'They don't care about the school children' (From Basingstoke Gazette)

'They don't care about the school children'

11:55am Monday 14th December 2009

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IT WAS the news they expected and dreaded – but parents have still reacted angrily after hearing that county education experts want to axe their children’s Basingstoke school.

Senior education officers have advised Hampshire County Council education chief Councillor David Kirk that he should decide to close Chineham Park Primary School in Popley.

The advice is contained in a report to Cllr Kirk, the executive member for education, following a month of consultation with various parties, including parents.

Parents collecting their children from the school last Thursday afternoon said they felt their views have not been listened to – and they accused the county council of not caring about their children.

Many parents said they will take their children to protest ahead of the decision day meeting at the county council’s headquarters in Winchester on Thursday.

Maria Barker, a parent from Wordsworth Close, Popley, said: “If they cared about the kids, they wouldn’t be shutting the school. They go on about other schools in the area but they aren’t any better.”

Trudie Gregory added: “I’m upset and angry to be honest. It feels like they don’t care about the school or the children.”

Many parents feel their questions about why the school should not close have not been answered, and some approached members of the school’s Interim Executive Board, who were at Chineham Park Primary on Thursday afternoon for a meeting with staff.

The IEB was appointed by the county council in June in a bid to help pull the school out of its dire position after it was rated “inadequate” by Ofsted inspectors, put into special measures and its number of pupils continued to decline.

Parent Joanne O’Shea said: “The IEB aren’t interested because they want to close the school. It made me so angry. As parents, we do have a right to know what’s going on, but they don’t care.”

As reported in last Thursday’s Gazette, Popley East borough Councillor Andrew McCormick resigned from his position on the IEB last week because he said other members want the school to close but were not saying so in public.

Cllr McCormick said he was not surprised by the decision report recommendation for closure, adding: “It was probably in place before the rest of the report was written. They have ignored the evidence that we (supporters of the school) have put forward.”

The report to Cllr Kirk was written by Chris Holt, the county council’s head of school organisation, and Martin Shefferd, school organisation officer.

They recommend Cllr Kirk closes Chineham Park Primary next August.

The report points to falling standards at the school, saying it has failed three Ofsted inspections despite considerable support from Hampshire as the local education authority. It notes that this support was double that usually given to schools judged to be “inadequate” by Ofsted.

The officers state there are just 86 pupils at the school, even though it has capacity for 180. They also note that five out of six pupils in the catchment area go elsewhere, making the school unviable.

The report says the latest Ofsted monitoring inspection in December states the school has made inadequate progress overall against areas identified for improvement.

Over 10 years, Chineham Park Primary has shown a pattern of improvements with local authority support, but the report notes that it has slumped again when that support was reduced.

The officers forecast that there will be 560 surplus places at schools within a one-mile radius by September 2010 and state that the quality of education in 10 alternative schools is better than at Chineham Park.

If Cllr Kirk agrees with the officers’ recommendations but there are objections to his decision, the matter will go before the county council’s Cabinet in March for a final decision – but a stay of execution will be highly unlikely once Cllr Kirk has delivered his verdict.

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