Council to deliver guarantees to schools rally

The leader and chief executive of Herefordshire Council are to meet organisers of a pro-schools rally scheduled for Wednesday (13 February 2008).

It follows the council’s reaffirmation that it will fight pressure to close high schools or primary schools.

The Herefordshire Against Closing Schools (HACS) rally will still take place in Hereford city centre and the council’s highways and transportation department and the police have agreed a safe route with the organisers.

The council has published the route on its web site.

Leader of the council Roger Phillips says he wants the council leadership to meet with leaders of the rally to give parents a guarantee that draft proposals to close or merge schools are off the table.

He also wants to ensure that the protesters’ message gets through to the minister for schools, Jim Knight, when he meets with him in March to discuss how Herefordshire’s schools can be kept open.

“No one could fail to be impressed”, he said, “with the energy and passion of parents who are fighting for their schools, communities and rural way of life.

“The council is listening to them and acting on their concerns. People have asked what we mean when we said proposals were recalled.

“It means they were recalled, withdrawn and scrapped. They are no longer there in any shape or form and I hope people will take some comfort from that. “

He said: “However, Herefordshire is the first local education authority to resist government totally on this issue. While the government says the closure of smaller schools is not on its agenda, its official guidance issued just before Christmas told local authorities to close smaller schools and remove surplus places as a priority.

“We are being told that unless we remove surplus places the government can remove a further slice of funding from our schools. Herefordshire is already the third-worst funded education authority”.

“Although it is now clear that any schools review proposals are off the table as far as the council is concerned, it is important that we keep the focus on lobbying government for a better deal for Herefordshire schools.”

In a successful motion to full council last week, Councillor Phillips confirmed that no closures or major reorganisations of high schools would be considered during the lifetime of the current administration.

Neither would primary schools close outside of the county’s long-established small school policy.

The policy, which is available on the council’s web site, says that the council would review schools with fewer than 36 pupils in the September of a school year, in consultation with the relevant diocese where a church school is concerned.

The council has one school in the county that is vulnerable in this respect and is looking at encouraging creative solutions and such as sharing resources among schools and with the community, or federation options.