Other Schools Fight On

As reported by Zena Hawley in today's Derby Evening Telegraph.

PARENTS TO FIGHT SCHOOL CLOSURES
Furious parents have vowed to fight on after the county council decided to go ahead with plans to close their children's school.

Derbyshire councillors voted yesterday to publish formal notices which could close Highfield Primary School, in Long Eaton, next summer.

They also agreed to proceed with closure plans for Castle Gresley Infants School and Apperknowle Primary, near Dronfield.

The move is designed to eliminate some of the 8,000 surplus places in schools across the county.

But parent Karen Beck, who has been helping to co-ordinate a campaign to keep Highfield Primary open, said that everyone at the 114-pupil school felt very angry about the situation.

Together with a number of parents from Long Eaton, Castle Gresley and Apperknowle, she attended the council cabinet meeting at Matlock yesterday.

When the council first proposed closing Highfield Primary School, it mistakenly estimated that it had 39 per cent of surplus space.

But it had taken into account two disused classrooms and, without them, surplus places were down to 24 per cent - just under the figure that triggers a review of surplus places in a school.

Mrs Beck said: "We feel that everything we have put forward has been turned around to suit the council's aim to close the school.

"And we are unhappy over the way the council keeps putting different pupil numbers forward to justify its stance."

....

Full Story on the Derby Evening Telegraph web site.

So, it's not just with Combs School that DCC has been accused of using inaccurate information. Are they incapable of using information that is correct, or just unwilling because they wouldn't win their argument if they did?

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.

Stoney Middleton Adjudication

Although there are very many differences between the situation of Combs School and Village Hall compared to what happened when Stoney Middleton school was also under pressure to close, we've been advised to look at the findings of the School Adjudicator in that case.

So, here's a link to the judgement of the School Adjudicator on the proposal by Derbyshire County Council to close Stoney Middleton School.

How do you think that relates to our position in Combs? Please comment.

Stoney Middleton school survives!

Stoney Middleton school was also threatened with closure. Friends of the school have managed to persuade the Schools Adjudicator to keep the school open.

Adjudication