DCC Cabinet Meeting - 15 May

A report put before the DCC Cabinet on 15 May has now been posted on the web.


Snappily titled "Report of the Strategic Director for Children & Younger Adults School Places Planning and Surplus Capacity Proposed Re-organisations of Primary School Provision (Schools)", you can download it here (PDF document).

About Combs, it said:

It is proposed to close Combs Infant School and for the normal area to be absorbed into that of Chapel-en-le-Frith CE Primary School, the neighbouring school to which most pupils transfer for Key Stage 2 education. There are just 25 pupils on roll (Jan 2007) at this Infant School and of these, only 10 live within the normal area. Hence, this is providing a high cost education for a majority of out of area pupils, 13 of whom live in the normal area of Chapel-en-le-Frith CE Primary school. However, it is acknowledged that Combs Infant School is classified as an isolated rural school as it is approximately 2.8 miles to Chapel-en-le-Frith CE Primary School from Combs. Hence, transport would need to be provided for some if not all of the small number of pupils living in that normal area. A further issue is that Combs Primary School received an excellent OfSTED Report in 2006.

DCC's research is faulty. Most pupils do not transfer to Chapel-en-le-Frith, as has since been admitted by DCC. Such a basic error makes you wonder how many other 'facts' they've got wrong.