The Thin End of the Wedge

Day 34

24th June 2009

There is a very hot potato being tossed about in Purbeck: the Purbeck Review, which is supposedly a fair way of looking at the existing three-tier (first, middle and upper schools) education system, and changing it by closing the middle schools in Purbeck and having a new, two-tier system.

Dorset County Council announced this proposal in January of this year, and after over two months of overwhelming puplic opposition opinion against the changes, the council went off with their white boards, pieces of paper, and statistics to consider the public opinion and decide what to do next.

What they decided to do, it seems, is to go back to their offices with said white boards, pieces of paper and statistics, and put their feet on their desks and rest up for a while, waiting for the local elections to take place. Once this was over, they casually announced this week that whilst there was overwhelming public disagreement to the two-tier system, actually there was a significant "balanced" opinion that agreed with changing from a three to a two-tier system.

Yeah, right, of course there was.

Pardon me for being ever-so-slightly acerbic, but I think we have a case of significantly aromatic Dorset manure, here.

There are numerous families who have moved into Purbeck, and specifically, Swanage, to be able to utilize the fantastic first and middle schools in the area. A large proportion of these parents are able to work from home, and so it isn't an issue as far as commuting out of Purbeck to more industrialised areas to work. I know a vast majority of these parents who, if they couldn't work from home, would not have moved to Swanage at all. I know a significant number of parents who wanted to live in Swanage because of the unique schools in the area.

If the Council were to take their heads out of the Purbeck sand and sample the other side of living - you know, the part where you have to spend an extra 20-30K on a house to get into a decent school nearby because it got a good Ofsted report; or the bit where parents get their 2nd or 3rd choices of schools because of an excess number of applications for a reception class size of 30; or the bit where parents "lie" about where they live in order to get into the school they want to, then they may wish to step back again and take a closer look at the well-performing schools within Purbeck.

Not to mention the "second homes" debate, where wealthy people are buying up second homes in tourist areas, and driving up the house prices, meaning that ordinary families are unable to move into these rural areas, and that community life is dying as a result. The council say that the population is dwindling and that the education system can not survive in its current situation, based on the number of pupils required to keep the Purbeck (upper) school in Wareham open and able to offer a full range of subjects at GCSE and A level.

But there is a growing population in the Purbeck area, not just from families moving in and working from home, but also from the baby boom, where Swanage saw a significant increase in the number of births, late last year and this year. I am a part of that statistic, and the reason we moved back to Swanage is because of the brilliant schooling system, and the quality of life.

The proposal to a two-tier system is so evocative because it would mean sending our 11 year olds 10 miles to Wareham on the bus, closing the middle school and rebuilding it (at a cost of an estimated £70million - that doesn't include improving the roads and safety to the school), closing some of the existing first schools and removing the only non-faith school in the area, and all of this is to keep the upper school open.

Why can't a secondary school/upper school be opened in Swanage? There was a grammar school in Swanage until the 1970's, and the building has since remained empty and unused. Why should our children have to go, at the age of 11, to a school 10 miles away, because of a perception from the council that it would be a good idea? And why did they bother having a consultation period if they knew they were going to go ahead with the proposal, anyway?

So my ranting and carrying on about the whole subject hasn't given any explanation to the photo. A piece of Dorset Blue Vinny cheese (not my thing but apparently it's very delicious), bought by my husband from the Purbeck Deli represents the thin end of the wedge, which is what our Purbeck children are being offered in terms of education, if the council press ahead with the two-tier proposal. There are lots of reasons why this is a bad idea, if only the council would be able to understand this from the heart, not the head and the pocket. I would recommend the likes of John Nash to come and stay with a family in each of the Purbeck areas and see how things are now, and how things could be if the whole system was changed. Being emotional and misninformed is one thing, but being rational, logical and reasoned is another. Perhaps if the council could take the opinions from the latter, things could be different.