Only a couple of days to have your say......

This post is to let you all know that there are only a couple of days to have your say on the SOR. It is important that everyone has their say and lets the County Council know that we are all interested in getting the education system in Suffolk right for our children!!!!

Also I have had some more responses from my second letter. Please see below:
As you can see Cllr Graham Newman has now responded, but I have still heard nothing from David Ruffley MP. Neither of the High Schools have responded and as I had to right to the PM and DPM I am still waiting for a response.

Dear Mr Waters

Thank you for your letter concerning Schools Organisation Review which I have passed to the officers who are co-ordinating responses to the current consultation.

May I assure you that all the plans consulted upon recognise the fact that extra school places are going to be needed in the Stowmarket area, should some or all of the proposed housing developments come to fruition?

The question of using Stowmarket Middle School as a sixth-form centre has been considered in some detail as the plans to move to a 2-tier system have been developed, although this was not thought a desirable arrangement by a number of key stakeholders.  Thus this potential option was not included in the final consultation as a preferred solution.

Yours sincerely

Graham L Newman (Cllr)

Member for Felixstowe Coastal Division

Cabinet Member for Education & Young People

Suffolk County Council

Tel: & Txt: 07545 423823

E-mail: graham.newman@suffolk.gov.uk

Dear Mr Waters

Thank you for sending me a copy of your original letter concerning SOR, and for your “in principle” support of moving to the two-tier model of education in the Stowmarket area. I’m grateful to you for reposting this e-mail as I was away at a Conference when your previous communication was sent, and hadn’t caught up with some correspondence which I could only view on a Blackberry at the time.

I note your concerns about “split site” working at Stowmarket High, and have had these registered as a response to the consultation.  Although I was unable to attend the public meeting at Stowmarket High, I was aware of this concern from those I did attend at Needham Market, Bosmere and Cedars Park. Other than the general comment I made in my e-mail to you last night, I have nothing further to add at this stage.

Yours sincerely

Graham L Newman (Cllr)

Member for Felixstowe Coastal Division

Cabinet Member for Education & Young People

Suffolk County Council

Tel: & Txt: 07545 423823

E-mail: graham.newman@suffolk.gov.uk

Dear Mr Waters

Thank you for your email and attached letter.

It will be included with the other responses we receive. My initial comment would be that while young people will be expected to take part in some form of education or training until they are 18, this is not expected to lead to growth in school sixth forms where A levels are offered. The growth is expected to be in FE colleges, apprenticeships etc as most young people for whom A levels are the right option are already doing them.

Regards

Phil Whiffing

New Ideas and Letter to the PM!!!!

So more developments today, well from me anyway. I have had some further ideas due to the announcements in the local press of more housing to be built in Stowmarket and I have had no responses from Mr David Ruffley MP or Mr Graham Newman, Portfolio holder for schools in Suffolk. So I have sent another SOR response letter to the original addressee's and a copy of both letters to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Education Secretary. We will see if I get any response!!!!

Copies of today's letter's follow:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have also had some further thoughts about the way Stowmarket and Stowupland could organise the school structure over the next few years. With the school leaving age being raised from 16 to 18 how about having the old Stowmarket Middle School building as a 16-18yr sixth form college taking all the 16-18yr olds from the potential three high schools I proposed previously. This may again mean some modest investment to allow further education to be carried out on site.

With more housing developments being approved within the Stowmarket area there seems to me to be a need for more and more school places if we are not going to cram the children into classes like sardines.  I noticed in the local press this week that the District Council have now agreed more homes on Gipping Way and the further extension of Stowmarket on the Chilton Leys Development, these amount to somewhere in the region of another 1200 homes that local schools will have to provide places for. I would like to know if the County Council have taken all these extra numbers into consideration when they have been planning the school review in this area.

Letter to PM and Deputy PM:

 Dear Prime Minister

During the last couple of months I have been compiling correspondence to lots of individuals within my local county council (Suffolk).  Whilst I have had lots of nice responses from council workers and schools, I have not received responses from my local MP Mr David Ruffley or the Councillor who holds the Portfolio for schools in Suffolk Mr Graham Newman.

This is the first time that I have ever undertaken any sort of correspondence with any political party or council and I have found the whole experience quite frustrating and disheartening. So I decided that I would write to you and ask you to look at the correspondence that I have sent to them and to see if you could tell me why I have not received a response.

 The correspondence that I have been sending is all to do with the Schools Organisation Review that the county council is carrying out in the Stowmarket area. For fear of repeating myself I have sent copies of my original letters for you to read and perhaps comment. I have also written to the Education Secretary.

Any Comments from readers would be great please.