Death knell sounds for town sixth form (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Death knell sounds for town sixth form

THE death knell has sounded for Tetbury's Sir William Romney's School sixth form, despite a massive campaign backed by the Standard.

The Gloucestershire County Council education committee has recommended to the cabinet that the sixth form should close. Cabinet members will make a decision on Friday (March 5) at a 2pm meeting.

If they accept the proposals, the last intake of students will be September 2005.

The sixth form centre would finally close in July 2007 and any students wishing to retake exams would have to transfer to another provider.

Headteacher Eric Dawson said: "I am more than upset. I am angry, very angry at people who were meant to be undertaking a consultation exercise but do not appear to have listened to what people have said.

"Then they pulled together a report which contains errors, to my mind significant errors. At a simple level, it states the petition we collected had 109 respondents - there were 109 pages.

"In many ways I feel let down by the county council. It pledged to have someone come and spend time with a sixth former to see what they do rather than just looking at raw statistics but nobody turned up. I get the feeling the decision was already made prior to the closure of the consultation.

"The students have reacted with shock, horror and anger. It is a narrowing of their opportunities and it is almost as though young people in this part of Gloucestershire do not matter.

"If we have shortcomings then everybody acknowledges they have to be addressed. Closure is not addressing them, it is just a draconian way to wipe us off the face of the earth.

"Large colleges do not meet everybody's needs."

"The worst case scenario is that young people who would previously have gone into further education will not now do so.

"There is still a lot of fight left in this school. We are not people to be trodden on in any way, shape or form."

The recommendation comes despite a massive campaign to save the sixth form by parents, staff, students, school governors and Tetbury town bodies.

They believe closure will result in higher transport costs, job losses and less confident students rejecting further education at other establishments.

Concerns were also expressed about the subsequent effect on local communities and the school's status.

The committee's report was released last week. It featured county-wide consultation results and review evidence supporting the recommendation.

There is a downward trend in sixth form student numbers in Tetbury, falling from 100 pupils in 2000 to 74 pupils in 2004, the report stated.

Subject provision also fell from 19 to 15 courses, and the school had experienced a high number of drop-outs, placing the school in the lowest performing four schools with sixth forms in the county, it continued.

However, in a questionnaire, returned by 416 people from the consultation areas (South Cotswolds, West Stroud and Cheltenham), a majority of 138 against 103 people strongly disagreed with closing Sir William Romney's School.

A further 142 people were not sure either way.

Broken down, the South Cotswolds feedback showed 28 against 16 people strongly disagreed with the closure and 13 were not sure.

Additionally, the school had submitted a petition of 109 pages, featuring over 1,000 signatures, which opposed the closure.

The results revealed strong support for more collaboration between education providers.

Peter Clarke, leader of the cabinet, said at a press briefing that collaboration was the key.

He said: "In this county we have been very poor at moving and acting when we need to. There comes a time when we really have to make sweeping changes.

"We are not trying to remove choice but to offer a better curriculum for young people.

"Even if a school doesn't have a sixth form it would still be able to provide post-16 education.

"Students could study one subject at Tetbury, for example, and then travel to Stroud for another. It might even mean teachers travelling around. "Youngsters would have a changing curriculum that meets their needs and the needs of the nation."

Up to 60 members of the public will be allowed to attend the meeting on Friday by obtaining tickets on a first come first served basis.

Thirty-five tickets will be available at Shire Hall reception from 1.15pm. The remaining tickets can be reserved. They have been available since Monday by calling 01452 425210.