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We do not want to move from our outstanding and popular school at Mount Scar. But if a new school was opened on the Middle School site it could go to a competition among potential bidders.
The Proposal states:
The school would open with a new name. We welcome views from all sections of the community on the preferred status of the proposed school.
The Proposal does not make it clear what the options for this "preferred status" could be. We believe that the two options are likely to be either:
- A Church Of England Voluntary Aided School
- A Community (non denominational) School
We suggest that you tell the Review Body what you feel about these options.
We believe that it is important for Swanage to maintain its range and diversity of schools, keeping the balance Community, Church of England and Roman Catholic schools that we have now.
If the Purbeck Review body aren't made aware of the strength of feeling in support of non-denominational Community education they will not stand up for Community schools in Purbeck. This will mean the nearest non-denominational school would be 16 miles away, in Upton, while Swanage would be served by two Church of England schools and St Mary's Roman Catholic school.
Less diversity in Swanage
The Proposal continues:
St.Mark’s and Swanage First schools would close and move to the existing middle school site to form a new primary school. The school created would bring together the best traditions from each of the existing schools and focus on producing a school for the whole community. This would include ensuring community use of the site, extended schools and early years provision. All possible avenues would be explored to provide the community of Swanage with the best primary provision possible whilst also investigating whether additional facilities such as an adult learning centre could be provided.
The school would respect the faith tradition of St Marks and the ethos of Swanage First School. It would be committed to inclusive education for the whole community, where children and families are welcomed, nurtured and encouraged whatever their background.
This sounds reassuring. But there are no details of how this merger of values would work in practice. There are very specific laws governing the opening of a new school. Guidelines state that any new school would be subject to a competition and the strongest bidder would take responsibility for the management of the new school.
The Government wants all new schools to be foundation schools, run by a Trust, church or other group. This means it would almost certainly be a school run by either the Church of England or by an as yet unknown group. The winning bidder would decide the 'ethos' of the new school.
Diversity of provision is key to parental choice in schools, according to the law.
It is important to state that we do not want to see church schools closed. We think that a better proposal would be to maintain diversity of provision and choice for all parents.