It is fair to say that after the joy of winning came the reality of sustaining the school and making it stronger so it would not be in the same position again. All parents knew that the surplus places issues had to be resolved which meant changes to the school that were necessary. The PAN was reduced to reflect the smaller school size and the budget was also reduced. This lead to a reduction of teaching staff and a change in the school structure. Some Year Groups were amalgamated which did not initially go down well with parents. The Head Teacher and teaching staff had to make painful changes at the time and some staff left on retirement. The first year of the new arrangements was difficult all round. The easiest part was to reduce the teaching space in the school, something we were told was difficult and expensive to achieve by the council during the consultation exercise! One classroom closed, job done.

However, since then the school has blossomed. The year group amalgamations have been well managed by the Head and teachers. More pupils are coming into school as we had predicted during the fight which is increasing the budget available for the school. Parents and pupils are happy with the situation and it is continuing to serve its local community well. It has even set up a new website – www.gillaslaneprimary.org – to reflect its new start.

It has not been easy but if you fight and support your school good things will happen.

Having read the Adjudicator’s report in detail, I must say that I am disappointed with his report which does not, in my opinion, provide the level playing field that I have previously supported and championed. He glosses over some of the clear inadequacies of the council’s process and consultation and does not delve sufficiently deeply into the statistics which were contentious and challenged strongly by the Wakeman Parents group. There were no reprimands, slight or otherwise, for a council that did not plan to consult formally with the school’s pupils or the feeder primary schools. He stated that these things had happened but chose to allow the council off scot free with the argument that eventually these groups were aware of the consultation (mainly because of the school and parents’ actions) so they got their opportunity to make their representations anyway! He seems not to have seen this as a failing of the council which seems inexcusable. In similar situations, I have seen Schools Adjudicators criticise councils in their reports for identical failures.

Up to this point I have felt that access to The Schools Adjudicator is a positive thing to ensure an unbiased and objective assessment of the situation. This report shows that the Schools Adjudicators are individuals and have their own predispositions. In other words, your chances of getting a fair hearing might depend on which Schools Adjudicator you get for your appeal.

In many ways this is still preferable to a more cynical interpretation of this report which might suggest that, generally speaking, councils’ arguments are now being given more priority because of the dire financial circumstances they find themselves in. But where does this leave good schools and parents and pupils? Is the Statutory Code of Guidance being interpreted in favour of councils to help save them money? Let’s hope this is not the case or else the code’s phrase “an education system shaped by parents” sounds very hollow and deliberately misleading.

The field becomes a level playing field because the local education authority is not controlling the process and is only seen as one of a number of parties to the decision. if you have good arguments, present them well and relate them to the statutory guidance then you have a good chance of success.

However, I believed that, from reading the statutory guidance, that access to The Schools Adjudicator was limited to faith-based schools and trust schools. So normal, mainstream schools were at the mercy of the local education authority.

Yet recently I have been contacted by a school under threat in the Shrewsbury area and they have revealed something very surprising to me. This is the original comment I received from Helen Fletcher:

We’ve used your great website and advice to fight the Shropshire Council’s proposal to close The Wakeman School and Arts College in Shrewsbury. This is the current situation which I thought might be of interest.On 7th September, we had lots of complaints and concerns about the proposal and consultation lodged with the Ombudsman, but despite this Cabinet voted unanimously to close the school. We are waiting for the Ombudsman’s findings. More importantly for us and I think for your website too, though, is that the Lichfield Diocesan Board of Education has referred the decision to the Schools Adjudicator and we are hopeful that this will result in our wonderful school being saved. This is significant because The Wakeman is not a church school (please see http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/news&newsID=840), but the church has still given us us that precious route through to the Adjudicator and a fair hearing for the school. We’ll keep you posted.

The fact that the local diocesan board has been able to intervene on behalf of a non faith-based school and result in the matter being referred to The Schools Adjudicator is very encouraging. This gives more hope to those mainstream schools who previously have had no access to an appeals process.

Helen’s latest comment is:

Following on from my post of 24 September- we’re in the process of preparing for our meetings with the Schools Adjudicator (both potentially between the school and the Adjudicator, and the public meeting) and your experience would be very helpful to us. Any information or tips would be much appreciated. Does the Adjudicator act as the chair of a debate between the two sides, or does s/he take more of an active lead, asking questions of both sides and wanting information about particular things? Are there any issues that you think are particularly important to demonstrate at the meetings? Our appeal is entirely structured around the statutory guidance as you advise, and we think we have a strong case, but we want to make sure we do the school justice at the meeting(s) too. The LA’s case seems riddled with holes- all the way through this process the issue for us has not been looking for ways in which it has failed to meet the statutory guidance but deciding where to stop- so any advice on what to focus on in the meetings would really help. Thank you, and best wishes.

I am still unsure how this came about legally but I will do a little more digging. But from now on I will be advocating that all schools make direct contact with either of the local diocesan boards – Catholic or C. of E. – to see whether they are prepared to support your case against closure proposals. If  they are then there may be a chance to access The Schools Adjudicator which can only be a good thing.

I do get the odd comment. But what I would really like is some feedback from people who are practically using the information and tactics. And maybe a little potted history of their struggle and their particular circumstances. We all learn better when we have practical examples to illustrate points and issues.

I also want to know what else I could provide to make it better. Constructive criticism I can deal with. So if you visit the site please leave comments for me. Remember we all feel as though we are working in a vacuum. But there are plenty of other souls out there going through the same uncertainties and struggles. Let’s try and help each other.

I still want to try and provide up to date news about education and school closures from authority news sites so that people can regularly visit the site to keep abreast of new developments. I now have separate pages for the news feeds that used to be on the front page.

Any comments for improvement?

In his report and conclusion, the Schools Adjudicator stated that the Council had not made a strong enough case to close what is a designated rural school and that if the school had closed this would cause in imbalance in the denominational provision in the area. The Council agreed that the standards at the school were not an issue.

The Adjudicator did remark that the Council’s policy of minimum 210 place schools meant unfair treatment of Sacred Heart as it was a small but designated rural school and as such had a presumption against closure.

The Parents Group, the school and the local community put up a very robust and patient fight against the closure proposal and must now be very proud of their achievements. Well done to all concerned.

This must be a lesson to all small schools fighting closure proposals. You can win if you have the arguments and marshall them effectively.

Even more impressive were the presentations by Mr Paul Naughton, Head of Sacred Heart and Joe Hughes, Director of Education for the Catholic Diocese  and the contributions from the parents action group and from the audience. There were heartfelt comments and pleas from parents and grandparents but also strong rebuttals of statements made by Gateshead Council based on hard evidence.

The meeting was conducted in a respectful and dignified manner but showed glimpses of the underlying feelings and emotions brought on by nearly 16 months of stress about the uncertain future of the school. The Schools Adjudicator was very appreciative of the control exercised by everyone attending and explained that he will take on board all of the contributions from the meeting and through correspondence before coming to his final decision. That decision should be made in the next three to four weeks.

The parents action group should be applauded for their patience and tenacity to see the fight through to the end. They have done all they possibly can to fight this closure proposal and should be proud of their efforts as should the local Byermoor community. Let’s hope the Schools Adjudicator gives them the right decision.

Sacred Heart is a small (105 pupils max) rural school with a proud local heritage that is popular with parents, pupils and teachers. Until the review was announced it had no surplus place problem to speak of. At its last Ofsted report in 2007 it was classed as satisfactory although, with the advent of the new head teacher, improvements have clearly been made. It is a designated rural school and a passionate defence of the school has been made by parents, teachers and pupils. Even as a rural school it is less costly to run than many other urban primary schools in Gateshead. So why has it come under the spotlight?

Gateshead Council clearly do not like small schools. They have a policy to close schools that do not have the potential to reach 210 pupils capacity on the assumption that bigger means more financially viable. Yet its consultation has been littered with inconsistencies and errors. The goal posts have been changed several times. Parents have been given scant information on which to formulate their views. Major consultation responses from the parents action group have not even been acknowledged never mind published. Key questions have not been answered. Behaviour at public meetings by council staff and members has been less than professional.

At least Sacred Heart will have a level playing field now with the involvement of the Schools Adjudicator. The decision will be taken by someone who does not have other agendas. The parents’ voice will be heard. The council will have to justify their decision. Parents will be able to put their views and arguments for keeping the school open and know that they will be listened to properly.

I believe they have a strong case for keeping the school open. So does the local Roman Catholic diocese. I just hope that the Schools Adjudicator does to.

Seriously though, I have changed the look and feel of the site to incorporate more information and more facilities. The home page is now very different. It contains RSS feeds from various different sites to provide the latest information about schools. These update automatically and regularly. If you want to know what is currently happening or going to happen to our schools then just watch this page – regularly.

It is always useful to know what the government(s) are planning and keep up to date with developments. This is my way of giving you the facility to keep up with events regarding schools on ONE page. No more scratching around for information. No more hours doing Google searches. Just click on the articles shown to read the full text.

It is not perfect and still needs some further development but I hope you find it useful. Some feedback would be appreciated and any suggestions for improvements.

If you want the more familiar layout then just click the Blog tab underneath the header. (I am trying to get rid of the logo by the way but I need some technical help). Hope you find it useful.