PUPILS BEFORE POLITICS PLEASE

17 June 2005

The announcement that Swansea's Dylan Thomas Community School and Bryn Nursery School are set to close has sent shock waves through the community.

Swansea West Assembly Member ANDREW DAVIES explains why he thinks the schools should be retained and why he is critical of the way in which the announcement was made. He also advocates a new split-site school by merging Dylan Thomas and Bishop Gore.


THE announcement that Dylan Thomas and Bryn nursery schools are scheduled to close has stunned staff, parents and pupils alike - and I share their concerns.

As the local Assembly member I believe passionately that the needs of pupils should always come first.

It is clear from Assembly policy that school closures can only be justified on educational and not financial grounds.

Our children's education is paramount.

For many of our young people their school education will be their one opportunity to realise their full potential.

I do not believe that the decision to close Dylan Thomas and Bryn nursery schools is the right one.

Firstly, I am angry at the way this announcement was made. It was leaked on the Friday, denied on the Monday and then finally confirmed on the Wednesday.Evening Post readers may not be aware that parents were informed of the schools' closure in a letter from Richard Parry, the director of education. The letter was sent home with the children - before all the teachers had been informed.

I also have grave reservations about the council's handling of current education policy. There appears to be no coherent, long-term strategy.

I have been arguing consistently for many years that the local authority needs to address the issue of falling pupil numbers on a coherent and strategic basis across the whole of the local authority, as other local councils like Neath Port Talbot have done.

It should not be carried out on an ad hoc piecemeal basis.

Yet this is precisely what the local authority has done by dividing Swansea into three areas, the first being Swansea West.

Further, the council seeks to justify the decision by saying it conducted a consultation on the future of education in the city last year.

Yet at no point during the consultation were school closures highlighted.

Councillor Mike Day, cabinet member for education, insists that the council has three priorities - to put pupils first, to improve school buildings, and to have a flourishing school in each community.

This council's proposals on school closures run counter to this.The issue that really upsets parents in Townhill and Cockett is that Dylan Thomas Community School and Bryn Nursery School both have excellent reputations providing quality education.

They feel, as I do, that there is a clear social bias against the community, with little willingness to compromise or offer alternatives.

If the proposals were to go ahead, two out of the five schools serving Townhill would close.

I believe the council has shown a complete disregard for the communities served by these schools.Dylan Thomas and Bryn schools are at the heart of the local community.

Dylan Thomas Community School received a very good inspection report only the previous year stating quite clearly "that it is rapidly improving with a number of strengths; it has quickly established a clear direction and ethos where pupils' learning takes priority".

Many parents feel the issue is about money and not education. Financially, it has been noted that the sale of the Dylan Thomas site for housing would make around £9 million.The buildings at Dylan Thomas Community School are modern and accessible.

Indeed, it is the only school throughout Swansea that accommodates the Disability Discrimination Act.

If the Bishop Gore and Dylan Thomas schools were federated, the £7 million allocated for Bishop Gore would not be needed for the extra pupils.

Would the money not be better spent at Dylan Thomas?

Furthermore, if Dylan Thomas was to close and the pupils were to move to Bishop Gore that would increase the school to an estimated 2,000 pupils.

Yet the nearby Olchfa School is currently trying to reduce its numbers from 2,000 to 1,800 because the school feels that 2,000 pupils are too many for "sustainable and stable" education.

So, if it is true for Olchfa, why will it not be true for an enlarged Bishop Gore?

What of the extra congestion on already gridlocked roads around Bishop Gore? Again, these are ill thought out proposals.

The council has also sought to justify the proposed closure of Dylan Thomas on the grounds that only 28.5 per cent, ie 428, of the 1,500 pupils in the Dylan Thomas catchment area attend that community school, and that 632 of the catchment area already attend Bishop Gore.

However, catchment areas are not a sound basis on which to base a decision as can be seen in the case of Bishop Gore where only 20 per cent - 332 children - within the catchment area go to that school.

I also believe the present consultation is flawed in that no alternatives for either closure have been offered.

The council says it considered alternatives - but none have been published. Why is this?

Would it not be an honest and meaningful consultation if parents were presented with a range of options dealing with the issue of falling school rolls rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it choice?

I believe there is a potential solution for this issue, one which other councils have adopted.

Why not merge Bishop Gore and Dylan Thomas schools, yet allow them to remain on two sites?

In essence, a federation of both schools. A federation that would allow the educational facilities, especially for special needs and disabled children, to remain intact at Dylan Thomas, and which would allow a broad curriculum for both schools and give parents and children choice.

In so doing they would provide "a flourishing school in each community".

I do not believe this option has been seriously considered. But I do believe it was quickly dismissed by the Lib Dem-led administration on the grounds that for some teachers the occasional journey of a mile and a quarter between two sites was too far.

Yet they justify a similar situation for the Welsh medium schools of Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr and Bryn Tawe - two schools which are using the federated approach and are over six miles apart.

Evening Post readers may well feel that we have been here before on school reorganisation.

Initially, the council announced that Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr was to close, followed by a swift reversal after a furore.

Last year it was announced that Mayals Primary School was to close. Again there was an outcry and the decision was reversed.

How can the pupils come first when the Lib Dem administration cannot make up its mind?Many parents feel, as I do, that this decision to close Dylan Thomas and Bryn nursery schools has been made for financial and not educational reasons.

I believe our communities and our children and their future deserve far better than this