Though Cowards Flinch

Further to this little story of the Tory manifesto announcing legislation which 

a) already exists; 

b) has been used by people in Bickerstaffe a while ago, we also have this little snippet from the Tory manifesto (p.53): 

[W]e will give parents the power to save local schools threatened by closure, allowing communities the chance to take over and run good small schools. 

No, sorry Tories, we’ve already done that in Bickerstaffe too. 

Five years ago, the role of Bickerstaffe Village Primary School had declined to around 50.  We were advised by the Council’s Education Adviser to live within our means (funding is more or less on a per capita basis) and reduce the number of mixed age classes to two. 

As parents and governors, we canvassed opinion and realised that if we did that some parents would take their children out, reducing the school roll into the 30s, and that closure would inevitably follow at some point. 

So we politely told the Education Adviser that we disagreed with her view, and on behalf of the governing body and parents I wrote a ‘recovery business plan’ seeking permission from the Education Authority to run a deficit budget for up to two years while we went about marketing the school and increasing the roll. 

We never did in fact go into deficit, and now have 82 children on roll, with an expectation  of around 100 in 3 years time.   

No drama, no need for new legislation – just sensible parent initiative and a sensible reaction from a sensible Labour-run education authority.   

The full story is here. 

In Autumn 2009, the newly Tory run education authority sent round a secret memo (over which the Cabinet member was sacked when it got leaked) setting out proposals for the closure of small schools, with precise details about the distance to neighbouring schools.   

Bickerstaffe school was on that list, but we are confident that with a growing roll, and a village wholly committed to the school, we will withstand whatever the Tory cutters throw at us. 

In Bickerstaffe, we’re organised.  The Tories could learn a thing or two from us.