village Hall and Chapel.

Meanwhile, our village school has opened for a new term and is operating as normally as it can, given its uncertain future.

The decision by DCC affects dozens of children, and scores of families, for a long time to come. We wish DCC would get on with their decision-making.

How hard can it be, for DCC to recognise that preserving a precious asset is the right thing to do?

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A reminder of what can happen next...
Once DCC has (in their own good time) reviewed all of the input they received during the consultation period, their Cabinet, led by the member responsible for schools (Alan Charles, pictured right, defending the indefensible) will decide whether to press on (if they haven't come to their senses) and publish the formal notice of intended closure of the school. If they (stupidly) do that, there's then a further six-week period in which they will accept more input. At the end of that period, they decide whether to continue with the closure (against all reason).

So, be prepared for this to run on into (at least) 2008.

Read the post on "The Legal Framework" for more details.