New review into education starts (From Gazette Series)

New review into education starts

SCHOOLS in Dursley and Wotton are under the spotlight as a new review of county education starts.

Gloucestershire County Council's newly appointed Conservative administration scrapped their predecessors' review of schools in favour of restarting the process.

At a special meeting of the Stroud Area Review Panel last Friday, delegates from Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Heads (GASH), Gloucestershire Association of Primary School Heads (GAPH) and Gloucestershire County Council decided to start their review of secondary education in West Stroud, which includes the Vale of Berkeley, Katharine Lady Berkeley and Rednock schools. Liberal Democrat John Cordwell, a member of the panel, said the review would start immediately.

He said: " The panel's job is to examine the problem that exists in each area within the Stroud area and decide what we should be doing and report back to the county council cabinet.

"The problem we are facing is declining numbers of pupils. The first job with primary schools is to look at the Stonehouse area and this will be followed by Wotton-under-Edge where one of the schools in particular is only half full. We need to look at ways of addressing that.

"In terms of secondary schools we decided to look at Stroud West first. The idea is to report back to the cabinet by Christmas but we were told that the administration would like it pushed through faster than that."

When asked if the review posed any threat to the future of the Vale of Berkeley College, whose last intake of students into the sixth forms will be in September, Cllr Cordwell said: "I wouldn't like to start speculating on the future of any school.

"What I would like to see is more work done between schools rather than closing them. We can't say anything more until the review has taken place, which will involve speaking to groups and local people."

Council spokeswoman Nicola Davis said: "What members of the panels in each area have to do is look at what the pupils numbers will be like in ten years time and start to think about what changes they might have to make.

"They are really no problems in secondary education but they still have to be looked at and considered."