Baby Boom

Day 130

28th September 2009

This afternoon I took these pictures at the under-one's group in Swanage. The point of today's images are to show that Swanage is not a second-home town, nor a retirement town. More and more families are choosing to live here because it offers a wealth of opportunity for children, combined with a safe, clean environment, and a high quality of life.
Dorset County Council say that the schools in Purbeck have a surplus of places available, which needs to be reviewed and changed. The say that changing to a two-tier system, closing the middle schools in Swanage and Wareham, and shutting an unknown number of first schools will reduce the surplus places and improve the standard of education.
Although they seem very sure about the surplus of places, they don't appear to be very aware of the baby boom in the town, and can't seem to be able to predict the expected numbers of children who will require a school place in three or four years time. Nor do they accept that the birth rate has been increasing year on year since 2005.

Today's photo shows 21 of the 109 babies who were born within the last academic year. There are more families moving into Swanage, than there are leaving the town.

Now they are asking the town for their views on a secondary school in Swanage.

If Swanage Middle School closes, then 800 pupils will be expected to travel 20 miles a day in order to continue their secondary education. Swanage will become the largest town in the country without a secondary school. If this were to continue beyond the time at which these babies turn eleven, the impact on the environment will be significant. The roads will become more congested, with the A-roads having a larger number of buses as well as parents driving their children to the Purbeck school.
You can find out more about the proposal of secondary education in Swanage at the education Swanage website, which is independent of Dorset County Council, at http://educationswanage.co.uk/