Dunstable Parents Action Team
Open Letter From The actio group Other Information on the downlaod page
Dear Parents/Carers
As you will have seen from the recent newsletters issued by your schools, and possibly articles in the Dunstable Gazette (8 Feb), Bedfordshire County council are undertaking a review of how schools are organised in Bedfordshire. Additionally, many middle schools have held meetings for their parents to raise awareness.
As parents, we are concerned with the lack of information that has been made available with regard to this review and, whilst parent consultation has now commenced, we only have until the 4th April to express our views. It is important we make our wishes known to Bedfordshire County Council with regard to the possible changes to the school structure and possible suggestions of how to improve the current system. Please do not make the assumption this will not affect you and your children – it will!
We all feel passionate about our children and the education they receive. We want to ensure they are receiving the best that is available, but are educational standards going to improve by changing to a 2 tier system from a 3 tier system? To date, all research conducted has shown no difference in educational standards between 2 tier or 3 tier schools. Why then are structural changes being proposed to improve educational standards?
There are some serious issues to consider if Bedfordshire schools change from a 3 tier to a 2 tier system:
- It will take between 5-10 years to implement which means all our children will be severely affected both emotionally and in terms of damaged education for years to come.
- A 2 tier system will cause enormous logistical problems; Bedfordshire’s schools are small and spread over a large geographical area, combining schools into fewer but larger schools will be extremely expensive. There will be further problems with ‘split campuses’; one school on two or more sites miles apart. There will be school closures.
- Fewer, larger schools with, perhaps over 1000 pupils, several miles from home, would result in pupils having to travel further, adding to the congestion on our already busy roads.
- The 3 tier system allows for the teaching of children in restricted age groups. This permits teaching aimed at the specific needs of a small group of children - 4 year olds have little in common with 11 year olds and 11 year olds have nothing in common with 18 year olds, however in the 2 tier system, they would attend the same school.
- Specialised teaching e.g. French, Science, PE, Technology, which is currently available to our children from the age of 9 would be withdrawn until they are 11 thus resulting in a loss of good teaching staff from our schools.
- What support will be available to our children during the change over period?
- How many lessons will become disrupted?
- Will children move from one school only to move again the following year during the transition period?
We also have to ask how the County Council can justify spending £millions (Northamptonshire school restructure, which had less schools than Bedfordshire, cost £200 million) of OUR money on restructuring when schools are crying out for funding for worthwhile projects and every day running costs? Would the investment not be better spent on our current structure for resources and teachers?
As the County Council website quotes ‘Doing nothing is not an option’. We would urge you, therefore, to have your say about the future of your children’s education.
There are many ways to do this:
Completion of the questionnaire on the Four S website www.fours.co.uk/bedfordshire
Email comments to Bedfordshire@fours.co.uk
Writing to your local County Councillor (name & address on the CC website: www.bedfordshire.gov.uk)
Writing to your local MP – Andrew Selous, House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA