Dunmore Infant and Junior Schools - Way forward (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats <info@oxfordshirelibdems.org.uk>

Dunmore Infant and Junior Schools - Way forward

January 16, 2007 12:26 PM
By Cllr Lesley Legge in County Cabinet

As a local Abingdon county councillor representing parents from my division whose children attend Dunmore schools, I am pleased to note the recommendations put forward to Cabinet today on the future of Dunmore Infant and Junior Schools and would urge the Cabinet to follow these recommendations.

I am pleased also that the officers are now working closely with the schools and their governors to determine the best way forward to resolve the current situation.

I am still very unhappy about how the current situation arose at all and about the recommendations put forward in the consultation. For Abingdon, putting forward the option of a 3 - 19 school at one, out of three secondary schools appeared very divisive, as did the choices around which schools would have to close etc.. For years now Abingdon's three secondary schools and the FE college have worked in partnership and children from all the primary schools in Abingdon through choice and the proximity of all the schools in Abingdon, move on to all three secondary schools effectively.

On the face of it, it would be very difficult to rebut the charge that the County Council has been guilty of incompetence. The unhappiness that this badly handled consultation has caused must never be allowed to happen again. Nor must the situation in which the school found itself, that of being in special measures whilst still largely performing above the national average on government tests and league tables. I feel this represents a real failure of management on the part of the County Council.

There needs to be a full and open review into the long series of unresolved issues for Dunmore Junior School; into how it ended up in special measures and into the county council's input during this time. From the consultation another major area of concern is the lack of proper research for the options put forward by the County Council, which became glaringly apparent from comparison with the research carried out independently by parents and governors on other schools' experiences of the 3 - 19 school option.

Local councillors could and should play a vital part in these situations but can only do so if issues are raised with them early enough to allow them to help with the background knowledge of the area which they represent.

Please support the recommendations which have now been made, and assure the public that the full history and process will be reviewed when the current situation is resolved.

We must ensure no other school's children, staff or parents have to live through such a distressing time when changes happen.