Campaign is launched to fight school closure (From Gazette Series)

Campaign is launched to fight proposed closure of Vale of Berkeley College

8:30am Thursday 22nd October 2009 in Gloucestershire news By Claire Marshall

PARENTS, teachers and governors are gearing up to fight Government proposals to close Vale of Berkeley College.

A report released this week has recommended that the secondary school in Wanswell, near Berkeley, should be shut due to poor exam results and low pupil numbers.

It was one of nine schools in the county to be included in the Government’s National Challenge programme, which identified under-performing schools, but was the only one to be recommended for complete closure.

Head teacher of the school Aidan Farrell said he and everyone at the school was "devastated" by the news.

"We know that we provide an excellent all round education for every child who comes here and it is vital this choice for children and parents continues."

Mr Farrell said that every child in the school is a name not a number, but with less than 300 pupils the school has a small budget and Jo Grills, director of learning at Gloucestershire County Council, said the school was not able to offer the breadth of subjects and activities a larger school can.

She said: "It is important young people are challenged as much as possible and in a small school it is difficult to give them the full range of opportunities."

The National Challenge was launched last June by education secretary Ed Balls and Vale of Berkeley was identified after only 16 per cent of their pupils gained five A*-C grades in their 2007 GCSEs.

At the time Mr Farrell defended the school saying that statistics were a ‘crude indicator’ of performance, especially for a school with only 40 to 50 students in a year group.

Last year the school made big improvements. In 2008 33 percent of pupils gained five good GCSEs and an Ofsted report carried out at the start of the year gave the school an overall ‘good’ rating, commenting that there had been "fantastic progress".

Alex Greenway, a governor and a parent with two children at the school, said he was "choked up" after hearing the recommendations.

He said: "The report is only interested in children coming out with five GCSEs and whilst I fully accept this is something to strive towards what it does not take into account is the number of children at the school and the number of pupil’s with special needs.

"They all receive excellent care and support at the school and if they are moved into larger schools they will be swallowed up in the system, they will become lost voices.

"The head teacher knows every child’s name in the school and that is very rare. If I won the lottery I would still send my children there no question."

Val Watts, mayor of Berkeley, said she felt strongly the school should remain at part of Berkeley’s community.

"I think it is a great shame," said Cllr Watts. "Not every child does well in a large school, some will thrive in a small school.

"It is conveniently placed for locally children to get to and a lot of people prefer it because it has a friendly family atmosphere and that is what we are used to in Berkeley."

The county council will be holding a six week consultation period before making a final decision. Mr Farrell is asking anyone wants to support the school’s campaign to fight the recommendations to call 01453 811396 or email campaign@valeofberkeley.com