The response to the Cramlington consultation

There has been a long period of consultation in the Cramlington area. The impression given by Northumberland County Council is that parents and the schools are keen to progress the change in Cramlington. This is clearly not that case with petitions to stop school closures, petitions to retain 3-tier education, letters of complaint from headteachers and the total lack of support from taxpayers.

Petition from Kramel First School

Letter from Northburn First School

A letter from Northburn First School spoke of their "extreme disappointment" and said that "Staff and governors have expressed their regrets and concerns to the Council about the revised re-organisation plans and we are very disheartened by the responses we have received so far." Northburn First School has a pressing concern as to whether it will receive a budget enabling them to provide equality of opportunities and they are uncertain whether the plans will allocate enough funding to make improvements to their buildings and resources. They urge parents to write to Northumberland County Council to add their concerns about the changes. "We all need to urge the council to ensure that funding is fair and equal across the primary cohort (this shouldn't be such an unrealistic demand on a council who profess that 'Equality for All' is their primary aim!!) however, this is definitely not a certainty." The letter can be accessed by clicking here.

Letter from South Beach First School

A letter from South Beach First School say "The chair of Governors and myself have some very serious concerns..." and "there will be a number of children who will be unable to attend South Beach who live on the estate". "In short this appears to flaunt knowingly the principles of parental choice and schools serving their community." The letter can be accessed by clicking here.

Letter from Cragside First School

A letter from Cragside First School the Head Teacher says "I am not happy", "we will have less places to offer", the school will have "less funding", "The curriculum in Key Stage 1 and 2 is organised into a two year cycle which according to the parents questionnaire 97% OF YOU LIKE." "This model will take 5 years [until 2012] to implement and would have a huge knock on effect to how our curriculum is organised and would disrupt all year groups." The letter can be accessed by clicking here.

Parents response to the Scrutiny Committee.

Parents from the two action groups - NEAG supporting to retention and enhancement of the existing successful 3-tier education system and Go2 supporting the change to a 2-tier education system were invited to address the Scrutiny Committee at Northumberland County Council when the changes were debated. No parent from the Go2 group spoke in support of the reorganisation but Ann Winch from the Cramlington Action Group spoke and her summary said:

"I represent over 35,000 Northumbrians who oppose these plans on the basis that we have never been given any evidence that standards will improve. To our knowledge, the LEA have not carried out the independent review of the educational benefits of change, which was required of them before the council voted last April. Until this is provided, the LEA cannot back up the statement that this is Putting the Learner First.

It takes strength and perseverance to implement changes of this size, but it takes REAL courage to stand up and say “STOP”. If any councillor or officer has the slightest inclination that this plan will fail, they must act on it now for the good of the children. I implore you to take notice of your own “risk assessment” which concluded that PLF was a “high risk strategy, very likely to fail”. Please don’t fail our children."