Viewpoint - 11th September 2003

We believe that there is an intention by the County Council to change our schools from the current three tiers to the two tier system during the current review of schools in Wyre Forest.

This, the main issue, is obscured by the proposals included in the consultation document to close or merge several of our smaller schools. This deflects attention from the main debate and sets school against school in a fight for survival - a classic attempt to 'divide and rule'.

The County Council's own "Scrutiny Report - Circumstances and Thresholds to be taken into account when contemplating a Small School Review" tells us that "any reference to the benefits and disbenefits of two or three tier education should be separated from the consideration of issues affecting Small Schools". Hopefully we can be reassured by another sentence in this document, "The quality of education provided by the school should be the top priority rather than the use of thresholds to determine a school's viability"?

If the main debate must be about the two tier versus the three tier system for Wyre Forest schools, important points and questions immediately arise: -

• It is accepted that by Key Stage 4 there is no evidence to suggest that one system produces better educational results for children than the other.
• I believe that the trigger for a review should come from within the district concerned. Where did the demand for this review originate?
• Some Governors serving more than one school are in the impossible position of being pulled in opposite directions by their different schools.
• If, as I suspect from the letters I receive, most people do not want the change to two tiers then Wyre Forest people must come together during the consultation period to express their preference. Party political point scoring is not appropriate and campaigns against school closures must work together.

The Worcestershire Middle School Headteachers' Association makes two crucial points in their Review of Middle Schools. "We believe that change must not lead to the education of a generation being seriously disrupted in the hope that future children may achieve more. Change must be for sound educational reasons."

"When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change" (Falkland 1641). I do not believe that the educational case for the changes proposed has been made and until it is I will support retaining the three tier system. Only after that should all schools be reviewed for the quality of the education provided regardless of school size or the age of its buildings. Some of the best education comes from small schools in aged buildings that staff, parents and children have made entirely suitable for their purpose.

After the present consultation concludes in November a decision will be made by the County Council Cabinet. Officers tell me they have received only a small numbers of responses so far. To influence the Cabinet you must write with your views now to: Alison Cartwright, Policy Officer - Schools, Education Services, PO Box 73, Worcester, WR5 2YA.

R.T.