Contact
I can be contacted via the email address below:
dcoulbeck@googlemail.com
I can be contacted via the email address below:
dcoulbeck@googlemail.com
Are you a parent or a carer of a pupil or child going to a school in the UK affected by a proposed closure?
Do you feel strongly that your school should not close?
Do you want to fight against this closure proposal but don't know how to go about it?
THEN YOU'VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE!
This site is dedicated to giving you the knowledge, advice and experience you need to fight the closure effectively.
Mar 17, 2010 @ 15:28:50
My daughter’s school is currently being consulted by Gateshead MBC with a proposal to close.
Parents have set up an action group very similar to the group which David chaired. We are very grateful for the advice & support which David & Margaret have given us so far. This has motivated us to keep going & can advise that so far we have shared a very similar experience from Gateshead. I have also found out that School Organisation Committees were abolished & therefore many LAs now don’t use them as the final decision-making forum. In our case the final decision is with Cabinet & l’m sure this will now be the same with many LAs. Anything we learn from the process will be shared on this site & our website which is currently developing
http://www.savesacredheart.co.uk
Jun 23, 2010 @ 20:44:50
Hello, my son has just started at a small school that is closing in one more years time. Is there anything we can do as the date is already set in stone and all procedures finished? I am a teacher myself and the school gets very high standards from a renge of children including many deprived, in fact standards are similar to the ‘best ‘ school in the area. It is a church school. I was wondering if the change of government could help with parents running new schools. Certainly other changes in local schools have been reversed. Thanks so much, any advice much appreciated.
Jun 23, 2010 @ 21:09:06
Can you tell me a little more about the school and what has happened so far? Name, address, location, which council area would help so that I might be able to see where in the process the school is. Thanks.
Jul 06, 2010 @ 09:39:48
Our thanks once again to David for his advice to our action group.
Gateshead council is now in the formal consultation stage with us with a proposal to close our rural school.
As has been commented on this site, the LA does not seem to want to listen to the views of parents. None of our questions were answered, in fact it appeared that the LA did not even know the answers to our questions. One tactic it did try to use was to have 3 separate consultation meetings – with staff, governors & then with parents. The LA tried to have the third meeting with only the parents of children currently at our school & at 7pm which would make it much more difficult for us to arrange childcare etc.
We stood our ground, after advice from David – we got the meeting for parents changed to 6pm – we held the meeting in our church after the LA tried to use H&S as an excuse to limit numbers in the school hall & we invited members of the community. We organised specific members of our action group to ask questions on behalf of parents & then asked other attendees to ask their questions . This organisation helped to time-manage the meeting to our benefit. The LA does not expect any level of organisation from parents but it is important to challenge them & continue to be persistent but professional.
We also did de-briefing & learning from the process after the meeting so that we can improve our performance for the next round. This process is long & arduous but our group gets stronger with each mistake made by the LA
Thanks again to David – we will update as we learn more.
Sep 26, 2011 @ 15:46:55
Hi David
I contacted you via this site a few days ago. we ar in the imediate task of taking North Yorks CC to court to stop them closing our local Middle schools, both successful rural schools. I appreciate the structure you have put together, it would be useful to have a paper copy of your booklet to make notes on.Is tis possible?
If you have any sudden ideas or extra wisdom you are able to share with us I would be grateful. I have seen the email you sent to Iain Henshaw , who is part of the same campaign
Best wishes,
Kevin McSherry