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St Tudy school

Graham Smith | 10:44 UK time, Friday, 19 March 2010

St Tudy SchoolSt Tudy is a lovely village with a charming primary school - but charm is a two-edged sword. Although Ofsted says the school is "Good" it was built in 1864 and fails to meet many of the standard requirements of the 21st century. It has no hall, library, room for Special Educational Needs or staff room; its three class rooms are all undersize and the only play area is across a road.

It is largely for these reasons that Cornwall Council's education officials have labelled it the "second worst" primary school in the county (out of 237.) It currently has 67 pupils - although 32 of them live outside the designated catchment area.

A plan to combine the school with neighbouring St Mabyn village, by building on a new site at Longstone, provoked a furious "hands off" local campaign which forced county hall to abandon the idea.

Next week councillors have to start dealing with the harsh realities of charming small schools. Officials have presented five options in respect of St Tudy, none of which please local villagers. Option Five is to do nothing and risk a poor Ofsted inspection at some point in the future. St Tudy's school governors are disputing the way officers have presented the case and believe a new school could be built, within the village, within the £1.3m budget.

One fact which tends to get overlooked is that Cornwall currently has 5,000 surplus primary school places. Hence the council's "Primary Strategy for Change" which encourages clustering, federating and sharing staff and resources between schools. The cost-per-child in a small rural school can be as much as £15,000 per year; compared with only £2,500 in a large urban school. So town taxes subsidise pretty villages. I forecast quite a rumpus in the weeks and months ahead.

(Declaration of interest: I live in a neighbouring village and my own children attended the local primary school.)

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    'Cornwall currently has 5,000 surplus primary school places'.

    Your vision is skewed there, Graham.

    Reality dictates this replacement wording:

    'Cornwall currently has too many depopulated villages and primary school catchments - due to the misappropriation and part-time misuse of residential housing for non-residential purposes and inflation of residential housing prices by anti-social, anti-community non-residents.'

    The way to fill those primary school places and restore year round life and vibrancy in our communities is to put residents back into the residential housing.

  • Comment number 2.

    Graham, your last paragraph is completely misleading. The majority of rural schools get less than their urban counterparts. Inner city funding per capita sits at just under £7,000. This £15,000 you speak of I believe refers to special units with a high level of specialist care, so simply non comparable.

    Can you substantiate which schools get £15,000 and why?

    The point is the costs given in the Scrutiny Report are simply huge compared to the predicted £1.8m of a few years ago. Why is this so? The question is why are the LA not working with the community to access this DCSF funding? The £1.3m is already allocated from a DCSF grant to a new St Tudy school, so a relatively small amount of additional funding would be required to access this fund. St Mabyn and St Tudy are the first to be hard federated in Cornwall I believe, so surely the LA, Diocese and all members of the community would want to work together to solve the building issues at St Tudy.

    You're quite right to predict a rumpus; enough incorrect information has been presented public recently and I would hope that people won't continue to add to this.

    My comments are given in my capacity as Chair of the Community Action Group

  • Comment number 3.

    The figures are quoted in Hansard, 2nd February 2010, Column 67WH and come from Matthew Taylor MP during a debate he sponsored about rural schools funding. You can read a transcript of the debate here:

    Of course there are no figures for the "social value" generated by the presence of small rural schools - but plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that once a village loses its school, it is irreversibly in decay.

  • Comment number 4.

    Yes, that transcript also states that the average per capita funding figure is £3,500 - you just quoted extremities. Also try comparing it to the national average of £4,417 in 2009 and it suddenly doesn't seem so good [source: Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú report October 2009]. Look at a more local level and you would be appalled.

    This my whole point about people spouting numbers - the actual core matter is we should support a system where parents and small schools provide a more integrated approach to learning. Anything that goes to damaging that connection between home and school cannot, in my opinion, be a good thing. Small schools are a very good educational resource - Ofsted recognised this in 2008 with an official statement stating that small schools (defined as having less than 100 students) did significantly better in Key Stages 1 and and 2 than any other sized school.

    Lets get behind the small school system, and stop this consolidation and amalgamation policy that seems prevalent.

    Can I respectfully request you research your facts more before making sweeping statements. I would be more than happy to send on all our research on funding, small school systems and official national and international studies into small, community centric schools.

  • Comment number 5.

    Hmmm, as a member of the village and a past parent of children who attended the school, I have to raise a few points. I removed my children from the school, as teacher years together is terrible...... especially the older ones... my children actually went backwards from the previous school they were in and there abilities went below the Sat grade they actually entered the school, with so a year later I removed them!!!

    The school should have been joined with St Mabyn, too quick the idea was put to bed, I disagree with the village school, most schools around the area have places.... I also disagree with the traffic flow the school brings into the village, the inconsiderate parking, and as for moving it elsewhere in the village well who is going to want a school outside there back door... I know I don't gone would be the peaceful afternoons in the garden, the noise from playing kids.

    Education is vital and my honest experience of the school as a parent and a villager is not good..... I think when these children go to comprehensive school they suffer, ask the teachers they really can tell who has been to a village school and who hasn't.... adjusting is hard

    Hearing that over half the pupils come from outside the village is annoying too, they dont care about the village just the schooling of the children, wider issues need to be looked into here, I think a new school in st tudy should NOT be built. Figures or no figures of course if you are a parent of a child at the school you are gonna think it is great well my children had an awful experience and I happen to think the tittle of 2nd worse school in Cornwall is right!!!!

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