Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Schools Reorganisation Update:
The Council’s ruling Liberal Democrat Executive is still reeling from the verbal battering it received from around 170 parents at the public meeting in Eastern Leisure Centre on May 18th. Your Labour Councillors leafleted parents outside school gates in Trowbridge and St. Mellons to make up for the lack of publicity.
The earlier series of meetings, held in February, were so badly publicised by the Council that few people attended them; only 16 parents turned up for the West Cardiff meeting. The following day over 100 people attended the East Cardiff meeting after we leafleted at school gates.
At the latest public meeting worried parents demanded answers to their questions and complained that they were getting “waffle” in reply.
Having exposed the Councils failure to publicise these meetings properly, the South Wales Echo, has continued to devote space to the issue. The Council’s best kept secret is the talk of the City!
We are asking the Liberal Democrats to tell us when they will honour the promise contained in their June 2004 local election manifesto. Before winning power in Cardiff Council the Lib Dems promised to reduce class sizes to 25 pupils. Yet reducing class sizes is not even mentioned in their consultation paper!
Now they are proposing to close schools whilst presiding over a period when the gap between the average amount spent by Welsh Councils per pupil and the amount spent per pupil in Cardiff is widening. Under Labour between 1999 and 2004 the gap fell from almost £100 per pupil to £9.00!
We accept that something needs to be done to reduce the thousands of surplus places in our schools. However, we oppose plans to increase the size of all primary schools to 420 children because we believe smaller schools are more appropriate for very young children, especially in areas like Trowbridge and St. Mellons where there is significant socio-economic disadvantage.
At the next public meeting, to be held in September the Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Education (Councillor Bill Kelloway, who represents Penylan) will announce which schools he intends to close in East Cardiff.
Remember, even if the school your children attend is not going to be closed, there will be consequences as the children attending schools that are to be closed will have to go somewhere and will increase the size of your child’s school!
Some parents whose children attend St. John Lloyds (Trowbridge) or Bishop Childs (St. Mellons) mistakenly think this has nothing to do with them. It does. Voluntary Aided schools will have to take some of the pain as well as LEA schools.
Finally, I was recently advised that Councillors who find themselves governors of schools destined to be closed would not be permitted to vote on the final proposals as they would “have an interest”. The Echo published the story and I resigned as a Governor of Willowbrook School. Within days a meeting was held where dispensations were agreed for every Councillor who is also a governor. Thus the chaos that would have followed the resignations of 75 Councillors from school governing bodies was averted.
Councillor Ralph Cook
The earlier series of meetings, held in February, were so badly publicised by the Council that few people attended them; only 16 parents turned up for the West Cardiff meeting. The following day over 100 people attended the East Cardiff meeting after we leafleted at school gates.
At the latest public meeting worried parents demanded answers to their questions and complained that they were getting “waffle” in reply.
Having exposed the Councils failure to publicise these meetings properly, the South Wales Echo, has continued to devote space to the issue. The Council’s best kept secret is the talk of the City!
We are asking the Liberal Democrats to tell us when they will honour the promise contained in their June 2004 local election manifesto. Before winning power in Cardiff Council the Lib Dems promised to reduce class sizes to 25 pupils. Yet reducing class sizes is not even mentioned in their consultation paper!
Now they are proposing to close schools whilst presiding over a period when the gap between the average amount spent by Welsh Councils per pupil and the amount spent per pupil in Cardiff is widening. Under Labour between 1999 and 2004 the gap fell from almost £100 per pupil to £9.00!
We accept that something needs to be done to reduce the thousands of surplus places in our schools. However, we oppose plans to increase the size of all primary schools to 420 children because we believe smaller schools are more appropriate for very young children, especially in areas like Trowbridge and St. Mellons where there is significant socio-economic disadvantage.
At the next public meeting, to be held in September the Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Education (Councillor Bill Kelloway, who represents Penylan) will announce which schools he intends to close in East Cardiff.
Remember, even if the school your children attend is not going to be closed, there will be consequences as the children attending schools that are to be closed will have to go somewhere and will increase the size of your child’s school!
Some parents whose children attend St. John Lloyds (Trowbridge) or Bishop Childs (St. Mellons) mistakenly think this has nothing to do with them. It does. Voluntary Aided schools will have to take some of the pain as well as LEA schools.
Finally, I was recently advised that Councillors who find themselves governors of schools destined to be closed would not be permitted to vote on the final proposals as they would “have an interest”. The Echo published the story and I resigned as a Governor of Willowbrook School. Within days a meeting was held where dispensations were agreed for every Councillor who is also a governor. Thus the chaos that would have followed the resignations of 75 Councillors from school governing bodies was averted.
Councillor Ralph Cook
